OUR PHILOSOPHY

Since 2008, the Velorbis Copenhagen brand has been dedicated to providing luxury bags and accessories for the modern lifestyle of men and women. This includes weekend bags, briefcases, computer bags, backpacks, sleeves, etc. crafted from the finest materials and designed with clean lines and minimalist details.

Our mission is to bring back the timeless & classy products designed with the Scandinavian clean and minimalist lines, and ethically produced by using sustainable and durable materials so that our products are not only iconic but will also last a lifetime.

SUSTAINABILITY

We believe that the most sustainable approach always will be to make bags and accessories of the highest quality – designed and built to stand the test of time. By using our power we have as consumers to choose high quality products over poorly made products, we can consume less and live more sustainable, by making better choices. Our Urbanites Copenhagen bags, can easily be repaired and with the correct care they are designed to last a lifetime. Therefore our design is timeless and does not follow “fast fashion”. Our bags, with their minimalist design, will still be a true classic icon in many  many years to come.

With regard to production, we carefully select materials with sustainability in mind, but only if they meet our strict criteria for durability. We would like to argue that something that is labeled sustainable but breaks easily and has to be replaced often, does not represent an optimal solution for sustainability. It is important to note that we would never use materials with known toxic or environmentally harmful components just to make our bags last forever. We are continuously learning about new developments and technologies with regard to sustainable production.

On the next few slides are some examples of our sustainable initiatives for the production of Urbanites Copenhagen bags and accessories. You will learn about our certified top grain aniline leather, tanned and dyed in a LWG Gold-rated tannery and using only GRS-certified recycled polyester in all the lining of our bags.

FULL GRAIN ‘PULL-UP’ ANILINE LEATHER

Velorbis Copenhagen leather accessories are made of full-grain leather. Full-grain leather provides maximum durability and will age very beautifully over time. Full-grain leather is the term for the top layer of animal skin on the buffalo – the layer that lies just below the hairs. This is the strongest part of the animal’s skin.

During the manufacturing process, the main difference between full-grain leather and other types of leather is the sanding. Unlike other types of leather, the surface of full-grain leather is not sanded. The purpose of it is to keep the leather as natural as possible so that it maintains its durability. Because the leather has not been sanded, the fibers are not weakened. Therefore, leather accessories made from full-grain leather can last a very long time – possibly forever –  if maintained and repaired periodically.

In addition, marks on the skin, for example, natural scars or insect bites, contribute to the leather’s authenticity as a natural product and at the same time give a nice and unique look. In addition, full-grain leather also develops a particularly beautiful patina over time, as further proof of the leather’s quality. As the leather ages, the patina will spread and change the colour of the leather product.

Velorbis Copenhagen uses pull-up aniline leather mainly due to its high quality and beautiful natural appearance. Pull-Up Aniline leather is an oil and wax-rich leather that is completely natural, unaltered, and rugged yet soft and supple to the touch. It has a unique natural appearance which lightens in colour when stretched during wear to produce a unique worn-in effect with time. Due to the above-mentioned characteristics of full-grain leather combined with this soft and scratch-sensitive finish, the leather quickly gets a beautiful vintage patina.

During the tanning and finishing process, the leather is coloured with aniline dyes that are impregnated with natural-based oils and/or waxes instead of being coated with paints and pigments. The oils and waxes tend to darken the original aniline dye coloration, but “pull up” the lighter colour when stretched and pulled. The oils and waxes provide even more beautiful shading and unique, subtle colour variations. This aniline dying process allows the scars, scratches, and wrinkles that occur naturally on the leather hides to show through the finish.

OUR CERTIFIED  LWG GOLD-RATED LEATHER

Velorbis Copenhagen  leather accessories are all sourced from a premium tannery that is a certified member of the Leather working Group (LWG) and has a Gold-rated audit against LWG Standards:

In 2005 the Leather Working Group was formed with the intention of promoting “sustainable and appropriate environmental business practices” within the leather industry. The group is made up of brands, NGOs, suppliers, manufacturers, retailers, and more.

The role of the Leather Working Group is to assess the environmental compliance of leather manufacturers. In doing this, they promote improvement in the leather manufacturing industry by creating alignment on environmental priorities. This helps the tanners that are making an effort to work toward sustainable goals to stand out from the crowd

The rating system brings visibility to best practices and provides guidelines for continual improvement. The group visits leather manufacturers around the globe and inspects them. The tanneries are given a rating from 0 to 100.

The scoring system takes into account a variety of key factors:

• Air & Noise Emissions
• Energy Consumption & Water Usage
• Waste Management
• Chemical Management
• General Facility Details
• Subcontracted Operations
• Social Audit
• Incoming Materiale Traceability
• Outgoing Materiale Traceability
• Environment Management Systems (EMS)
• Restricted Substances, Compliance, and Chromium VI (CrVI) Management
• Effluent Treatment
• Health, Safety, & Emergency Preparedness

They score the visits from fail, to audited (which is a low pass), then upwards of 65 gets a bronze, from 75 gets silver, and 85 plus gets a gold rating.

Read more here

 

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Velorbis has made an active choice to ensure safe and ethically correct leather production – both for the safety of our customers and suppliers.

This social responsibility is based on the initiative BSCI (Business Social Compliance Initiative). It is both based on a series of initiatives, which aim to ensure that producers show responsibility in relation to the society around them. If you follow the initiatives, you conduct business in such a way that it has a positive effect on both people, the economy, and the environment.

Our absolute highest priority is that everything in our leather production takes place in a safe and ethical manner so that our employees are taken care of at the factory in India. It is a job that we take very seriously and that we continuously develop.

Velorbis’ supplier is Sedex-certified. Sedex is a globally recognized platform for sharing information about sustainable production across multiple supply chains. The environment is one of our most important considerations. As we all strive to live and thrive in the future, we must constantly work on developing our range using environmentally friendly materials and work processes.

In practice, this means, among other things:

• No child labour
• Free labor
• Compliance with local and national laws.
• Working time in production is a maximum of 8 hours per day.
• Wages according to the fair living wage standard.
• Building safety and practical exercise of firefighting.
• Safety equipment with gloves and masks when handling chemicals.
• Trained first aid and fire fighting staff are always present during production.

 

NO WASTE

One of the areas we focus a lot on is reducing the waste of leather. It is both good for the environment and good for business. In classic bag production, you can end up wasting 25-50% of the entire leather. We always make sure to use the same qualities, so that we can use the leather for larger products such as bags, but also for smaller toiletry bags, wallets and key rings for our bicycles.

This means that we have a smaller selection of leather qualities, which can be made with different finishes and expressions, which we use on many products/productions, and can therefore use up the entire hide.

1. First, we use the skin to cut larger panels, it could be travel bags, computer bags or larger interior panels that are large pieces of leather (panels).
2. We then cut medium panels both for bags, toiletry bags, belt bags, etc.
3. Finally, we use all the small pieces of leather for low credit card holders as well as leather handles for our bikes as well as zipper pulls for our collection of leather zippered bags
4. The very small pieces of skin that are left (which are smaller than a small zipper puller) are either used to make bonded leather (which is used on some types of belts) or used for sandals or animal toys.
5. The remaining leather is passed on to other producers who use it in the animal feed process. In practice, this results in 0% waste in production.

PRODUCT SAFETY AND CHEMICAL HANDLING (REACH)

At Velorbis, all our leather products comply with the European standard for chemicals also called REACH. REACH is the EU’s chemical legislation for the environment and product safety, which ensures limit values for which chemicals should be used in production and how much. This means, among other things, that the products we produce, do not contain chemicals such as Chromium (VI) in leather, illegal azo dyes, formaldehyde, APEOs, and other substances harmful to the environment and hormones, heavy metals, cobalt, and pH values.