OUR PHILOSOPHY

Since 2008, the Velorbis brand has been dedicated to providing luxury bags and accessories for men’s and women’s modern lifestyles. These include 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 timeless and classy products designed with Scandinavian clean and minimalist lines. These products are ethically produced using sustainable and durable materials, so they are iconic and will last a lifetime.

SUSTAINABILITY

We believe that the most sustainable approach will always be to make bags and accessories of the highest quality – designed and built to stand the test of time. By using our power as consumers to choose high-quality products over poorly made products, we can consume less and live more sustainably by making better choices. Our bags can easily be repaired; they are designed to last a lifetime with the correct care. 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.

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

FULL GRAIN ‘PULL-UP’ ANILINE LEATHER

Velorbis leather accessories are made of full-grain leather. Full-grain leather provides maximum durability and ages beautifully over time. It is the term for the top layer of buffalo skin—the layer that lies just below the hairs. This is the most substantial 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 to maintain 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, such as natural scars or insect bites, contribute to the leather’s authenticity as a natural product and give it a unique look. Full-grain leather also develops a lovely patina over time, further proof of the leather’s quality. As the leather ages, the patina will spread and change the colour of the leather product.

Velorbis 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 entirely natural, unaltered, and rugged yet soft and supple to the touch. It has a unique natural appearance that 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, the leather is coloured with aniline dyes impregnated with natural-based oils and/or waxes instead of 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.

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Velorbis has made an active choice to ensure safe and ethically correct leather production—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. We take this job very seriously and continuously develop it.

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.
• Use 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 suitable for both the environment and business. In classic bag production, you can waste 25-50% of the entire leather. We always make sure to use the same qualities for the leather for larger products, such as bags, and smaller toiletry bags, wallets, and key rings for our bicycles.

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

1. First, we use the skin to cut larger panels. These could be travel bags, computer bags, or larger interior panels that are large pieces of leather (panels).
2. We then cut medium panels for bags, toiletry bags, belt bags, etc.
3. Finally, we use all the small leather pieces for low credit card holders, leather handles for our bikes, and zipper pulls for our collection of leather zippered bags.
4. The tiny pieces of skin that are left (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 chemical standard, 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.