Vaude remains true to itself: the Green Shape Core Collection relies on #multiuse and #ecofair. We took a closer look at the Green Core S backpack from the new collection.
The Vaude Green Shape Core Collection
Under the "Core Collection" label, Vaude sums up products that show how the company presents the future of the outdoor market. Consistently, they include both materials and social values.
The products of the Core Collection contain 90% bio-based textile components, are recycled or are pure natural materials. By designing as "Multiuse" products, Vaude also breaks with this collection with the crazy trend of wanting to offer a tailor-made product for every imaginable sector and every small type of outdoor activity in the generally weakening outdoor market.
Also in terms of look and feel Vaude goes with the Green Core Collection a risk: nature instead of plastic. It should be easy to handle, it should look valuable and perhaps remember the good, old alpinist times. The color runs of the collection are characterized by rather muted colors, which are each loosened up by powerful color highlights. Mario Schlegel, Head of Design at Vaude, says:
"We put great emphasis on the topic of combinability across all collections. Colors and materials go back a long way. This makes a very small outdoor collection versatile and universally applicable. "
For the collection launch in the winter of 2018/19, this means: grays and greens, interspersed with bright, vibrant yellow.
The incentive to still be able to build products that provide enough performance to survive on the mountain, despite all the consequences of ecological commitment, is certainly high.
This incentive, provided they do justice to it, will generate resonance in the market. What makes me so sure?
That recycling and performance are mutually exclusive, is an old, long-outdated hat that is still used in discussions but still happy to hide their own inability (read: disinterest) in just this hat.
Instead of the developers on something really new to start, it is just bought what the textile wholesaler offers as cheap as possible raw material. Profit maximization in the slowly cooling market segment "Outdoor" seems to be above all else and thus block thinking and visions. For the most part, the outdoor industry is simply just an industry like any other.
That's enough, so let's take a closer look at the backpack.
The backpack Vaude Core S
The backpack is simple and narrow. Instead of a supportive waist belt, a webbing holds the backpack in place. Thanks to the back plate made of bio-plastic, it can be packaged well without paying too much attention to the fact that nothing presses in the back. With the backpack comes a laptop sleeve for 13.3 inch calculator, which can be fixed inside by push button.
The backpack is closed at the top with a flap closure, thus eliminating the weak point of a zipper. The fastening loop is also the typical handle. The strap is hooked to the buckles on the shoulder straps, this system holds up surprisingly well!
Material combination of natural and artificial materials
How can you design and manufacture a backpack while saving as much fossil resources as possible? By avoiding alternative materials if possible. We researched a bit and listed the individual components of the backpack (as far as we can get it).
The main part of the backpack, so the corpus, consists of internally coated Organic cotton, on the sides of the polyamide EcoPaXX®, which is made of 70% castor oil (the rest is still oil). This EcoPaxx is not only the textile components of the backpack, but also the hard plastic components like the strap and zippers manufactured.
With regard to "Bioplastics", Vaude is openly dealing with the points of criticism: its production is energy-consuming to varying degrees, so not every bioplastic automatically has a better eco-balance. Also the problem of the area consumption by additional acreage is addressed, Vaude waits for own statement still on a suitable technology, for example, to be able to use waste from food production for the production of textiles.
The elastic side pocket consists of recycled polyamide Econyl®.
Wool and leather
The shoulder straps are made of leather produced according to terracare® standard. Vaude uses Terracare leather because it focuses on animal welfare, conservation and safe handling of chemicals. The leather is obtained as a by-product of food production of animals in northern Germany of registered farms. Thanks to the short distances to both the slaughterhouse and the tannery, the animals are spared as much transport stress as possible and, on the other hand, additional preservation due to large amounts of salt is minimized.
For upholstery, Vaude uses felt, more precisely QMilk felt. During production, fibers are extracted from milk and processed into felt with wool. This also gives antibacterial properties. I'm usually more sensitive, but perhaps with the help of milk, the material does not itch on bare skin either. The drying time does not differ much from plastic, on the contrary I have the impression that the wool absorbs less moisture, and when it is wet, but also dries faster again.
applications
The backpack is planned as a Multiuse backpack and can be used as well. Due to the narrow, high cut, he can easily with the mountain, but is just as good as an everyday backpack, for shopping, for short trips or for the gym. With a capacity of 22 liters, it has a good size, even if it is not easy at just 900 grams.
In addition to the main compartment also offer the elastic side pocket, the side of a small zipper pocket and at the front of a slightly larger bag, also secured with zipper, ample storage space.
The enclosed laptop bag can be fixed inside the backpack with a push button and is designed for 13.3 "laptops. In this bag, even the cable / charger can be stowed with.
