From trash to fashion: Michigan businesses find big bucks in recycled products
DETROIT – Auto leather scraps and seatbelt remnants aren’t trash to Jarret Schlaff. They are future wallets, bags and shoes.
“We take leather that is otherwise destined for the landfill from the Big Three and their suppliers,” said Schlaff, co-founder and CEO of Pingree Detroit.
“All these remnants, small pieces, are too small to make a seat, but big enough for us to make a bag or a pair of shoes out of.”
To date, the Detroit-based company has kept 48,000 pounds of waste out of landfills since its launch in 2015, Schlaff said: “When it comes to the environment, a lot of materials can be really unsustainable, and they’re designed to end up in landfills, whereas we want to be completely circular in our design and engineering.”
Pingree Detroit is among a group of Michigan companies focused on producing fashion merchandise from upcycled and recycled materials.
Sustainable and ethical fashion has experienced growth in recent years, experts say, with consumers supporting U.S.-made, environmentally friendly products.
“I do think, especially with the younger generation, they pay very close attention to the kinds of products that they’re buying,” said Kerrin O’Brien, executive director of the Michigan Recycling Coalition.
“And want to support these local, community-based organizations that are supporting local workforce development.”
Pingree Detroit isn’t the only Michigan business to open in the past decade with a focus on reused materials.
Detroit-based Bags to Butterflies makes handbags from reclaimed wood and discarded leather.
In Muskegon, Michigan, Oshki creates performance clothing out of plastic bottles collected from the Great Lakes.
The founders say they continue to grow their brands, offering more products as they aim to let no scrap material go to waste.
“There are a variety of sizes of companies everywhere utilizing different things,” O’Brien said. “Leather, for instance, what Pingree (Detroit) is doing, it shows that there are creative ways to reuse just about anything you can.
“And if you can do it on a local scale, you can employ people to do that. So those kinds of projects and programs help to make recycling and reuse and upcycling tangible to the consumer so that they can engage and buy and support that kind of work.”
Time-intensive work
One recent weekday, employees and co-owners of Pingree Detroit were busy in a 4,000-square-foot warehouse on the city’s west side.
They worked at stations, sewing and cutting leather while surrounded by shelves stocked with the materials they use to handcraft a variety of products, including leather shoes, wallets, planners and bags.
The materials include leftover leather and headliner fabric from automotive companies and seatbelt material from an auto safety firm.
“It might not be perfect for their seatbelts, but it’s perfect for a backpack sling,” said Schlaff, adding that the material is also used to make dog leashes.
Pingree Detroit products recently arrived at the Born in Detroit pop-up on Woodward.
The brand also has a presence in the Detroit Shoppe at Somerset Collection in Troy, as well as the Rust Belt Market in Ferndale three days a week.
“This is the first time in seven years, eight years that we’ve been able to have a presence downtown,” Schlaff said. “The Born in Detroit store is open seven days a week and has our best-selling products.
“So our drawstring bag, our Motown Venue bag, our coasters, our wallets, our luggage tags, our mouse pads – the products that we sell the most of, that people like the most, we have there.”
Pingree sells a coaster set for $22, luggage tags for $35, wallets in the $40 range and its popular Motown Venue Bag for $170.
The shoes, which are made to order, cost $360 to $400 a pair.
The brand started as an outreach for veterans and evolved into a company that employs veterans.
Schlaff named the business Pingree Detroit in honor of Hazen S. Pingree, a former Detroit mayor who operated Pingree and Smith Shoe Co. and employed veterans in the 1800s.
The company started with journals, tote bags and keychains as the business raised money and the founders learned the skills to make footwear.
Nine years later, 15 people, some of them co-owners, make products at the warehouse.
It’s challenging but rewarding to use upcycled materials, said Nathaniel Crawford II, a co-owner in the business.
He makes the shoes, with a design that has evolved in the six years he’s been with the company.
“We’re using upcycle … and we’re trying to do great stuff to it,” he said. “So it takes a lot of time and money and research to see what capabilities we could do with certain materials.”
Crawford noted that they have had to learn to work with a variety of leathers: “It’s so much different automotive materials.
“So you got coated leather, you got nubuck, you got suede, you got crushed leather. You can do so much with different kinds of leather. Because of that, every day is a welcomed challenge to see what our creative minds can come up with.”
Then they have to factor in labor costs – it takes two and a half days to make a pair of shoes. And there’s the use of U.S.-based companies for other components, such as eyelets and shoelaces.
“That costs money,” Schlaff said. “We wanted to be intentional about that. If we’re buying brand-new leather, one, the sustainability factor goes down and, two, the cost would go up even more.”
‘We repurpose for a purpose’
Reclaimed wood and leather scraps are the upcycled materials of choice for Detroit-based Bags to Butterflies, a for-profit organization that makes handbags.
Bags to Butterflies provides transitional employment to women recently released from prison in a 12-month program aimed at helping to reduce recidivism.
Michelle Smart founded the company nine years ago after hearing that a family friend’s daughter was going to prison.
“People like the fact that we repurpose for a purpose,” Smart said. “So they like the fact that we’re … repurposing material, and we’re also repurposing lives.”
The women assemble bags from reclaimed wood, such as old cabinet panels or flooring.
They paint the bags using discontinued paints and stains.
Smart will salvage material wherever she can, including donations, Habitat Restore and items placed at the street curb for garbage pickup.
“If somebody threw a dresser out, I will pull that back panel off of the dresser,” she said. “We sanitize it, the ladies paint and stain it. It’s really sustainability.”
Bags to Butterflies sells the colorful, handmade bags and accessories at pop-up events, such as the Fine Art at The Village in Rochester Hills in July and, this past winter, the Downtown Detroit Markets.
Its best-sellers include a crossbody bag, which is made of reclaimed wood. Its new tablet bag is also a popular choice, Smart said. Prices include $125 for a crossbody bag and $210 for other-style bags made of reclaimed wood.
Whenever they can’t use a piece of wood for a bag, perhaps because it wasn’t flexible enough, they use it for other items.
“We make medallions and rings and earrings,” said employee Joyce Berry, as she sat at her workstation on a recent morning. “What we can’t use for a purse, we salvage for other things.”
In Muskegon, Oshki makes performance apparel out of plastic waste.
Shirts are made from recycled plastic bottles. Hats incorporate recycled cotton. For example, there’s the Michitrout Performance long-sleeve men’s shirt made of 100% U.S.-based plastics, said Jackson Riegler, founder of Oshki.
“It’s like equivalent to around 16 bottles worth of plastic into one shirt, and it’s made purely out of that recycled material,” he said.
Riegler said Oshki works with Trout Unlimited and donates 5% of profits from that shirt to Michigan-based chapters of the organization, which focuses on trout conservation and preservation.
The fabric is 100% made in the United States, while the cut and sew work is done in Colombia.
Riegler said they are in talks with the Industrial Sewing and Innovation Center in Detroit to help localize the production of new products.
“That’s a big goal of ours moving forward,” Riegler said.
“You kind of have to walk the line in between sourcing in the U.S. and also making it an affordable product to the consumer.”
Oshki’s long-sleeve performance shirts are $42, the hoodie is $50 and the Solar Fly Hoodie is $50. The Essential Trucker hat is $28.
Riegler said he started Oshki as a high school senior in 2017, selling shirts to raise funds for nonprofits working to preserve the Great Lakes. He was inspired to grow the business as a student at the University of Michigan. He shifted to using recycled plastics for the shirts.
Oshki works with a North Carolina producer that turns plastics into yarn and a portion of those plastics come from the Great Lakes cleanups.
“My ultimate goal is to do a completely closed-loop supply chain, where whatever content that we use is directly from our general cleanup efforts,” he said.
He wasn’t sure if he would continue the work after college, but the partnership with Trout Unlimited has provided him the ability to continue. It’s also benefited the nonprofit, which Riegler said has received $350,000 from shirt sales.
Oshki plans to soon roll out a women’s version of the Michitrout Performance long-sleeve shirt.
A uniform process
Old military clothing is finding a new life in White Lake Township, Michigan. Amy Coffee of Coffee Upcycle LLC makes small, medium and large bags out of military uniforms.
Seven years ago, she looked at a military fatigue jacket that belonged to her husband, Brad, who is an Air Force veteran. Coffee, a nurse, thought the material would make a good work bag.
“I made one, took it to work and then all of a sudden everybody was seeing it, and they wanted me to make one from their loved ones’ uniforms. That’s kind of how I fell into it.”
Coffee gets the liner fabric from thrift stores, consignment shops and dumpsters.
“We accept donations, I dumpster-dive and find a lot of old military products, cut them all apart,” Coffee said. “The materials I use are all authentic.”
Prices range from about $55 for a 5-by-7-inch bag to $185 for a more intricate and embellished bag. Coffee said she’s also sown bags from old blankets and comforters.
“Anybody can go to a shop and buy something, but where did it come from?” she said. “What was the history of it beforehand? You know, recycled products have such wonderful patinas to them.”
O’Brien, with the Michigan Recycling Coalition, said it can sometimes be a challenge for businesses to find materials for their products.
“I think the sourcing of materials is always kind of the biggest thing when you’re wanting to make something, and so ensuring that you have that robust supply,” she said.
When Pingree Detroit is done with the materials it will use for its products, it passes the rest along to other creators so that none of it goes to waste.
“We donate materials now that we can’t use,” Schlaff said.
The majority of the recipients “are women of color who will make everything from earrings, bracelets to their own bags. They can utilize materials we can’t use. Anything that’s left over after that, we actually shred. We work with another partner, and the shred becomes fill for punching bags and it’s used for other products.”
Monique Whitley, owner of Detroit-based Raggedy Bags, is among those businesses that have received upcycled leather from Pingree Detroit.
She uses the leather and denim in her designs.
“I was totally like a kid in a candy store,” said Whitley, recalling the first time she received some leather from Schlaff. “I started making the stuff, and I showed him everything I made with it, and I’ve just been so excited. Yeah, it’s been great.”
Whitley began making bags more than a dozen years ago when she couldn’t find one she liked. She designed and created a multi-colored cloth bag for herself.
“Somebody commented on my strap and how cute my bag was, and I said, ‘This raggedy thing?’” she said. “And that’s where I’m like, You know what? Raggedy bags. There we go. And that’s it.”
Whitley sells her one-of-a-kind bags weekly at Eastern Market. Her prices range from $5 for a wristlet to $200 for a large leather bag.
In addition to scrap leather, Whitley makes bags using denim from blue jeans donated to her or from thrift stores. She says about half of the materials she uses in her bags have been repurposed.
“Where you see people just cutting the denim, I have to literally because of waste, I have to literally take it apart seam by seam. It’s also therapy for me, too.”