Here’s an interesting thought, what happens to branded materials when companies don’t need them anymore? Debrand Services in Vancouver B.C. set out to tackle this problem. Seven years ago Wes Baker was working in experiential marketing. He noticed that lots of branded event materials went to waste post-event. Because they were branded, these items couldn’t be donated. Wes founded Debrand Services to offer corporate businesses an alternative solution.
Debrand offers responsible reuse solutions for textiles, product recalls, samples, offcuts and uniforms. Material reuse extends the lifecycle of products and maximizes their value. An example of what Debrand does is their work with Lululemon Athletica. Debrand uses the off-cuts and trimmings from their yoga mats and turns this material into pellets. These yoga mat pellets are then mixed with soil for use in equestrian arenas. It turns out that this is the perfect material for shock absorption and moisture retention. Exactly what equestrian arenas are looking for!
Debrand also uses old products to create functional art for Lululemon. Every year the brand hosts the Seawheeze half marathon in Vancouver B.C. For the lounge, Debrand created custom-made stools featuring post-consumer yoga mat cushions and hammocks intricately woven out of duffle bag straps.
Wes Baker feels that there is no such thing as waste, only resources we haven’t figured out how to use yet. Check out this incredible yoga mat chair Debrand made!
Debrand has become so efficient at reusing yoga mats that they’ve started importing offcuts from factories in China. Wes noticed that pallets coming from Asia were made from incredible hardwoods such as mahogany and walnut. A year and a half ago he started identifying the best pallets and stockpiling them. Wes saved 200-300 pallets to create his new dining room table.
Each pallet piece was de-nailed, planed, trimmed, trued, and then glued together. Wes put hundreds of hours into this project. He discovered that the pallet wood needed 4 hours of wood preparation for every 1 hour of building. Laminating a table like this is extremely time consuming as each piece has to fit together perfectly. The end result is gorgeous though! Wes has dubbed it ‘the world’s most travelled table.’ There are some 400 pieces of individual pallet wood, each with countless kilometres of travel in their history.
We really admire the work that Debrand Services does. Wes sets an impressive example for smart, creative reuse of materials previously thought of as garbage.
Source: Debrand Services
fantastic idea’s