East West Bag

Source: Souleway

Material & Fabric	Vegetable tanned leather Polyester Fabric processing in Turkey
Production	Made in Germany

Souleway was created out of a passion for fashion and e-commerce by founders Flemming and Hagen. The brand creates handmade bags that are made to last.

Fair production: Souleway's cut, make and trim suppliers are small studios that they have long-term relations with, visit often and can guarantee good working conditions.

Locally produced: The bags are created by hand in Hamburg, Germany. The cotton canvas is woven and dyed in Turkey, where they buy the cotton directly from local farmers. The leather comes from a tannery near Istanbul.

Eco-friendly: Souleway focuses on creating bags that will last. They give a 2-year warranty on their items. The leather they use is vegetable-tanned (= a less chemical heavy process). It comes from a tannery that has been awarded the Leather Working Group Gold certificate and actively works on increasing its sustainability efforts (through projects focused on water and waste management and renewable energy). The tannery has the goal to become Turkey's first zero-waste tannery by 2025 and transparently communicates the steps it's taking to achieve this.

Souleway does use regular cotton instead of organic cotton. The reason is durability. To create the cotton canvas, they need heavy fabrics. Unfortunately, none of the certified organic cotton suppliers can produce this at the same quality as the current material.