Hi friends and fans,
So, before we blurt out the big news, let us say that the tape is aaaalmost ready to be released... just a couple more weeks, we promise. :)
Of course, we would be thrilled if you could just hit the pre-order button right away. However, we figured that we have to switch our webpage platform to provide you a better shopping experience. So before allowing everyone to place an order and support us from the very beginning, we want to share how we improved the product as mentioned in the previous post.
Probably the most significant change is: We will no longer use organic cotton to make the tape! But don't despair right away because we believe in having found something better.
The new fabric we're going to use is called modal. You may ask yourself now... what is that stuff, and why did we change? Modal is actually quite similar to organic cotton. It is also a plant-based fiber (a cellulosic fiber, to be precise), yet made from wood pulp instead of furry cotton balls. You might even have had contact with this type of fabric already - Patagucchi is actually using a very similar fabric in some of their tees.
The remarkable properties of modal will benefit our product and our planet.
Here are some facts:
-
approx 10-20 times less water to grow the raw material compared to organic cotton
-
less waste during the manufacturing process - higher flexibility
-
better moister absorption
-
softer feel
-
increased UV stability
In that way, we hope to give you an even better experience with our tape and especially increase the durability of the tape in the longer run. We experienced some issues with color stability before and the only way of fixing that while sticking to cotton would be to use a more aggressive dye, which would cost us the organic certificate. However, we don't want to compromise on that point.
Speaking about the environment, the important part is that we don't just use any type of modal. Our tape is made out of Tencel®Modal, a fiber produced by the Austrian company Lenzig AG.
And Lenzing is the leading player in the market concerning environmental sustainability. They source more than half of the wood used for manufacturing from local certified forests and the rest from within the EU. They have also invented a closed-loop manufacturing system, which recycles over 99% of the chemicals and efficiently uses 100% of the raw material inputs.
It means that our tape remains organic and FREE of problem waste.
Most of the other changes our testers suggested were more straightforward for us to implement. Among other things, we tweaked the weaving process together with our partner Smålands Band to increase the tape's stretch. This, by itself, means you can wrap wider handlebars with the same amount of tape. However, we did not stop there. After some consideration, we faced the trend of wider handlebars. We decided: Each rolls we ship will have 3 meters! That should give you plenty of wiggle room to wrap even the widest towel racks you can find. :)
That said, we are working full steam and get back to you soon with the opportunity to place a pre-order.
We hope you are all eager to add some GREPP to your winter projects!
Cheers, Jan & Thomas