INTO

INTO approached their mission to change material relationships with an industrial design lens, identifying durable, scalable waste streams to locally manufacture a modular urban carry system with lifetime repairs. INTO satisfied the brief with their debut range of 4 modular carry pieces made entirely from scalable waste streams sourced and produced local to the end consumer. The challenge: product-market fit. Those who resonate with the mission were actively purchasing less. INTO was able to stay price-competitive with offshore manufactured competitors, but lacked comparative utility. The pathway to impactfully change material relationships through scaling a price-accessible upcycled carrywear business proved implausible.

INTO facilitates accessible learning environments for individuals to connect through impactful activities and rebuild positive associations with circular systems. Two years after launching INTO’s debut upcycled product range, INTO opened sustainable cafe, Into Coffee, to showcase circular systems in an accessible environment that facilitates chance-encounters and hosts monthly Impact Meet-ups. Here INTO began hosting customers to learn their unique upcycling process. To decentralise the upcycling process and empower individual creativity, INTO designed bag-making frameworks that can be produced on household sewing machines with no specialised equipment. These learnings are also hosted virtually and have empowered 1000 upcyclers around the globe.

- Decentralised the upcycling process by delivering learning frameworks to 800+ locals in under 2 years, 1000+ individuals online in 6 months and 100 public school students through the Smiths Family SmArts program. - Delivered upcycling collaborations with Converse, Deakin University, Ripcurl, Lululemon, SANS BEAST, Lacoste and more. - INTO now hosts outside upcycling studios to sell learnings to INTO's engaged online upcycling community, broadening the collective serviceable markets and expanding valuable knowledge delivered. - Hosting x2 monthly impact meet-ups for like-minded individuals to connect face-to-face and share aspirational stories of impact triumph. - Free community sewing days to upcycle bags to donate to charity.

Frameworks. Waste comes in all shapes, states and sizes. Delivering accessible learnings to turn waste into carry requires more than a step-by-step process. INTO developed two bag making frameworks that provide options for customisation to best suit the students chosen waste material and creative vision. This open-minded learning approach caters to more materials, skill levels and time sensitivity. Accessibility. INTO’s two bag making frameworks can be made with entry level sewing skills on the cheapest sewing machines available with no special hardware or equipment. Connection & Collaboration. The radical accessibility of these production frameworks opened the opportunity to host Community Sewing days. INTO invites all skill levels to spend 3.5 hours contributing to a bag upcycling production line. Each participant plays a role in curating waste materials and remanufacturing them into new bags. Recently INTO hosted two sewing days to turn Bob Brown Foundation retired hand-painted activism banners into carry. These events yielded 40 bags that were donated to Bob Brown Foundation, with a RRP of $75 per bag, contributing $3,000 to the foundation and teaching dozens of people to sew and upcycle in the process.