The two founders of GOT BAG have been closely connected to the ocean since childhood and wanted to take active steps to ensure that less plastic enters the oceans. Symbolically, a backpack is a natural fit, as it represents how we all have to shoulder the great task together of preserving water quality for the future of flora and fauna. 

In fact, the idea came about rather by chance. For the two of them, however, it made sense above all because a backpack is ideally a particularly durable, robust, and easy-to-care-for product. In the meantime, employees and GOT BAG customers are not only convinced by the original idea, but also by the functional backpacks with their minimalist, timeless design. The ROLLTOP has established itself as the ideal all-rounder.

We want to help free the oceans from plastic waste. That is why, in our clean-up program, we collect plastic in all shapes and varieties instead of only the easily recyclable parts – such as PET bottles. We have established our own clean-up program in Indonesia, where fishers, collectors and partner organizations actively collect plastic from the sea and the environment. This includes mangrove regions as well as coastal areas, such as delta regions with their rivers and coastal waters. By collecting plastic on land and in fishing villages, we prevent it from entering the ocean in the first place and can open up increasingly larger areas with our collection points starting from the coast. 

By providing local people with a direct opportunity to recycle and creating basic structures for waste management, we take preventive action against improperly disposed plastic waste threatening the ocean in the long term. This creates tangible added value: beaches become cleaner, waste becomes a valuable resource, and the environmental awareness of everyone involved changes for the better. Not least because of this, we are in close exchange with the local authorities, who support our work and search for long-term solutions for waste reduction and disposal together with us.

Above all, however, our work shows a way for companies to use recycled materials to manufacture high-quality products while contributing to improving our environmental situation. It is a beginning that will hopefully contribute to political and social change and encourage many consumers to get involved. To achieve this shift in mindset, we need many actors such as politicians, legislators, NGOs and many people who are aware of the challenge and follow the necessary steps.

We believe that sustainable development and an innovative, strong economy are mutually dependent. We use our reach as a platform to find fellow campaigners for our mission. Although our approach naturally cannot eliminate the gigantic amounts of plastic waste that are already on the seabed, and every clean-up project seems tiny in relation to the millions of tons that enter the ocean every year, every plastic cup and every plastic bottle collected represents an opportunity for us to preserve marine life and habitats. 

Research on the subject of marine plastic and Ocean Impact Plastic is only at the beginning – and in parallel, our work and the technical progress of production are constantly advancing. The development of our clean-up program is also based on scientific findings such as those of oceanologist Erik Van Sebille, who documents the movements of marine plastic over a long period. Among other things, he demonstrates that it moves near the coast, circulates from beach to beach and from mangrove to mangrove, and threatens the sea equally in these different stages: http://erik.vansebille.com.

We consider general statements on the profitability of recycled plastic to be difficult, as both science and organizations active in this field are still at the very beginning with their findings and are constantly developing themselves and their work. In our case, too, much depends on local conditions and fluctuating influencing factors such as weather, season, and the social situation. Based on experience, we would agree that it is likely to be a challenge for large-scale production, which requires consistently high quality, to supply the value chain purely with marine plastic.

When processing Ocean Impact Plastic, we therefore calculate with a fluctuating yarn quality and thus a higher failure rate. We deliberately refrain from using additives such as new plastics or chemical additives to change the mechanical qualities of the recycled plastic. Instead, we clean the plastic particularly thoroughly, pre-sort it, and continuously optimize process parameters so that the quality of the yarn remains as constant as possible. Nevertheless, we cannot, of course, completely prevent the textile for our products from differing slightly and having small flaws in the material structure.

Our GOT BAG headquarters is located in Mainz, in southwestern Germany. In mid-2020, we established an additional location to open up the North American market. Our office there is located in Portland, Oregon, with two branch offices in Denver, Colorado, and Toronto, Ontario.

Even though we do not (yet) have our own stores, the products can be viewed and purchased at one of our official retail partners. For exact locations, click here for the Store Locator

A life cycle assessment can be used to record the environmental impact of a product, e.g., all greenhouse gases emitted from raw material extraction to disposal. It serves not only as transparent information for consumers but also forms the basis for measures to strategically minimize a company's environmental impact. We wanted to know what impact the new ROLLTOP 2.0 in black has and how it would compare if we produced it without any recycled content, i.e., exclusively with new plastics. To this end, we worked together with ConClimate GmbH on such an assessment based on ISO 14044. Due to the savings at the material level, the overall balance for our ROLLTOP 2.0 is significantly lower by approximately 22% than for the fictional backpack without recycled content. More information on the results can be found here on our blog.

All our current collaborations can be found here . There we also explain why we decided to work with these partners and in what form we cooperate. 

More than three million tons of plastic waste are generated annually in Indonesia.¹ Around a third of this ends up in the ocean at some point. With up to 1.29 million tons of newly added marine plastic every year, it is the country after China where the most plastic enters the ocean worldwide.² Taking action here can lead to clearly visible positive changes. 

In Indonesia, we have also found partners who can process plastic into pellets in a technologically sophisticated process. We have also been able to identify organizations here that produce further new items from all types of plastic that we cannot yet use to produce our products, or use them to generate heat.

¹ cf.: Hotz, Robert Lee: Which countries create the most ocean trash 2015. Published in The Wall Street Journal. Available online at: https://www.wsj.com/articles/which-countries-create-the-most-ocean-trash-1423767676 [Accessed on 02/22/2022].

² cf.: Jambeck et al.: Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean 2015. Published in Science Magazine. Available online at: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1260352 [Accessed on 02/22/2022].

We are constantly working on certifications to reinforce our sustainable practices and our commitment to the environment. These certifications serve as external confirmation of our efforts and show that we take our commitments seriously and strive for continuous improvement.

1. B Corp™ certification
   
   As a B Corp™, we are part of a global community of businesses that meet high standards for social and environmental impact. The B Corp movement seeks to transform our economic system so that it has a positive impact on all stakeholders – employees, communities, customers and our planet. You can view our score here .
   
   
2. PETA-Approved Vegan

Our products are certified as PETA-Approved Vegan. We have committed to not using any animals or animal products as components in the manufacture and processing of our products.

Our clean-up program is located on the Indonesian island of Java in Demak, Jepara, and Bantul. The region of the clean-up program is located at the mouth of several rivers, which carry large quantities of plastic waste from inland into the sea, in addition to the plastic that wind and rain carry from the land into the sea. The plastic waste recovered there tends to be less contaminated and decomposed.

Ocean Impact Plastic is, by our definition, plastic waste that has been improperly disposed of due to a lack of waste management systems and is therefore either already floating in the sea or is still in nature near the coast and thus runs the risk of entering the oceans. We collect this plastic before it further threatens nature and especially the oceans and destroys important habitats. Since all plastic is collected manually and is, among other things, dependent on tides and currents in the region of the clean-up program, the composition of the Ocean Impact Plastic fluctuates.

Ocean Impact Plastic thus consists of plastic directly from the sea, including mangrove regions, as well as from coastal areas and villages. We collect the latter primarily in the delta region of the rivers there and in coastal waters. Since local people for the most part have no functioning waste management system to rely on, they can also drop off their plastic waste directly at our collection points.

In 2018, we became the world's first backpack manufacturer to actively collect and process plastic from the ocean with our clean-up program in Indonesia. As a result of our local clean-up experience and current surveys, we see an equally significant lever against plastic in the ocean in preventing improperly disposed of plastic waste from the outset. 

By providing local people with a direct opportunity for recycling and creating basic structures for waste management, we take preventive action against improperly disposed of plastic waste threatening the ocean in the long term. This creates concrete added value: beaches become cleaner, waste becomes a recyclable material, and the environmental awareness of everyone involved changes for the better. Not least because of this, we are in close contact with local authorities, who support our work and work with us to find long-term solutions for waste reduction and disposal. 

The total amount of Ocean Impact Plastic we have collected so far is tracked via a live tracker on our website. Together with the Berlin-based start-up “Cleanhub,” we document the performance of the clean-up program in Indonesia to make the amount of plastic collected and its composition transparent and to be able to disclose its exact origin in the near future. Through this collaboration, third-party companies can also compensate for their plastic consumption and thus indirectly participate in the clean-up activity. So far, we have been able to collect and recycle over 1,000 tons of Ocean Impact Plastic.

PET (e.g. plastic bottles): 10 –15% - usable for the yarn of our products

PP (e.g. packaging film): almost 5%

HDPE (e.g. plastic bags): significantly less than 5% – but difficult to identify

LDPE/LLDPE (e.g. plastic bags): 15 –20% 

Mixed: around 55% (film and plastic bag residues, various polyethylene variants, polycarbonates, polystyrenes, polypropylene and containers without labeling, as well as around 20% composite materials alone – for example sachets for shampoo or ketchup – which are particularly difficult to recycle due to the aluminum coating) 

Buckets and pipes: around 5% (presumably PVC, but also without labeling here)

The core of our corporate philosophy is to address the plastic problem holistically: We direct all types of plastic collected by our collection points to individual recycling solutions. That is why, from the very beginning, we have been looking for innovative ways to recycle not only the valuable PET but also all other materials. In Indonesia, we were able to realize our project because we quickly found partners who can process plastic into pellets in a technologically sophisticated process. We were also able to identify buyers here who manufacture other new items from all types of plastic that cannot be used for the production of our products or use them for energy generation.

We pass on materials made of PP, HDPE, LDPE, PS and PVC to local companies that recycle them mechanically. They process them into so-called secondary raw materials before they can be incorporated into other, new products.

A large proportion of so-called residual materials consists of composite materials, which are particularly difficult to recycle due to coatings and adhesives. To date, we have therefore used them as fuel to generate energy from them – as an alternative to burning fossil fuels.

To produce the yarn for our products, we recycle PET plastics, which make up around 10 – 15% of the collected Ocean Impact Plastic. We have also found buyers for the other types of plastic, who use them for new products or for heat generation. However, this is a particular challenge, especially for composite materials – i.e., mixtures containing coatings or adhesives. According to our current state of knowledge, these so-called “residual materials” can only be stored or used for heat and energy generation – here they serve as an alternative to fossil fuels.

For this purpose, we cooperate with the Berlin-based start-up Cleanhub and pass on the residual materials from our Ocean Impact Plastic to Indocement, a subsidiary of the German Heidelberg Cement AG. This means that film and plastic bag remnants, sachets for shampoo or ketchup, and other composite materials that cannot currently be processed into other products, for example due to their aluminum coating, are sent for energy recovery. Cleanhub, in turn, sells certificates to third-party companies, which use them to finance thermal recycling with Indocement and compensate for their plastic consumption. In return, Cleanhub supports us by precisely documenting the amount of plastic recovered, thus providing a transparent representation of our clean-up performance.

Our partner organization and foundation GOT BAG Indonesia coordinates all of our plastic collection activities in Indonesia. Plastic waste is sorted, processed, and pressed in their own local warehouse. All recyclable types of plastic are sent to GOT BAG Indonesia's recycling partners in the region. In addition, the foundation coordinates educational projects and educates schools about the impact of plastic waste on nature. We are in daily contact with the six permanent employees of GOT BAG Indonesia. Our clean-up managers also visit several times a year to personally exchange ideas with our Indonesian team and plan further projects.

Symbolically, our products stand for clean oceans and the responsible use of plastic. That is why we don't just collect the Ocean Impact Plastic that is recycled for the production of travel and everyday companions, but we also ensure that plastics that cannot be used for this purpose are sent to the most suitable recycling solutions possible. In this way, together with our customers, we ensure that they do not end up (back) in the ocean. 

With the goal of a circular economy, our backpacks are mostly made from recycled materials and are manufactured to be particularly robust. We follow a timeless, minimalist design language. In addition to our two-year warranty, we offer you a spare parts service. We also take GOT BAGs back and replace them if their functionality can no longer be guaranteed. For some cases, we are already testing a sewing service and expect to be able to offer a welding service soon. This way, we want to guarantee the longest possible life for every GOT BAG.

We want to create increased awareness – through our clean-up program and work with local authorities in Indonesia, but also by encouraging reflection and aiming to create change together. Create an Impact.

Yes, our products are officially certified as PETA-Approved Vegan. We are committed to not using any animals or animal products as ingredients in the manufacture and processing of our products.

In addition to the fabric made from Ocean Impact Plastic, we primarily use recycled plastics for the production of our bags and backpacks. For some padding elements, we have not yet been able to find alternatives made from recycled materials that meet our quality and ecological standards. We currently still source these brand new, but are looking for alternatives made from recycled plastic together with local partners. In addition to the parts we manufacture from Ocean Impact Plastic, we currently primarily use the following components for our bags and backpacks:

Mesh fabric – rPET & PET (Recycled Polyester & Polyester)

Padding (depending on the model) – PE (Polyethylene), EVA (Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate) or PU (Polyurethane)

Straps – rPET (Recycled Polyester)

We produce the entire yarn for our GOT BAGs from Ocean Impact Plastic. The proportion of the total product varies depending on the model. This is due to the other "ingredients" such as buckles, zippers, straps and padding foam. These parts weigh quite a lot depending on the design. You can find their exact weight proportion of the product in this table or on the corresponding product page in the shop. 

For these parts, we choose recycled polyester (rPET) where possible, but we are working on also producing or having these "ingredients" produced from Ocean Impact Plastic. Since our specialty is primarily the production of the yarn, we are looking for partners and working on it.

In our clean-up program, we do not differentiate between different types of plastic. Our holistic concept includes the collection of all types of plastic, regardless of whether they are recyclable or not. With Ocean Impact Plastic, we have a term that expresses our complex collection concept. We have protected this term as a trademark in Europe to prevent misuse. Do you represent a company that would like to cooperate in the collection or recycling of Ocean Impact Plastic? Feel free to send us an inquiry at hello@got-bag.com.

Yes, unfortunately, this is possible. Especially with light-colored products, it can happen that dark or color-intensive clothing (e.g. new jeans, dark leather jackets or other textiles with low color fastness) transfer color pigments onto the material of your product. This then manifests as discoloration or abrasion on the surface of the product.

Why does this happen?
Dyes that give textiles their colors consist of tiny chemical molecules. These molecules are designed to bind to the fibers of the clothing. However, these bonds vary in strength depending on the type of dye. Indigo dyes (denim), for example, have low color fastness. It is also possible that excess (unbound dye molecules) have not been completely washed out. Therefore, there is a higher risk of color bleeding with new and unwashed garments.

If such clothing comes into contact with your GOT BAG product over some time, these dye molecules can rub off from your clothing onto your bag. Factors such as friction and moisture (e.g. from sweat or rain) or heat can cause the dye particles to detach from the clothing more easily and quickly.

Such discoloration is not a material defect or a quality deficiency of your product. It is a characteristic of the staining garment.
We therefore recommend being careful when in contact with new textiles, especially with light-colored bags.

If such discoloration does occur, try to carefully remove the stains with a damp cloth and mild soapy water. If you have any questions, you are always welcome to contact our Customer Happiness Team .

Since all our products are made of recycled materials, there may be slight variations in structure and color from time to time. This is not a sign of poor quality, but simply the result of using recycled Ocean Impact Plastic for production. Nevertheless, it is our ambition to manufacture a flawless product and we are working hard to rectify minor flaws in the material structure. Any irregularities can be touched up at home with a damp microfiber cloth.

All GOT BAGs are made of a fabric from extremely robust 600D recycled polyester yarn from 100% Ocean Impact Plastic. All fabrics are waterproof coated with PU or TPU on the inside and are additionally equipped with a water- and dirt-repellent PU coating or a DWR (Durable Water Repellency) finish on the outside. All materials used are PVC- and PFC-free. We process our fabric into products using two different techniques:

1. We custom-manufacture all ROLLTOPs and WEEKENDERs from a TPU- and PU-coated material using high-frequency welding. This welding process creates seams that are waterproof and have the same tear resistance as the fabric. Thus, the entire product is super robust and all seams are waterproof. The water column of the fabric is over 20,000 mm. The content is thus protected from rain and other weather conditions – provided that the opening is rolled up tightly and closed. Our ROLLTOP 2.0 and ROLLTOP LITE 2.0 have been laboratory-tested and are certified according to IP54: protected against dust and splashing water from all directions. Click here for the certificate.
2. All other products such as DAYPACKs and HIP BAGs are sewn using special sewing machines. The material is PU-coated on the back and equipped with a DWR (Durable Water Repellency) on the front. The water column is at least 1,500 mm. Thanks to a DWR treatment, our products in this line are permanently water-repellent. Rain is kept out by the PU coating, but would enter the interior through the seams in severe weather. However, light rain, short showers or splashing water usually do not harm the interior of the products.

To avoid excessive stress on the products' coating, the backpacks must not be cleaned in the washing machine. Instead, it is best to simply wipe or rub them with warm water and neutral soap, using a soft sponge or a microfiber cloth.

All textiles should be washed and cleaned according to the care instructions found inside the product. Products that have not been cleaned accordingly are excluded from the two-year warranty.

The ROLLTOP backpack, which made our brand famous, is produced in China. We made this decision because of the country's expertise in textile manufacturing and China's geographical proximity to the collection and cleaning activities in Indonesia. In addition, the producers located there have the specific expertise to finish textile products with a PCV- and PVC-free coating or impregnation, making our products water- and weatherproof. Production is located in Quanzhou, in Fujian Province. We now also produce other products in Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City.

Since yarn prices fluctuate significantly and depend on the quantity purchased, we can only make very rough statements here. Also, we do not use virgin yarn and therefore have few comparative values available. However, we estimate the price to be approximately double to triple that of regular polyester yarn of the same thickness. It is important to emphasize at this point that conventional PET yarns are a competitive mass market, whereas yarns made from elaborately recycled material are still a niche market, which is why the price differences are still so significant.

Furthermore, we always have to account for fluctuating yarn quality and thus a higher failure rate. We deliberately refrain from using additives such as virgin plastics or chemical additives that would alter the mechanical properties of the recycled plastic.

The PET portion of the Ocean Impact Plastic collected for our products is processed and treated by companies certified according to the Global Recycle Standard (GRS). The GRS is a voluntary, international product standard that confirms that all recycled materials meet the specifications of the non-profit organization Textile Exchange and that all production steps fulfill their strict social and environmental requirements.

The people working for GOT BAG in Indonesia are paid according to the amount of plastic waste collected. To ensure their safety at work, we provide on-site training and provide work clothing. We are currently working on assigning ID numbers to not only work with them long-term, but also to be able to offer further compensation, such as insurance and school fees. 

When selecting our partners in our supply chain, we look for corresponding certifications and standards such as BSCI, SMETA, GRS, Oeko-Tex, Fair Wear, Bluesign, ISO or TÜV.

All our suppliers commit to complying with our Code of Conduct. In this, we ensure that none of our partners child labor, forced labor or discrimination 

To ensure compliance with our standards, we employ a staff member in China who regularly visits our suppliers on-site. We also regularly travel to our clean-up locations ourselves to inspect them. Here you can read our Code of Conduct.

We keep the carbon footprint of our transports as low as possible: we transport the pellets made of Ocean Impact Plastic from Indonesia to China by ship for further processing. There, we are still dependent on truck transport, but we are exploring more environmentally friendly alternatives. The transport of the finished goods from China to Germany and the USA is carried out by ship. 

In doing so, we prefer ship and train connections that are the lowest in emissions in relation to the cargo volume. However, this takes a relatively long time. And since international logistics have been characterized by extreme conditions since the start of the pandemic, we are often unable to meet delivery times. In order to avoid being sold out for months, we have therefore transported some products to Europe or the USA by truck or air freight. Their share was always below five percent of our procurement volume and most recently below one percent. Through process improvements, we plan to completely phase this out again soon. We also rely on courier services for product samples that we need on-site in Germany during product development – we try to reduce this requirement to a minimum through digital processes.

We offer a two-year warranty for every GOT BAG order. For the RE:SHELL Cabin, a 5-year warranty applies.

We guarantee that your GOT BAG can be used for two years without the product's function being impaired. If you discover a defect during this time, you can claim your warranty, provided it is a warranty case. Please submit a complaint request to have your claim reviewed.

Anyone who has purchased a GOT BAG in our online shop in the last two years. If you did not purchase your product in our online shop, please contact your point of sale directly.

Please log in to the claims portal. Our Customer Happiness Team will check whether there is a warranty case and will then get back to you with all further steps.

We deliver exclusively to the specified countries with DHL GoGreen. Please understand that we currently cannot deliver to countries that are not listed. For the shipment to you, we charge a shipping fee that covers all costs within the EU. Depending on the country and order value, we also offer free shipping.

Shipping costs Germany (DHL GoGreen) and Austria (DPD):
Free shipping from an order value of 100 EUR.
Under 100 EUR order value: 2.99 EUR shipping costs

Shipping costs Belgium, Netherlands (except non-European territories), Luxembourg, Liechtenstein:
Free shipping from an order value of 150 EUR.
Under 150 EUR order value: 4.99 EUR shipping costs

Shipping costs France (except non-European territories & islands), Italy (except Livigno) :
Free shipping from an order value of 100 EUR.
Under 100 EUR order value: 4.99 EUR shipping costs

Shipping costs Switzerland*:
Free shipping from an order value of 150 CHF.
Under 150 CHF order value: 6.90 CHF shipping costs

Shipping costs Ireland, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia:
9.99 EUR shipping costs

Denmark (except Greenland & Faroe Islands), Sweden, Finland (except islands), Spain (except islands), Portugal (except islands), Greece (except islands): 14.99 EUR shipping costs

Shipping costs Norway*: 19.99 EUR

*For deliveries outside the European Union, additional import duties (VAT, customs duties) and fees (customs clearance, import processing) may apply. We do not cover additional import duties or fees. 

We ship our products worldwide with DHL GoGreen CO2-neutrally in reusable and recyclable packaging made from recycled materials (except for Austria and Switzerland). We also process returns climate-neutrally thanks to our partner 8Returns. This means: We offset all transport-related CO2 emissions that occur during shipping through CO2 credits. This also applies to returns. These credits support climate protection projects around the world. For more information on this and on DHL GoGreen, please click here.

You can easily register your return using your order number directly via our returns portal. The purchase price, minus the return shipping fee, will be refunded to you as soon as the return has been received. The return period ends 14 days after receipt of the goods.
If you have redeemed a GIFT CARD for an order, the purchase amount will also be refunded by reactivating your GIFT CARD.
A cash payout of a GIFT CARD is not possible.

If you have purchased a bundle (e.g. MOON BAG SMALL and MOON BAG LARGE in a set) and would like to return one or more BAGs from it, please note the following regulations:

Partial return of a bundle: If you only return part of a bundle, the bundle discount granted for the BAG you keep will no longer apply and you will have to pay the difference to the original individual price. This ensures that our bundle offers are used fairly and misuse is avoided.

Full return of a bundle: If you return the entire bundle, you will of course receive the full bundle price plus the original shipping costs back.

The return fee is a small amount starting from €3.99, which helps us cover the costs incurred in processing your return. You can return your ordered goods from your home country and other European countries without any problems; the return fee will be automatically deducted from the refund amount. The amount of the fee varies depending on the country:

Return fee Germany and Austria: 3.99 EUR

Return fee Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein and France (islands excluded): 3.99 EUR

Return fee Italy (except Livigno), Switzerland and Ireland: 4.99 EUR

Return fee rest of Europe (islands excluded): 4.99 EUR

As soon as you have placed your order in our shop, it will be automatically transmitted to our shipping partners. However, if you let us know directly via hello@got-bag.com that you would like to cancel your order, we will do our best to process or cancel your order.

If you would like to change your shipping or billing address afterwards, please feel free to send us a message at hello@got-bag.com. We will then change the address for you.

You are welcome to have your order delivered to a Packstation. Only for the WEEKENDER and RE:SHELL CABIN is the packaging a bit too large for this. To avoid delays, we would therefore ask you to only order these products to a private address. In individual cases, it can of course happen with our product shipments that the corresponding compartment is not free and they are returned to us. Of course, we will then send your ordered goods to you again.

As soon as we have handed over your order to our shipping partners, you will receive an email with the tracking details for your order. This normally takes about 2 – 3 business days from the moment of order confirmation. You can find more detailed information on shipping times and availability on the respective product page in our online shop.

You can individually choose your payment method when making a purchase in our shop. When paying by invoice via KLARNA, please make sure to use the bank details on your KLARNA invoice. You will receive these separately after the purchase.