The 2022 IX Summit of the Americas gift backpacks divert 297,000 lbs, or 134,626 kg of CO2 – equivalent to driving a zero emission vehicle between Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. 127 times!   

Women-owned | AAPI-owned | Made in Hollywood, Los Angeles, CA
Rewilder developed a remarkable backpack made from salvaged airbags and upcycled materials. Rather than beginning with an idea or design, the Rewilder team chooses materials first to allow the rescue of these textiles to guide how they will be reused. 

ABOUT REWILDER 
Owners Jenny & Stephanie came from unique backgrounds - Jenny in architecture and Stephanie in science & advertising. They both were driven to create thoughtful, resourceful items by using or repurposing materials creatively to give them new life. 

They founded Rewilder with a sustainable mission: to find the wealth in waste, to make upcycling scalable, and to use intelligent design to show the potential in all materials (not just conventional ones). They want consumers and brands to see the value in materials that are often discarded - materials that just need the opportunity to be showcased. 

We’re sewing change now to build a sustainable, resilient, and equitable future for people and the planet. 

ABOUT THE BACKPACKS
The bags Rewilder created to encompass the gifts for this event were made from both scraps and rejected airbag fabric. They made the trim and handles using rejected seatbelts, and the lining is automotive mesh, used to cover the foam of car seats. For this particular project, they repurposed vintage LA metro tokens for the zipper pulls. 

ABOUT OUR PROCESS
Jenny and Stephanie both love making useful items out of the unexpected. They are always on the hunt for beauty in trash, and are constantly looking for new ways to upcycle what others discard or ignore. 

Rewilder continues to find ways to reduce their waste throughout every step of their manufacturing process so that they don’t contribute to creating additional waste during production.