A backpack upcycled from discarded apples! Apple leather from LOVST Tokyo

An alternative for bio-based leather is now on the market: apple leather! Unbelievable, right? It is an innovative new material made with waste recovered from the fruit juice industry. LOVST TOKYO INC. discovered this unique material and made a backpack called “Apple Backpack” using it. They crowdfunded successfully through pre-order sales on popular crowdfunding site Makuake.

It’s not the first time the company produced an item from apple leather. Their first attempt was an apple leather tote bag, which they released in March 2021 through crowdfunding. The tote bag achieved a 450% funding rate! Following its popularity, LOVST TOKYO created this backpack upon requests from the supporters of the tote bag.

What exactly is apple leather? LOVST TOKYO’s Apple Backpack uses apple skin from apples grown in an orchard in Northern Italy. The plant-derived bio-leather is created using discarded apples from there. The apples used for the backpack are apple pomace produced during the making of apple juice. By including roughly 20-40% of apple fiber in the material, the content percentage of petroleum-derived resin is reduced drastically compared to conventional vegan leather such as synthetic leather and artificial leather. Furthermore, apple leather is environmentally friendly since it reduces CO2 emissions and water usage at its production stage. Upcycling material is attracting attention in and outside Japan as a more environmentally friendly option than traditional materials.

LOVST’s Apple Backpack is lightweight, weighing equivalent to only two apples! It’s ultra-lightweight and has excellent water resistance. You can easily wipe dry if you get caught in the rain. Moreover, its touch is as smooth as animal leather. The design is minimal and smart too. Available in ivory and black colors, the cute silhouette can easily match all kinds of fashion. It comes at 24,200 yen including tax.

Initially, LOVST TOKYO started out as a specialty store for vegan fashion. However, CEO Kaito Karasawa saw that animal-free products they sold were not necessary environmentally friendly in their making process. He felt the urge to search for something kinder to the environment. That’s how he found apple leather, which was kind to both animals and the environment. Karasawa hopes to create a sustainable society through their apple leather products, one in which people have new options in their fashion choices.

LOVST TOKYO also hopes to create a sustainable cycle of bags in the future, which customers can bring in their LOVST TOKYO bags after they have used them for some time. They will then remake the bags and put them out in the market again. Furthermore, the wrapping they use comprises biodegradable, compostable materials that return to earth in about six months. In the future, they want to create a framework where they can collect these wrappings too.

LOVST TOKYO is indeed a company with great potential. Apple Backpack took us by surprise, and there’s more to come. Let’s look forward and see what other sustainable approaches they have in store for us.