Fashion Brand Atyre Seeks To Create Awareness About Sustainable Fashion In Africa. Atyre is a premium producer and retailer of handmade bags that are not only beautifully designed and made to last, but are also friendly to the environment and socially inclusive. All of its bags are handcrafted from strong up cycled tyre material and carefully selected textiles from its local suppliers. Its proudly South African creative team works relentlessly to deliver sophisticated, stylish designs that enable its customers to express their personality. Its vision is to become a global leader in sustainable fashion and a game changer in Africa. The company is committed to continually innovating the craft of bag making, to not only be ecologically friendly and sustainable, but to also be socially inclusive by working with local communities to eradicate poverty.
It ensures that all its products are made from recyclable material. Its production is not harmful to the environment, with no carbon emissions from its machinery. It upholds a minimum wastage policy in its factory, where its fabrics are maximised to the best of their capabilities.
“The retail industry is not as mass-orientated as the mining and construction industry. With the retail industry, it depends on how many orders of these we get, how many orders of backpacks we make, and then the patterns are made and then the bags. With regards to mining and construction, there are three sets of products we provide to them,” the founder of Atyre, Reabetswe Ngwane told Forbes Africa in an interview.
The business’ main focus is recycling tyre tubes to make fashionable bags. The whole process begins by transporting the tyre tubes to one of their work sites where they wash, clean and refurbish them. They are then taken to a production factory where they are cut into respective patterns depending on orders. Ngwane has her products in a store called Mememe, in Cape Town in the Western Cape, and another in the South African capital Pretoria, called In Bloom.
The company has created full time employment for 6 local community members, with ambitions to grow this number substantially. It works with waste pickers who collect and trade recyclable materials for employment, to supply it with the tyre tubes. One of its goals is to create awareness around the topic of sustainable fashion in South Africa, and the African continent as a whole.
