Surfing isn’t exactly good for the environment. Nearly everything we use shits all over the environment, from our surfboards to our wetsuits to the way we get to those far-flung surf destinations. For a group of people that uses the environment so much, we sure don’t treat it very well.
But there are a few exceptions–Patagonia and their Yulex wetsuit, for example. Chet Frost and his surfboards that you could grind up and throw in your garden, for another. The crew over at WaveTribe and their hemp and cork-based products. And one of the greatest exceptions is a company called RareForm. It’s quietly going about changing the way board bags are made. And not just board bags, either. Backpacks and laptop sleeves and duffels and pretty much anything you can put something else in.
RareForm‘s bags come from the unlikeliest of places: billboards. Years ago, RareForm founder Alec Avedissian walked away from a successful career in investment banking and renewable energy. He headed off on a six-month surf trip through South America to find out which direction his compass was pointing him in. Turns out it was pointing in a pretty incredible one.
After a he heard from a friend that billboards could be upcycled and no one was taking advantage of it. Avedissian and his brother, Aric, began getting billboards before they got to the dump and started making things out them. In 2012, RareForm was officially a business,
Now, three years later, the little company-that-could has found its feet, and they’re not straying from their initial goal of making a positive impact on the world–they’re “a company that does more than profit from a product, a company that lets good run wild.” Everything is made in California, and 1% of their profits go to 1% For The Planet.
RareForm is making interesting, durable surf products from billboards. They’re saving space in landfills and making everything right at home. How cool is that?
Welcome to RAREFORM from RAREFORM on Vimeo.
