Ethical Trading

At Ngaio Leather Co. it’s not enough to produce great backpacks for our customers. We also want to make sure our leather is environmentally friendly. Our backpacks are designed to last years, if not decades. We don’t like waste and fast fashion. Our vegetable tanned leather is produced in an environmentally friendly process – for more information on this please click here.

  • Our leather hides are by products

  • Our leather supplier uses renewable energy

  • Our leather is tanned using all natural mimosa bark powder

  • Our leather supplier carefully monitors water usage and continues to improve their processes

  • They have also minimised the use of volatile organic compounds and switched to water based top coatings where possible

  • All the chemicals and oils used follow environmental and safety standards set forth by the Japanese government’s Green Purchasing Legislation as well as the Class 1 Designated Chemical Substance and Eco-Leather standards, Leather Working Group, RoHS, REACH, and OEKO-TEX.

As well as our leather being environmentally friendly, we make sure that our supply chain is ethical. Our leather supplier pays all workers a fair wage and makes sure they are protected at all stages of the tanning process. Our leather artisans are also paid above and beyond the minimum wage and they have their own atelier in which they work their magic.

We will strive to continue to meet these standards with our suppliers who have agreed to work closely with us. We will continue to keep an honest and transparent dialogue with our leather supplier, report on our findings and address any concerns with them. We will also continue to monitor living wages.