Mister Bags: Fair & Organic takeaway

Mister Bags is the name of one of the newest suppliers on the market for promotional bags. The newcomer aims to score points above all with fair and ecologically safe products. Great importance is attached to cooperation with the promotional products trade.

Anyone who wants to know exactly what cotton looks like in its raw state should look out for the Mister Bags stand at promotional product fairs. There's a good chance you'll find not only Mister Bags managing director Tobias Gottwald or one of his employees there, but also a cotton plant in addition to a whole lot of cotton bags. "This is the best way for us to make it clear to prospective customers at the stand that we offer a natural product - and not polyester bags," the managing director explains, adding, "We won't have those either." Gottwald, who already has plenty of experience in the promotional products industry as the founder of Essen-based promotional products agency Promostore and importer Goprom, is the man behind Mister Bags. The Ruhr-based company has been around since September 2018, positioning itself as a supplier of fairly and sustainably produced cotton bags on the promotional products market.

With a current staff of twelve, there is a certain start-up atmosphere in the company's offices despite all the experience of the managing director - the distances are short, the rooms are open, the coffee comes from fair trade and the electricity comes from the roof when the sun is shining, otherwise from a green electricity provider. Gottwald and his colleague Ami Schmitz, who is responsible for marketing at Mister Bags, proudly talk about the E-Smart that the company has purchased. Even the sugar is fairly traded. "We also do what we can as a company behind the scenes," Gottwald and Schmitz say. Even the toilet paper comes from a company that, together with the Viva con Agua initiative, supports the construction of toilets in countries without functioning infrastructure with every purchase.

Commitment to success

"But for me, sustainability means above all that you can use something several times. A cotton bag that is used once and then quickly disposed of because of poor quality is not that much more sustainable than a plastic bag," says Gottwald, explaining his standards for his own products. At the beginning of the company's still young history, there was an observation alongside this attitude: "There was increasing interest in sustainably and fairly produced cotton bags - but in the end, many promotional product retailers and users still bought the conventional and cheaper products." His thought: maybe the whole thing just needed to be pitched differently, including communicating and explaining the economic benefits of solidly and fairly produced organic cotton bags. So Gottwald did some research and just went for it: "A company that sells only sustainable and, in a double sense, good products, that's our goal." To achieve this, the Essen-based company imposed a voluntary commitment on itself: In the first year, at least 10% of the bags sold should be made from fair-trade organic cotton. At the moment, they are optimistic that they will reach their goal, says Gottwald. The market is taking the offer well, and there has even been an order from Iceland.

Currently, the range consists of a total of 23 products, from the classic carrier bags with handles to gym bags with drawstrings to a sports bag or bags made of jute. Almost half of the bags are Fairtrade certified, Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) certified or both.

Certification pays off

The certifications are quite elaborate - the GOTS seal, for example, a standard for the organic processing of textiles made from organically produced natural fibers, is only awarded to textile products whose entire supply chain has been inspected. The inspectors not only focus on Mister Bags and every fiber on the product itself, but also check the working conditions and environmental protection measures at the suppliers. If certification is missing from the supply chain, the product in question does not receive a seal. "Of course, it's a lot of work," says Gottwald, but it's also worth it for him, because it gives him the assurance that his own suppliers really do work according to high ecological and social standards.

© Klara Walk | WA Media.de