EXPLORERS OF ALL STRIPES.
We started CAO because we love to explore, but we feel like exploration has been misinterpreted. We believe exploration is for everyone, and we believe it can happen anywhere at anytime.
We create product for people who move through this world with intention. Explorers who roam from mountains to city streets, from deserts to oceans, and everywhere in between. We stand for something more than a bag. Our stripe is a badge, and it stands for freedom of exploration.
Wear it with pride.
CĀO
ACCOUNTABLE DESIGN
D4EA
D4EA. This is at our core. What does this mean? Design For Environmental Accountability. We strive to bring incredible product into this world the right way, by having a design ethos that has a lighter impact on this place we call home. Our strategy is straightforward and simple. Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose, Repair, and Recycle.
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Reduce: making higher quality items that last longer is the easiest way to minimize environmental impact. Easy example, most CĀO bags will last 8+ years… that is significantly higher than average. This also has the added benefit of making CĀO one of the cheapest brands when considering TCO - total lifetime cost of ownership.
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Reuse: anything that can be reused cuts down on environmental impact. Because CĀO has a modular system, many of the parts are interchangeable. We use all the same zippers, pulls, and Linseed oil buckles. Because of this we can share across the transportation platform and reduce the environmental impact.
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Repurpose: this comes third because it takes extra energy to repurpose something. Our example here is our packaging. The CĀO bags come in a salvaged fabric bag. This fabric bag can be used for a lot of things - not only as a dust cover. We have the additional benefit of this material being salvaged: this material is a waste product in the manufacturing process of an expensive fabric for a big outdoor brand; it would go to a landfill if we didn’t take it and repurpose it for our packaging.
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Repair: repairing a pack is much easier than repairing electronics. If you break a zipper, you can get it repaired almost anywhere that does shoes. In addition, this year we will be sharing most of our patterns for free online. This means anyone can easily modify or even make their own pack from our designs (for non-commercial use - similar to open-source software). We as a brand can do this because we own our patterns (most brands use contract manufacturing, and those factories own the patterns). We also think this is important to make it easier for our bags to be repaired by each person - we will always do free repairs, but it’s always faster and cheaper to do local repairs.
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Recycle: we put recycling last for a lot of reasons - it takes energy, uses chemicals, is weaker when original. Of course, it’s better than putting things into a landfill, but not by much… compostable (non-commercial compostable) is a small exception, but very few companies do residential compostable packaging. All our shirts and hats come in 100% compostable packaging.
