Ever heard of “giving a second life..”, “from old to new” or “not everything broken is trash”, well keep scrolling and you will understand what we mean.
Meet Marine & Julien, co-founders of Save A Sail, Mauritian islanders and Ocean lovers who have lived their childhood on the beaches or on the water. Both their dads have shared their passion for the ocean with them and today, keeping this passion as their treasure; they carry on theirs, by being sailmakers and sail recyclers.
For the love of the ocean and conscious of the environmental crisis our world is facing, Marine and Julien are set to bring a positive change in the world with Save a Sail and MU Sailmakers.
Keep reading you will love it!
Tell us more about Save a Sail – its concept and roots.
In 2010, Julien joined Mu Sailmakers – repairing and manufacturing sails. When he started working there, he immediately noticed that all the clients coming to pick up their new sail were deliberately leaving the old one behind, saying they did not know what to do with it! So he did some research on how this huge volume of consistent fabric could be re-used. This is when Save A Sail was born, in December 2012.
We started by designing a few very easy and simple designs and started our first sales on Christmas. Since then, our team has been growing, as well as our product range and designs. We work on trying to upcycle everything that is left aside: old and unusable sails, unrepairable kites, any kind of sailcloth that could be reused and transformed, even inox gear, or ropes. Nothing is lost as we give it a second life by turning them into all kinds of unique bags & accessories.
It is all 100% Made in Mauritius, original and genuine.
Sail upcycling – what does this mean and what does it entail?
Good question! Upcycling is not actually recycling. When you recycle, you transform one material into another. When you upcycle, you reuse the same material but just for a different purpose.
So our sail material is not transformed, it is reused as it is.
The first step is when we collect an old and unusable sail; we do a survey to evaluate the sail condition. Depending on how old and how used it is, it allows us to define the items we will be able to make out of it and how many.
We start with cleaning the material, and we draw the patterns for the designs we have decided to make from the sail. We then cut all our patterns, and start manufacturing the bags with them.
Tell us about your products and what’s the best seller?
We have different kinds of bags: beach bags, duffle bags & backpacks. We also have a lot of different pouches of all sizes and all shapes (multi-purpose, tiny, XL, toiletry, pencil cases…)
Simultaneously, we also offer house decorations like bean bags, outdoor cushions, lampshades and room partitions.
Our best sellers are definitely the #tango beach bag and the #oscar duffle bag, as well as the #alpha pouch, very practical and easy to use, and it’s a unisex model!
Where do you get the sails from?
Through MU Sailmakers, we work with all the catamaran charters, hotel boat houses and many other boating companies. Few individuals who know the brand, get in touch directly to drop their old windsurf sail, or kite wing.
Tell us more about your collaboration with C Mauritius.
It’s been a real pleasure to have been selected by the team to work on this very special Kite Festival.
We were very proud to sponsor the event with our #foxtrot pouches and #uniform lunch bags as giveaways and to be able to sell our whole range of products in their small but beautiful shop!
Antoine Auriol, ambassador of the 1st edition of C Kite Festival, is not only a professional rider, representing the image of the kitesurf and kitefoil during the event but also a defender of ecology.
He was very impressed by Save A Sail’s products and vision. It was a real honor to be associated with him together with C Mauritius. It was truly joining forces for one objective, that of respecting nature and preserving its beauty. Needless to say, it brought value to our brand visibility, and we’re always very happy to be part of such events. Hoping the make it happen again next year.
In a few words, what would you say is Save a Sail’s contribution to the World?
We could say that in a way, we are really working towards sustainability for our beautiful island. For almost 10 years, we have turned a lot of sails (as well as different other fabrics like billboards) into some very special bags and accessories. We believe that every disposed of material is not a waste if you can still make something out of it. We’ve worked very hard to be able to develop the collections according to what we could reuse and to make them look nice. Today, we’re so proud to have a wide product range made out of fabric that, if we did not transform it, would have ended in the trash.
What are you hoping to achieve with the Save a Sail?
We’re working really hard on developing the brand and increasing our visibility on the island. We would like to be present in more hotels around the island, to offer all visitors the possibility to buy our products with a real story behind them.
Our objective is also to educate the Mauritian population; as such we hold workshops at the factory so that the work behind each product gets known.
