A Unisex Bag Made to Carry Refillables, Reduce Single-use Plastics
Aerrem is a tote bag with an environmental goal.
Created by Los Angeles-based entrepreneurs and couple Paul Kradin and Steve Bauerfeind, it’s designed to carry two refillable containers — bottles or tumblers — plus everyday essentials like a phone, keys and wallet.
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The duo aims to help the average consumer save “720 plastic bottles, 250 coffee cups and 684 pounds of carbon dioxide” a year.
“People like to visualize the impact of their actions, so the calculator on our website lets them forecast how much waste they’ll avoid each year by switching to reusables,” said Kradin in an exclusive statement. “For example, someone who drinks a couple of bottles of water per day, and then gets an afternoon coffee during the workweek, would avoid 720 plastic bottles and 250 coffee cups — either full plastic or plastic-lined paper. That’s a huge amount of avoided waste, which brings with it a savings of 684 pounds of CO2. Before long, this person will have kept one ton of CO2 out of our environment. We hope folks will visit us to model their own impact.”
Designed by George Esquivel, founder of Esquivel Designs, with contributions from GQ’s creative director-at-large Jim Moore, the bag is priced at $179 and available at Aerrem.io. in several colors — black, gray, navy and camel — and two lengths. It’s made with cotton canvas shells, recycled leather straps and nylon liners (with seven color options).
“He introduced me to Steve and Paul with encouragement to work together and, while I quickly fell in love with them, I was deeply moved by their mission to help our planet,” Esquivel said of Moore in a statement. “The collaboration between the four of us was fantastic, and we came up with a product that’s equally masculine and feminine, works perfectly, conveys style but not flash, and sends a signal that it’s time for us to do our part to cut out plastic.”
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