Great news for those who get excited about beautiful leather handbags and have been looking for a perfect Fall bag, functional, perfect for work AND vegan, sustainable and guilt free. Bolt Threads, the bioengineering company from Emeryville is following up on its much touted Microsilk™ made from yeast, with the first retail release of its Mylo™ mushroom leather made from mushrooms. The Mylo Driver Bag made from a strong, durable and thick leather substitute that is made from thousands of mycelium threads from the base of mushrooms, looks, feels, and stands up to wear and tear like the toughest regular leather except, it doesn’t involve raising livestock, land erosion, or methane emissions. The tote is unisex and elegant while staying down to Earth with clean modern lines and durable craftsmanship. Made in partnership with Chester Wallace a bag company from Portland Oregon, each Mylo™ bag is carefully cut and sewn by hand. It’s available now on Kickstarter and will begin delivery Spring 2019 to Fall 2019.
Tier 1 is a limited edition of 100 pieces, Puzzle Pouch for $150. It’s a great option for those who want to experience this new material on a budget. Tier 2 is the gorgeous Driver bag, also limited to 100 pieces for $400 each. Want to customize the bag with your initials? Tier 3 is offering 25 bags for $500 apiece embossed. Tier 4 offers spots for a lucky 10 people who will get a once in a lifetime opportunity to tour the Bolt Threads Lab in person in addition to the embossed Mylo™ Driver bag and Puzzle Pouch that fits into the tote.
The Mylo™ bag is the largest lab to consumer product release Bolt Threads has instituted so far. They launched Microsilk™ Ties on their website with a limited edition of 50, then moved on to a Cap of Courage launch in partnership with Best Made Co, of 100 units. This latest project started when Bolt Threads partnered with biomaterials company Ecovative to license the initial mycelium technology and then perfect the process to make it commercially scalable. With the blend of Ecovative’s biofabrication technology paired with Bolt’s process of technology optimization, Mylo™ became a reality. It was a perfect alignment between the right business platform, the right technology, and a mutual passion for creating materials that are better for our planet. The textile industry hasn’t achieved major innovation in decades but today there is a huge push happening towards materials innovation and Bolt Threads remains at the forefront.
Two of the visionaries behind the Mylo™ Tote are Jamie Bainbridge VP of product Development at Bolt Threads who also serves as the chair of the advisory council for the Outdoor Industry Association Sustainability Working Group. Previously she was Director of Product, Textiles and Sustainability for Nau Clothing. She’s engaged some of the best minds in the textile industry to look at every aspect of materials innovation for Bolt. Patrick Long who founded Chester Wallace in 2008 brings artistry and a strong design sensibility to the picture. A graduate of Parsons School of Design and fashion illustrator whose work has appeared in the New York Times and The New Yorker, he spent time as a designer at the house of Nina Ricci before starting his company.
It’s seldom that we get to combine a feeling of elegance and luxury with sustainability. More often than not, we only get to hear about new materials being created in the lab, or we see them in museums because the path from idea to consumer is a long and difficult. Nevertheless, Bolt Threads has managed to do it with their new Mylo™ material. In a world where style is as much about the integrity of a product as its style, we can finally hold the perfect blend of engineering in our hands. For those who doubt that the company has actually achieved a leather substitute that truly looks and feels like leather, I’ve held it in my hands and it’s gorgeous. Finally, we can hold the perfect blend of engineering and beauty in your hands. The Mylo™ Driver Bag is now available for pre-sale.
By: Western Bonime