PRODUCTION

Every year, our tarp buyers (aka Truckspotter) buy around 340 tons of used truck tarps. We source over 85% of these through our agents. They buy used tarps for us within a radius of 2500 km and send us samples in advance so we can have the materials tested for safety.

Tarps suitable for bag production are taken apart by the agents and then delivered to us in Zurich-Oerlikon. Another 9% of the tarps we purchase come from direct suppliers in Germany, whose tarps are dismantled by a local partner. The rest comes from direct suppliers (e.g. freight companies) in Switzerland, Austria, Italy and France. We test the tarps and then take them apart ourselves in our Zurich production facility.

Following this step, the tarp sections are washed. At the next stage, the tarps are cut up in the Bag Design section to create unique pieces, partly by hand with a cutter knife and template and partly with the help of a machine, before being shipped to our European producers. There, the individual cut tarp pieces are sewn together with the other materials to form finished products, with producers in Bulgaria, Portugal and Switzerland also handling parts of the upstream cutting.

We purchase the necessary accessories and fabrics, such as recycled PET textiles or B-stock airbags, from selected suppliers. The finished items are then checked and photographed. This process is carried out partly by the producers but mainly takes place at our Nœrd headquarters. After that, they are ready for sale.

Sourcing truck tarp, our most important raw material, is hard work. The recycled truck tarps used for our products are not available off the shelf but have to be actively hunted down by our Truckspotter.

We remove any parts that are not required from the dirty, bulky truck tarps, transform them into manageable units and sort them in the warehouse.

The true beauty of a recycled truck tarp emerges only when it has been washed with rainwater in our giant washing machines, dried, and sorted by color.

The bag designers ensure that our one-of-a-kind products are not just unique but uniquely beautiful as well.

At the FREITAG factory, we only sew prototypes and test bags. Everything else – including your FREITAG bag – is entrusted to our experienced longtime partners, who are committed to complying with our Code of Conduct.

Our unique bag and accessory manufacturing process breaks down into five main stages with many separate steps. From its time on a truck cruising the roads to the actual sale, a unique FREITAG piece goes through numerous stages in and around our factory.

We keep our carbon footprint relatively low by using recycled materials and short transport routes in our supply chain. We spend time working every day to reduce our footprint. You can read up on the measures we have already implemented and our plan for the future in our Impact Report.

1. Truck spotting
2. Truck tarp removal
3. Extracting test samples
4. Testing constituents
5. Confirming tarp safety
6. Disassembly
7. Washing
8. Drying
9. Bag design
10. Shipping to sewing partners
11. Sewing
12. Quality control
13. Photography
14. Shipping
15. Sale