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STOW London Newsletter

Hello and welcome. Please sign-up for email updates, limited edition releases and other STOW London news. Please note we do not offer a first order discount as we price fairly from the start in line with our BE BETTER mission.

BE BETTER

We believe the promise of practicing sustainability by many brands is questionable and often misleading. Our mission is to make beautiful bags and accessories better and our BE BETTER programme is a road map for achieving this objective.  

BE BETTER is our living, breathing programme which we practice and are very proud of. There will always be new aspects of our processes to change, but we are making pledges to guide our future actions in the right direction.

These are our current pledges.

No Sales or Discounts

We go against the industry standard playbook of periodic retail discounts, by not offering any. Why?

Most brands hype an endless cycle of newness and discounting to keep us over-consuming. Luxury fashion brands purporting to be sustainable is mostly a lie. How can they be with such a business model?

Of course we bring out new styles and colours, but we do it BETTER, our way (small batches, thoughtful materials, pieces worth investing in).

We don't play games with prices to generate demand. We set a fair price for you and us from the outset.

And anyway, who likes paying a full price to see someone else get it for 35% off two weeks' later?

Handmade and Honest

In 2023 we became fully integrated with our original, family-run manufacturing partner, meaning we are one of the few luxury bag brands with in-house craftsmanship. It also means you know exactly who you are buying from.

Ubrique artisan craftsmanship is employed by the leading global brands in luxury and we are proud to be part of the town’s rich history and future.

All STOW styles are carefully crafted by hand, some taking over 10 hours to finish with up to 70 steps in the process.

Our factory is socially audited and considered a fantastic place to work by the local population.

It is only by working as an integrated brand and factory that we are able to achieve the commitments we make in this programme. Collectively we are striving to add more pledges and make STOW even BETTER.

Better Materials

All the leather we use, whether inside or out, is all from certified LWG tanneries. This certification means that a tannery meets high environmental and social standards, including those related to water and energy usage, waste management, and chemical management.

The vast majority of the leather we use is from the prestigious Curtidos Badia tannery in Igualada, Spain. Their leathers are considered some of the best in the industry and when you see, touch and smell our bags, we think you will see why.

Good leather is one of the most sustainable materials available for making bags. Our origins and DNA are in leather but we are also investigating the use of next generation materials. To this end we are collaborating with Uncaged Innovations (a US group developing cutting-edge materials) in their bio material development. Their Elevate material has leather-like qualities but is made from non-animal, natural products with almost zero plastic and has an extremely low carbon footprint. We expect to launch our first styles in Elevate by late 2025.

Small Batches

Making in small batches means greater flexibility to continue manufacturing what is in demand at any point in time, further removing potential for over supply and subsequent surplus stock.

You will often see our styles available on pre-order. This is an extension of making in small batches and means we are further able to match supply to demand.

Combined with our clean, timeless designs, these measures allow us to keep our commitment to never discounting or doing sales. We don't have end of season stock to shift. Or even worse still, do you know some luxury brands are making during the year knowing that this product will be sold in discounted periods like Black Friday?

Road to Plastic Free

There is a lot of plastic in a typical luxury bag (a lot of it invisible in the form of reinforcement materials, many of which comprise plastic micro fibres).

From April 2024, our production no longer uses any form of plastic reinforcement.

In fact, a lot of the reinforcement material we use is surplus leather. Leather which could very easily end up being thrown away, we are able to reposition to strengthen and shape our bags, avoiding the need to use new resources.

This is a huge step forward and has been possible through the use of innovative, natural reinforcement materials, full integration with our factory and our relationship in the town of Ubrique.