The Surfrider Foundation is pleased to announce year two of our official corporate partnership with ALPAKA, a design-driven bag and accessory company that started in Melbourne, Australia. Co-founders Ramiro Gomez and Jin Li first crossed paths as masters students, bonding over a shared passion for entrepreneurship, a deep appreciation for thoughtful design, and a love for spending time in and preserving the natural world. Utilizing their ambitious spirit, the pair launched the first ALPAKA product on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter in 2016, the 7ven Messenger bag. The messenger bag captured much success, and now with an audience, Gomez and Li released their second product on Kickstarter in 2017, the ever-versatile Shift Pack.
ALPAKA has continued to utilize Kickstarter as a method to launch new products and grow customer loyalty and buy-in. As the company has grown, it has carved out a niche market by blending sleek, minimalist design with the functionality needed for both city life and the outdoors. ALPAKA’s gear is built to last, with durable construction and materials that meet the demands of an active, outdoors lifestyle. For example, ALPAKA invests in innovative materials such as X-Pac®, which is 100% post-consumer recycled polyester fabric and is compared to a technical racing sail in its ability to withstand harsh natural environments and 100% waterproof features.
On the design front, ALPAKA has earned a loyal following among creatives and enthusiasts, such as within the EDC (“Everyday Carry”) subculture. This community—known for sharing carefully arranged flatlay images of their daily essentials on—are fans of ALPAKA’s thoughtful layout and attention to detail. The brand collections and ethos are inspired by and benefit from contributions of artists from around the world advised by their guiding phrase, “Keep Moving Forward”: a nod to the company’s steady evolution and work to create resilience against our changing natural environment.
The name, ALPAKA, comes from the strong and resilient alpaca and inspires the mission of the company - to create long lasting gear for everyday life on the go. Long-lasting gear means the pieces won’t quickly degrade and end up back in the landfill, and integrating recycled fabric helps production rely less on intensive, virgin materials and for the overall product lifecycle to be more circular. Minimizing and upcycling waste and working for our natural environment is important to the ALPAKA guiding values and is an investment that is recognized by Surfrider as an action that demonstrates leadership and commitment to thoughtful consideration of steps to reduce overall impact and protect what we love.
To kick off Earth Month and bring together community, ALPAKA joined Surfrider at a beach cleanup in Los Angeles, California where 164 volunteers removed 206 pounds of trash from a tender stretch of coastline that has experienced the adverse effects of the recent LA fires. This was the first of many community-facing activities to come.
To learn more about ALPAKA, check out their website here and their new Terra Collection, as Surfrider benefits from a portion of proceeds from sales.