Midwest company ReFleece collects old Patagonia fleece jackets and recycled fleece scrap, giving them new life as protective cases for your electronics. Founded by Sam Palmer, developer of the first Patagonia surfboard, and his wife Jennifer Feller, ReFleece is committed to bringing well designed products to market using fully sustainable practices.
ReFleece is a new kind of felt, used to create a line of Kindle and iPad cases that are made from 98% recycled content. Only the thread, elastic band, and snap come from new material. The outer charcoal grey layer of each case comes from post-industrial fleece scrap, while the inner colored lining comes directly from a recovered Patagonia fleece jacket, making every case unique.
ReFleece collects the fleece jackets recovered through Patagonia's Common Threads Initiative, washes them, then cuts them up into squares the size of the case. The outer and inner layers are then pressed together and molded using a low energy manufacturing process.
Unlike a typical polyester recycling process, the used fleece jackets are not shredded, melted, or shipped overseas to be reprocessed. The fleece jackets are collected on the West Coast by Patagonia and ReFleece ships them to their offices in the Midwest for turning into cases.
As the iPad and Kindle cases are simply made from PET plastic fleece, you can throw your ReFleece case in the recycling bin when it has passed its useful life. The ReFleece cases retail for $25-$32 and are available from the company website or in select Patagonia retail locations.
