When looking at his iPhone, Jacques Erlanger, a cultural project manager based in Saint-Gall (Switzerland), initially thought it was an error on his phone, before coming to his senses.
His backpack purchased from the Zurich bag and accessories manufacturer Freitag, sent for repair for a simple broken closure, was indeed displayed in Dimitrovgrad, Bulgaria.
For almost seven years, as revealed by the Swiss daily
24 Heures
, the Swiss customer has been the happy owner of the Freitag bag, a brand which claims in its manifesto
"responsible and common-sense consumption in our time"
and boasts a eco-responsible image, based on the circular economy.
A high-end ecological model symbolized by the material used for its backpacks: old truck tarpaulins.
The brand seeks to create
“a new attitude on the part of consumers (...) so that they (sic) emerge from their self-inflicted immaturity”
, we can read in the introduction to the manifesto.
The bag in Dimitrovgrad, in a Bulgarian factory
Over time, one of the three zippers on Jacques Erlanger's backpack broke.
“We repair as locally as possible
,” assures the brand on its website.
The customer takes it to a Saint Gall store, where he sees his goods taken care of free of charge.
However, after two weeks, he wonders if the delay is not too long for changing a simple zipper.
He then remembers something forgotten in his shopping bag: an AirTag, a 3 cm token from the Apple brand that allows you to locate items to which it is attached.
He decides to check the app on his phone.
He discovers the presence of his bag in Dimitrovgrad, in a Bulgarian factory.
Or 1,800 kilometers from St. Gallen.
The Swiss then followed the return route of his bag, and found his bag five weeks after dropping it off.
In the meantime, according to him, the backpack will have traveled 4,400 kilometers.
Questioned by the Swiss daily, the brand confirmed the backpack's journey across half of Europe for a simple repair and estimates via the voice of its spokesperson Elisabeth Isenegger that "
extending the lifespan of our products is part of our ecological approach
.
According to the latter, the eco-responsible promises are well kept by the brand.
“If a customer gets rid of their bag and buys a new one, it consumes significantly more resources
,” she assures.
This distant repair would only concern one model.