About Us

Story

We started with an industrial sewing machine and a desire to use business as an avenue for good. Dunsel’s started as a fundraising effort for the Florida State University Sailing club. After finding success with the tote bag, the company added three more products to address the small fabric waste they were collecting. While it all started with a sail, we partner with boating and sailing organizations to up-cycle sailboat sails, marine canvas, upholstery material, and any durable outdoor fabric that still has life.

Process

We travel all around the country ready to stop any outdoor fabric from ending up in landfills. We move fabric around via a ride share with anyone already heading to Tallahassee to reduce our carbon footprint. After cleaning and cutting the fabric, we pair sailboat sails with upcycled marine canvas and upholstery liners to give our product the ability to be long-lasting and water-resistant. We still sew our fanny packs in-house, but the tote, dopp, and duffel are made by sewing contractors in Florida. We visit the facilities to ensure ethical labor practices and fair wages are paid by our manufacturing partners. You will not find Dunsel’s in many retail locations because it allows us to lower our prices. After all, we don’t have to account for selling our product to wholesalers at a steep discount. You will meet us at local maker markets and can contact us on our website!

Sustainability

What is a sustainable business? It is a business actively trying to cause no unnecessary environmental harm while conducting business. At Dunsel’s sustainability looks like using 85% up-cycled materials paired with high-quality ethically made raw materials that we utilize to increase the lifetime of our products. While we still use virgin materials, it is primarily in the straps and zippers because the bag is unusable if those fail. A sustainable product has to have a long life to spread the impact of the virgin materials but also the footprint of the manufacturing process. We are constantly searching for more sustainable options in our virgin materials.