The Unboxing Experience – Manrags.com.au
Saturday, August 29, 2020
9:47 AM
Today I received a package from www.Manrags.com.au. Manrags is an Australian company that started off wanting to provide premium quality socks and underwear for men. Somewhere along the way the learnings of the textile industry and the effects it has on our environment and natural resources hit home and hit hard. Today, not only do they continue to produce the socks and underwear they first set out to provide, but they do is as the first Circular Subscription Club that is taking responsibility for the entire life-cycle of their products by keeping them out of landfill and giving them purpose once our community are done loving them.
You can read more about their program https://manrags.com.au/clothing-recycling/ that is up and running in Australia. Looking forward to the day that they come to the USA or a similar scheme is launched in the USA.
Being that the taut sustainability, environment, and recycling in their mission and messaging very loudly, it was no surprise that their shipping packaging mirrored those values while providing the marketing message they want to get across.
First – given that the items shipped were small and light – the packaging didn’t have to be robust. It just needed to be strong enough to get thru their distribution process, the local parcel carrier’s hub, the airport, then injected into the FedEx system here in the USA and finally delivered to my doorstep.
Before I go on, I wanted to say that I didn’t intentionally decide to order socks from Australia given that we have great socks made right here in the USA. The items I received were part of another promotion and were the free gift for participating. I was intrigued so I opted in for the gift.
Here is a picture of the package as it arrived. Pretty good shape for something that traveled literally 1/2 way around the world and had no less that 7 touch points in its journey.
Right away they let you know they mean business with the statement “I’m a comPOST Pack”. The mailer bag is provided by www.Betterpackaging.co which is a women run New Zealand based business with locations around the world.
Turn it over and you see this:
Now you have options.
- Compost the bag – and they instructions and resources to help you do this.
- Reuse the bag – follow the instructions above the cut line.
The messaging is simple. Doesn’t force you to read small print or complex instructions to be part of the solution.
After opening the pouch, making sure that I would be able to use it again, which I will, this is what you see. A corrugate box which of course their marketing dept did a great job on. The box is sturdy and can be used for another purpose if needed.
Opening the box, the marketing continues but what I’m happy to see is no plastic of any kind.
They don’t even use tape to hold the closures on the product wrap. Everything in this box can be reused and recycled.
The only thing I would take away points for is the size of the packaging. While the product looked great in the box and the proportions make for a great picture as a gift set, would the impact to all areas be less if the box and mailer bag were smaller? This is another debate for another post.
ManRags gets 4.5 out of 5 stars for being able to deliver a constant message between their mission statement and the packaging all the way to the end consumer. Well done.