Welcome back to another blog post, this time I am going to talk about one of my secret loves: PACKAGING
Especially now, since the whole MisFitted packaging game has recently been updated I thought it would be a sweet idea to talk about the importance of packaging. Not only does packaging look good, but shipping your orders requires packaging that will keep them secure and safe during their journey.
Oh and by the way, 100% of packaging supplied by MisFitted is now recyclable and plastic-free!
Back in 2018, when MisFitted was first established and small stickers were the only items available on the store, there was only one type of packaging needed, small envelopes. However, I quickly realized thanks to your feedback that postal services do not treat your packages like they treat their loved ones. Stickers that were sent internationally or even inside of the European Union came in a bent envelope meaning that the stickers inside also took a hit…
Sturdy envelopes were the solution. Today, sticker orders automatically come in an extreme strong kink protection!
Since a few months later came the first pieces of clothing, the easiest and also cheapest packaging solution that came into my mind were poly bags. What started as a simple white poly bag, was later replaced by black ones. However, pretty soon after, they reminded me more and more of garbage bags, so I started looking for a company that could make custom poly bags with the MisFitted logo printed on them. This was about the same time where a lot of MisFitted items came from overseas, so it was pretty easy to find a chinese manufacturer that could print custom poly bags.
Many would say why spent more just to have your logo on a plastic bag? For me the answer is pretty straight forward. Nowadays almost everyone receives plenty of packages on a daily basis. Most companies ship out their orders in standard boxes with no branding on them, so it is pretty easy to make your package stand out from the rest. On the other hand, it is just more of an experience if your customer receives their order nicely packaged in a good looking poly bag.
But everything comes at its price. Your customer is only interested in what is inside of the package, not the packaging itself. Meaning that the only purpose of the packaging is to get the order safely and in one piece to its destination. After your customer receives their order, the packaging is thrown away.
Plastic packaging is extremely wasteful and impacts earth’s ecosystems. Due to poor product design and lack of political infrastructure, the majority of plastic waste is sent to landfills or disposed of into the environment. 8 million tons of plastic is dumped in the ocean every year and only 9 percent of the total plastic packaging is recycled properly.
Because plastic isn’t biodegradable, every piece of plastic ever made is still on this planet.
Even though the packaging of MisFitted probably only accounts for 0,00000001% of this plastic waste, I personally think that every individual and certainly every company has a duty to help maintain a better environment. Got to start somewhere you know.
This was also the main reason that now in 2020 I decided to completely switch to a plastic-free and 100% recyclable packaging for MisFitted, made in Germany. This certainly wasn’t a cheap move, given that these boxes cost 86% more than a simple poly bag.