At North St our choices matter, especially when it comes to selecting the best bag materials possible. We insist on quality, but we also consider origin and sustainability. As a brand committed to building gear that's guaranteed for life, we opt for the most durable, longest lasting, best textiles on the market.
EcoPak
North St. Bags operates with the goal of continual improvement. We prioritize the slow and steady, the scenic routes, and doing whatever we can to make our gear the ethical, sustainable, and economic choice.
Enter EcoPak. It's the first and only 100% recycled sailcloth of its kind. Made by Connecticut-based heritage manufacturers Challenge Sailcloth, EcoPak boasts the storm-weathering performance of virgin nylon cloth with a fraction of the CO2 emissions, energy efficient manufacturing, and is VOC free.
All of that while still being incredibly abrasion resistant, extremely water repellent, lightweight, and ripstop.
Here's the nitty-gritty on EcoPak:
- all woven components are made from 100% Repreve recycled polyester, primarily made from post consumer waste plastic bottles
- DWR coating is made with no fluorocarbons
- EcoPak's proprietary 'Challenge RUV' polyester film backing is 97% UV Resistant, and lasts about 4 times as long as the polyester film used in similar fabrics
- it reduces CO2 emissions by over 1lb per yard of fabric
- EcoPak is commercially recyclable after use
1000d CORDURA® Nylon
CORDURA® is the best woven nylon available on the market. But its success over the years is similar to that of Kleenex® or Xerox®. When you build a product that is the clear industry leader, often your brand name becomes synonymous with the entire category of product, lumped together with the imitators and infringers. With so many copy-cats (legal or otherwise) on the market, many companies will use imitation nylon and simply call it CORDURA® without thinking twice. That's not us.
Today, to use CORDURA® brand nylon in your products is truly a differentiator. We only source 1000 denier* CORDURA® for the outer shells of our bags. It's durable, rip and wear resistant, and it's even coated with a durable water repellant (DWR) finish making it fairly water resistant. This fabric is built to last and we are some its biggest fans.
*What's a denier you might ask? For reference, 'denier' is a unit of measure for the linear mass density of fibers, is the mass in grams per 9000 meters of the fiber. That's how fabric is measured and rated, with a higher number indicating a heavier weave, thereby (in theory) being more durable and abrasion resistant.
Fabric Care
Whether it's made from CORDURA® or EcoPak™, we recommend keeping your North St. Bag clean with occasional spot treatment on stains or accumulated dirt with a damp cloth. For set in stains use a brush with lukewarm water and mild detergent or hand soap. We do not recommend machine washing or drying. Air dry for an hour or two.
To keep your bag looking fresh and keep water from accumulating on the outer shell face fabric, reapply a DWR finish. We like Nikwax TX Direct.