Virgin Balloon Flights has teamed up with TERN – The Entrepreneurial Refugee Network – to give its retired balloons a second lease of life.
Each hot air balloon hosts 10,000 passengers and completes over 600 hours of flying before Virgin Balloon Flights retires it.
But a balloon is made of 34,000 square feet of nylon fabric – enough to cover 16 football pitches.
In the past, Virgin Balloon Flights has used the fabric from its retired balloons as covers for the balloon baskets, or as extra insulation for the walls of its barn workshops.
Now, thanks to this partnership with TERN, Mauritian refugee entrepreneur Teem Khan has used the material to create upcycled products including picnic blankets, aprons, tote bags, capes and bikinis – and you can use your Virgin Points to purchase them via Virgin Red.
Teem is a fashion designer from Mauritius and the founder of gender-neutral label Teem Khan. He currently sells a collection of vegan-approved organic clothing.
Using Virgin Balloon Flights’ retired balloon, he created a range of products, including aprons and capes.
“Upcycling is a hugely important part of all the products I create for Teem Khan, but I’ve never attempted upcycling a balloon envelope before. It’s been a great challenge – the picnic blankets are foldable and water-resistant, and the capes and aprons are gender-neutral like all of my products. I love the idea that this material has been flying for 600 hours, and now it’s going to be someone’s travel bag or favourite holiday bikini,” Teem said.
Original article at Virgin.com
