Sustainability and fair play have been baked into the ethics of Ally Capellino since our beginnings in the early 80s. They’ve always been so, but over the past few years people have shown a welcome interest in what we’re doing behind-the-scenes. We can’t claim to be 100% sustainable, but we can describe the efforts we make as a small company towards that goal.

The bags and accessories really do last a long time, because they are well built, but also because they have a classic timeless design which is recognised and loved by our customers. We are proud to hear so often of them being passed down generations in families.

All Ally Capellino bags come with a year's guarantee in which we will repair or replace any faulty product for free. After this period certain repairs can be carried out at our discretion, including replacement zips, frayed straps, or general wear and tear. However, if the wear on your bag is very heavy there’s not as much we can accomplish, so do keep in mind there are certain limitations to what we can repair. Costs are typically around £20 for a zip pull replacement and £75 for a full replacement zip, but costs will often vary on a case-by-case basis. The repairs service resumes in January.

Our materials are fairly plain, honest and straightforward, they don’t masquerade as something that they’re not. Recently we have been able to move all our manmade fabrics to recycled sources, either from plastic bottles or marine plastics. Hemp is a fibre that is underused and yet incorporates many of the qualities that we are interested in, sustainable production, strong product, and versatile. It’s a continuing project after the association with Margent Farm in 2021.

Leathers are practically all veg tanned hides from the area in Tuscany that specialises in the quality of curing, tanning and finishing that we have as a minimum standard. They are all signed up to the Consorzio Vera Pelle Italiana Conciata Al Vegetale.

Wate-U-Want is an initiative to use up ends of lines, ends of rolls or other scraps in order not to waste materials. Ally revels in the wartime make do and mend nature of this project as well as the idea of a more restricted brief that sometimes has great outcomes. 

Waxed cottons are sourced mostly from UK suppliers and as far as possible are from organically produced cottons. The black is all organic. The proofing oils are CFC free.

Shipping is one of the difficult ones, all bulk production is by sea or in consolidated overland routes but when we ship items individually to our customers we are as guilty as the rest of the world.

Packaging we can be more in control of with almost all plastic packaging eliminated. We wrap customers packages in tissue and brown paper.