Timbuk2 Solar Bags at Daraja Academy from Mark Lukach on Vimeo.
Imagine a world where instead of functioning as a black hole that eats your keys, your wallet, and everything you own – your handbag not only carried what you needed, it actually created something new for you. What if your handbag was suddenly so much more than a brand name accessory – it was a piece of fashion that could change the world? That’s what Pop!Tech, the Portable Light Project, and Timbuk2 designs are trying to do with their pilot project, the FLAP bag.
Erik Herman, a 2008 PopTech Social Innovation Fellow, has spent this year bringing his bag to the world market. The FLAP bag is an affordable source of light and power for the world’s 2 billion people without access to reliable electricity. Most importantly, it is a portable solution to a pressing problem. Yes, that’s right. Instead of installing fragile and expensive solar panels to improve a village, people can now carry around a 2 watt lighting and charging resource in a durable messenger bag. The charge provides 10 hours of light via 6 hours of solar charging and the clean energy is channeled through a USB port connection capable of charging cell phones, medical devices, radios, and most other electronics. With the portable FLAP bag, entrepreneurs, health workers, farmers, and many others have an opportunity to develop and improve their services. In addition to Herman, the trilogy of collaboration seated behind this ambitious endeavor includes: Timbuk2, a San-Francisco born urban adventure bag company who provides the sturdy messenger bags needed to house the equipment, Pop!Tech, a unique innovation network that supports social and technological thinking of the future, and the Portable Light Project, an organization that manufacture’s solar textiles for the world’s poor. This year, models have been tested in parts of Africa and a Native American reservation based in Arizona.
In some ways, the FLAP bag is the graduated and more fashionable version of the wind up flashlight. In the past, I have worked with charities that have distributed wind-up flashlights to poor, rural communities in Latin America and the ability to have light, even for a few hours more each day, makes a remarkable difference. Access to reliable power source and a portable one, such as the FLAP Bag promises, is one of the greatest solar fashion statements poverty has ever had.
FLAP
Pop!Tech, the Portable Light Project, and Timbuk2 Designs have joined together to bring you flexible light and power = FLAP. Portable electricity for the world’s poor.
- Organization Type: Collaborative, Non-Profit and Profit
- Website: http://www.timbuk2.com/wordpress_cms/flap/
- Founder(s): Pop!Tech Social Innovation Fellow, Erik Herman
- Founded: 2008
- Location: USA
- See complete company list here
Contributor Profile: Ashley
Ashley is a friend of anyone who is fighting the good fight for social change. She currently resides in Bilbao, Spain where she is teaching English and researching the history of the Basque conflict. Personal blog
Twitter: @socialearth
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