Turning Fabric Swatches into Sustainable Fashion with Roncy Packs

A local Toronto business is repurposing SUNPAN’s swatch donations into fashionable accessories. 

At SUNPAN, we produce and stock over 300 swatches designed to help customers get a look and feel for the materials used on our products. These swatches are an important tool for our customers to reference before deciding to buy our products.

But what happens to the excess swatches once materials or products become discontinued? More importantly, how can they be repurposed so that they don’t end up in landfills?

It was that last question that led SUNPAN to Roncy Packs, a Toronto-based small business. The two began a partnership that allowed both brands to contribute to the community while also supporting a circular economy.

“We were really excited to work together because not only are SUNPAN’s fabrics beautiful but also because this partnership is a demonstration of how small, collaborative efforts can have a big impact on reducing environmental waste,” says Le Ching, one of the faces behind Roncy Packs.

Le Ching, along with her sister Lyli Vuong and mother Kim Nguyen, helps manage Roncy Packs, a women-owned business that specializes in making sustainable handmade fanny packs using locally sourced materials.

Roncy Packs started in the summer of 2020, when Lyli’s three-year-old son wanted a fanny pack. Nguyen, a seasoned patternmaker who has mastered her craft for over 40 years, was happy to create one for her grandson.

With plenty of scrap materials left over from her work, Nguyen created more fanny packs, leading to the family advertising on local buy-and-sell marketplaces. Eventually, as demand exceeded their expectations the online storefront for Roncy Packs was born.

The name Roncy Packs pays homage to the Roncesvalles neighbourhood, a vibrant community in Toronto that the family behind this business call as their home.

Roncy Packs has prioritized sustainability as part of their mission. This mindset has given them the freedom that they need to create unique and well-loved products for their growing customer base in Canada and the United States.

“Sustainability lies at the core of what we do simply because it makes the most sense,” says Le Ching. “So much quality material goes to waste when they could easily be transformed into beautiful, functional goods.”

At SUNPAN, we are constantly looking for new ways to be sustainable as a company. We want to ensure that excess products or materials can be reused and repurposed, and that waste is reduced whenever possible. This makes donating our excess materials to Roncy Packs an easy and perfect fit.

Over the past two years, SUNPAN has proudly provided excess fabric and leather swatches to Roncy Packs, and those material swatch donations have produced numerous stylish accessories.

The SUNPAN collection is available by visiting the Roncy Packs website here.