"Sustainability" has become the loudest word in fashion. It is printed on labels, splashed across product pages, and stitched into seams, often with very little explanation of what has actually been measured or improved.
For anyone buying a bag today, this creates an exhausting guessing game: How do you tell the difference between a brand making real, physical changes and one that simply has a better marketing department?
At Ucon Acrobatics, we don’t think you should have to take our word for it.
When we started this brand in Berlin 25 years ago, we didn’t launch a backpack company. We started with fashion. We were printing skate T-shirts on our own terms, with no investors, no corporate board, and no master plan. Today, that fierce independence is the exact reason we achieved a B Impact Score of 119.8, making us the highest-scoring certified B Corp in the bags and backpacks category.
What a Score of 119.8 Actually Means
B Corp Certification doesn’t assess a single collection, a trend, or a seasonal campaign. It examines the entire company. To get certified, businesses must submit concrete evidence detailing their impact across governance, employees, community, and the environment.
To put our latest score of 119.8 in perspective:
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50.9 is the median score for an ordinary, uncertified business.
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80.0 is the minimum score required to qualify for B Corp status.
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119.8 is our current score, placing us at the top of our category.
This number isn't a badge to hang on the wall and forget. It is an independent, transparent reference point that proves our practices match our promises.
The Link Between Independence and Impact
In a traditional consumer brand, the path to sustainable design is a series of compromises. A design team suggests a better material, the finance team calculates the margin hit, and external investors push for the cheaper, faster route.
Because we are entirely founder-owned, we don't have those hurdles. We have the agility to make decisions based on the long view.
Recycling PET bottles is a closed loop for the beverage industry—when fashion takes those bottles, we force bottle-makers to use virgin plastic, while ignoring our own mountains of clothing waste. As our team puts it, every industry needs to clean up its own waste stream. That’s why we shifted entirely to textile-to-textile (T2T) recycling.
Instead of waiting on corporate approval, our co-founder Martin Fussenegger deep-dived into scientific studies on circularity. He tracked down cutting-edge pilot projects experimenting with true fiber-to-fiber recycling, and spent months coordinating with advanced recycling plants and material suppliers in China to turn this science into a technical, commuter-proof weave.
"Companies need to start going where it gets very, very uncomfortable, which means sacrificing margin and pouring in resources. Sustainability is an incredible investment if you are honest about it. We wanted to implement it with the utmost consistency, because otherwise, it doesn't make sense for us to continue producing at all." — Martin Fussenegger, Co-founder
A Backpack is an Ecosystem
A product cannot become circular by simply changing its outer fabric. Truly responsible design requires looking at the details that are usually hidden from view.
To meet our own standards, we had to disassemble and reconsider every component:
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The Internal Structure: The lining, padding, and reinforcement panels are engineered from recycled textile waste, not virgin plastics.
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The Design Philosophy: Heavily influenced by the functional minimalism of Dieter Rams and Otl Aicher. By removing superfluous details and seasonal trends, we ensure our bags remain useful and aesthetically relevant for years, rather than a single season.
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The Complete Picture: B Lab’s assessment forces us to look beyond materials to how we treat our workers, our suppliers, and the communities connected to our business.
"We grew up as sustainable people, and we need to reflect that in our brand. We don't use sustainability as a PR topic. It's in our DNA." — Jochen Smuda, Co-founder
Why We Re-Audit Every Three Years
B Corp Certification is not a lifetime achievement award. Every three years, we must undergo recertification to prove we still meet B Lab’s evolving standards.
This is crucial because technologies and environmental challenges change fast. What represents progress today will be the bare minimum three years from now.
Our score of 119.8 shows where we stand today. It highlighted what we are doing well, but it also pointed out the gaps where we still need to improve. We are already working on closing those gaps for the next audit.
We are now working towards a stronger result at our next recertification. This means continuing to improve our materials and products while also looking at the wider impact of how we operate as a company.
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