Bombas is a US apparel brand best known for socks, built around a one-for-one giving model: for every item bought, an item is donated to people experiencing homelessness. That model puts the brand in front of an audience that pays attention to where products and packaging come from.

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The brand came to us wanting to take virgin plastic out of its e-commerce packaging and move to a lower-carbon alternative, without compromising how the mailers held up in transit.

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The partnership began in 2023 with Bombas's first order.

Bombas needed to replace virgin-plastic eCommerce packaging and lower the carbon footprint of its supply-chain materials, while keeping the protection and finish their customers expect from a premium apparel brand.

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In practice, that meant a mailer that:

• carries the highest recycled content possible
• holds up through US postal and courier systems without tearing
• prints cleanly enough to work as a brand touchpoint on the doorstep
• comes in at a workable per-unit cost across a high-volume eCommerce operation

We moved Bombas onto a range of poly mailers made from 100% recycled LDPE film.

End of life: these mailers are recyclable through soft-plastic collection where that infrastructure exists. In the US, that's store drop-off points, not universal kerbside collection.

Carbon and material figures verified via comparative Scope lifecycle assessment, comparing the chosen recycled LDPE vs virgin LDPE mailer, like-for-like format and volume.

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Material and recycled content

• 100% recycled content in the poly mailers
• Reduced reliance on virgin fossil-fuel plastic across the e-commerce range
• 100% reduction in virgin fossil-fuel material used in production versus a virgin-LDPE equivalent (no virgin fossil feedstock in the recycled film)

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Carbon

• 39% lower total carbon footprint than an equivalent virgin-LDPE mailer
• Per-unit footprint of 0.049 kgCO₂e vs 0.081 kgCO₂e for virgin LDPE

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Circularity and end-of-life

• Material Circularity Indicator rises from 12% (virgin) to 50% (recycled), a "moderate" score and a strong result for single-use flexible packaging
• Recyclable through soft-plastic store drop-off where that infrastructure exists

For a brand whose customers care about where things come from, the packaging had to match the product story. Moving the full eCommerce range to 100% recycled film let Bombas take a real step on virgin plastic.

The recycled-content route also positions the range well against tightening US Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes, where recycled content is one of the main levers that reduces fees for flexible packaging in states like California and Colorado.

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By partnering with Grounded Packaging, Bombas has contributed to kelp and mangrove restoration projects across Indonesia, Cambodia, Palos Verdes, and Southern California through our partnership with Seatrees.