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The story
English Retreads began in 2001 by designer Heather English in the basement of her home in Nederland, Colorado. While floating down Boulder Creek on an old inner tube, English was struck with the idea to create a non-leather handbag from her rubber inner tube to fulfill her need for a sustainable and fashionable product.
English expanded the English Retreads line to include vintage rubber messenger bags, wallets, belts, dog collars and key chains. Truck stops throughout the Boulder area supplied English Retreads with the used inner tubes. Each of which typically had more than 60,000 miles on it before it was reinvented.
The company ceased operation in December 2014.
From Wikipedia’s article on English Retreads, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4