The Mylo Driver Bag

The Future of the Mylo™ Driver Bag
almost 3 years ago – Fri, Apr 23, 2021 at 01:57:22 PM

In our last update, we shared our plans to begin a rolling delivery of Mylo Driver Bags to Kickstarter backers this month. Unfortunately, that is not working out.

In November, we sent a large shipment of Mylo (below) to our manufacturing partner, Chester Wallace, to start production. Regrettably, the resulting bags did not meet our standard of quality to ship to you. We are so appreciative of our original supporters, the backers of this campaign, and it is important to us to deliver you a product that is perfect in every way.

Creating a brand new material takes time as we navigate challenges – including a global pandemic – and we are grateful for your patience. We expect to deliver your bag in 2021, but are now offering the option of a refund to those who wish to no longer participate in this Kickstarter campaign.

If you prefer a full refund, please contact us at [email protected] or send us a direct message here on Kickstarter. All requests received by December 17th will be processed before the holidays; requests received after then will be processed in the new year. Otherwise, we look forward to shipping you an amazing product in 2021!

We wish everyone a wonderful rest of the year and look forward to connecting with you in the future.

Mylo™ Driver Bag Delivery Begins this December
over 3 years ago – Thu, Dec 10, 2020 at 09:56:54 AM

In what has been a challenging and uncertain year for all of us, we have news that is a big highlight to our 2020 and hopefully will excite you, too: We are on track to begin a rolling delivery of Mylo™ Driver Bags this December!

As we’ve shared in previous updates, COVID-19 and resulting shelter-in-place orders at our Bay Area office made a significant impact on our timeline and processes. A core team has since returned to the lab and has made amazing progress on our Mylo material. Thanks to the dedication of these team members and countless others who helped us navigate evolving circumstances, we have been able to get our plans back on track and establish a schedule we feel confident in achieving.

We will be producing the Mylo material that will be used to create your Driver Bags and working closely with our friends at Chester Wallace in final designs and delivery plans. Improvements to the look, texture, and performance of Mylo have been made since the Mylo Driver Bag - 2018 Prototype was created, and we are pleased to reveal the beautiful natural color of Mylo that will be used to make the Mylo Driver Bag – Backer Edition. We will be sharing more photography of the bags, pouches, and key fobs in just a few weeks.

We appreciate your patience as our team works hard to deliver something that is a truly viable, more sustainable material option for the future. We are creating something that has never existed before at a scale that’s not often attempted, and your support in this journey and shared desire to create a better future for our planet makes this work incredibly worthwhile. Stay tuned for next month’s post, when we will share more on design updates and other exciting company announcements that you helped make possible.

An Even Better Mylo™
over 3 years ago – Fri, Oct 02, 2020 at 08:06:00 AM

We have been hard at work growing, shaping, and improving the Mylo™ material to fulfill our Kickstarter orders. 

Our team has been working 24/7 to bring this revolutionary material to the world, and we couldn’t have done it without our backers. Whether it’s figuring out the best growing variables, identifying cleaner chemistries, or building relationships with top tier partners, we are proud to be designing for a cleaner, better, future for our planet. Our work was recently recognized in Fast Company’s Innovation by Design awards.

Innovation and design is an ever-changing process. As we were working on bringing Mylo™ to life, new opportunities arose, and we chose to act on them. We are very proud to announce that our Driver bags will be made with a new and improved Mylo™ material - more durable, sleeker, and more luxurious than our original material.   

 What will the new Mylo™  material feel like?

The new version of Mylo™ is made differently from the original material. During the organic research and development process, our team unlocked an extra step in the process that helps manufacture an even better Mylo™. The resulting material will be buttery, soft, yet sturdy, and much more fitting for a bag.

Does this change the delivery date?

We’re excited to bring this new material to you and want to share something that we are proud of with the world. This new development does impact our timelines, but not significantly. We are expecting to put the final touches on the material at the end of 2019, with product delivery starting in early 2020, on a rolling basis.

The wheels on this project are turning, and we are so grateful for your support in bringing this revolutionary material to the world. Next week we will be welcoming our $1000 tier Kickstarter backers for a tour of our labs and studios and the first look at our new developments. Stay tuned for updates and pictures from the tours!

Meet the Team - Libby Sommer, Director of Corporate Responsibility
over 3 years ago – Thu, Aug 13, 2020 at 05:29:36 PM

Update: After following shelter-in-place orders at our Bay Area office, we now have a core team back in the lab to do hands-on work with Mylo™ and the Driver Bags. This year has been challenging for many of us, personally and professionally. As with many industries and companies, COVID-19 has shifted our timelines, processes, and beyond. While we feel optimistic for the future and are doing everything we can to aim for a rolling delivery within the 2020 calendar year, we need a bit more time before we can give more specific details. We look forward to sharing those details with you as soon as we have them. We appreciate your support and understanding in these uncertain times.

In this series of updates, we profile some of the team that’s working to bring Mylo™ material to life. These are the mycologists, fungal geneticists, process engineers, and designers who are working day in and day out to bring the Mylo™ Driver Bag to life.

Part 4: Libby Sommer, Director of Corporate Responsibility

At Bolt our goal is to make unprecedented, more sustainable materials that buck the status quo, and yet are highly desirable and functional. We believe that by integrating sustainability into every stage of the product creation and development process, we can develop materials that realize this lofty target. It’s one that we could not reach without the right people, processes, tools and benchmarks along the way. Meet Libby Sommer, our Director of Corporate Responsibility, who is guiding and developing our corporate responsibility strategy and turning it into action.

A key component of Libby’s work is to gather enough information to help our team of engineers, scientists, and product developers make informed choices and prevent trading one problem for another without understanding and weighing the consequences. Making sustainable materials is a complicated and nuanced journey, and Libby helps keep us on the right path.

“We need the vision and aspirational thinking, and we also need the tools and the specific details that help our research, product, and process development teams implement that thinking into their day-to-day work.”

Her interest in sustainability started when, as a child she saw the immediate impact of environmental changes on her parents’ beekeeping business. The family had 2,000 bee colonies located on farmland in western Nebraska. If they weren’t notified ahead of time when crops were sprayed with pesticides, these hazardous chemicals, intended to kill pests, would destroy their beneficial bees. Libby also noticed how changes in the climate affected their business. Less rainfall meant fewer blossoms, and fewer resources for the bees to get nectar to make honey.

“In my childhood,  I thought the way to be an environmentalist was to be an activist – that’s how it showed up in my life. But when I went to college, I saw another way, and that was in the concept of creating competitive advantage by making business more sustainable. Both forms of environmentalism are really necessary, but the latter felt like my life’s calling.”

How did you get started in corporate responsibility?

“I’ve worked for the government, Fortune 500 companies, other publicly traded companies, and as a small business owner. But the common theme throughout my career is business and sustainability and, in particular, Green Chemistry.

I worked at the EPA for 8 years in the Design for the Environment Program, where companies would come to us for recommendations on greener chemicals. They could then use that information to develop or revise their products. A lot of that work was really collaborative. I worked with people across the value chain and with different perspectives, trying to come to agreement on ways of understanding Green Chemistry, and applying Green Chemistry principles to consumer products and product design. That work continued when I went to Nike. As a small business owner, I was a consultant advising different companies on their chemical strategies.”

What made you want to join Bolt?

“At the EPA, I talked a lot about integrating sustainability early in business decision making. I probably gave more than 90 presentations during my 8 years at the EPA, sharing tools to make products more sustainable and enable good choices while creating something people will want. We were giving businesses the information, but it was still up to them to implement those tools.

Also, at well-established companies, the work of a sustainability professional is often to remake systems that already exist. You already have vendors and supply chains that you’re trying to reshape rather than start from the ground up. The opportunity to build anew is something you don’t really get when you work for a larger company. Getting into the nitty gritty of how to do things right from the start is really where I ultimately wanted to be.

At Bolt, with its mission to make more sustainable products, this idea is fundamental to our existence. How we think about the chemical impacts, the life cycle impacts, the social aspects, including the labor and workforce, is equally important to what we’re making and how desirable it is. It’s part of what we’re doing from the start. Coming to Bolt meant I could move away from preaching and actually walk the talk.”

What is your approach to sustainability for Mylo?

“My job is to think holistically, looking across the whole lifecycle from the beginning to end, from the grow stage to how we process mycelium to the end of life. We use sustainability tools as early as possible while we’re developing Mylo™to identify those impacts and make informed choices. I also help determine what significant factors we should focus on and what sustainability goals we’ve set for Mylo™.

There’s been a lot of work done in the Green Chemistry field to create tools that help us gather and analyze data on toxicology. A Life Cycle Assessment is usually applied after the fact, but it really should be applied earlier, while the product’s being made. I bring those tools forward in more of a prospective application than retrospective application.”

What is your advice to other companies who want to create a better future for our planet?

“Start with what you can influence, and start with small wins. Use both of those ideas to build momentum. I think sometimes when we start, we get intimidated by the magnitude of the problems that are out there, and feel confused about where to go. And I think we all need the small wins initially to feel a sense of purpose and commitment to continue the work of sustainability and making a better future for our planet and ourselves.

There’s another piece that I articulate more when I speak to individuals, which is that we can get wrapped up in these small issues like, ‘What kind of shopping bag should I use? Is it better for me to use a cloth reusable bag or recycled polyester bag?’ I want to encourage individuals and companies to ask themselves, ‘Is this going to make the biggest difference? Can I make a bigger impact, for example, by advocating with my elected officials, and voting in local, state, and federal elections?’ There’s an element of significance that I really encourage companies and individuals to think about in terms of sustainability.”

To learn more about the team behind Mylo™, stay tuned for our next update!

COVID-19 Update - A Message to Our Community
over 3 years ago – Fri, Jul 31, 2020 at 11:05:57 PM

Dear Kickstarter Community,

Recent days have been marked by uncertainty for all of us. Our hearts go out to our community members throughout the world who are impacted by COVID-19 and we are grateful for the medical professionals and others on the front lines of the pandemic. We hope that you are staying safe and healthy, and are taking every measure in protecting your health and the health of those around you.

At Bolt, we are doing everything possible to take part in keeping our staff safe and in limiting the spread. As you may have heard, the Bay Area is under “shelter in place” orders until mid-April. For the moment, that means that our offices and labs in Emeryville, CA will remain closed until the order is lifted. Our team is working remotely, and actively looking for ways to support our community by donating PPE and supporting local organizations.

As the situation develops in the US and overseas, it will be some time until we have a clear understanding of how this pandemic will affect Mylo™ production and the timeline of this project. One thing is for certain - we are doing what we can to keep the delivery of your products on track for 2020. We will keep you updated on any new developments and appreciate your support and understanding in these uncertain times.

As our CEO, Dan Widmaier, recently said in a company email:

“If we commit to supporting each other, we will get through the tough times ahead, and come out the other side together.”

Please stay safe, stay healthy, and stay positive.