Subaru Creates Durable, Reusable Shopping Bags From Discarded Airbag Material

For that extra mileage during grueling errand runs, ditch your everyday object-inspired designer bag for a practical option crafted from components used in actual cars.

Subaru is switching lanes for a moment and is designing eco-tote bags from leftover airbag fabric that would have ordinarily been disposed of. The detour is actually part of a wider upcycled merchandise array by car part manufacturer Toyoda Gosei, which comes under the Toyota Group. Notably, Toyota also owns a 20% share of Subaru, according to Autoblog.

The new white bags are adorned with reflective, hi-vis stripes in the Subaru Tecnica International (STI) colors of red or blue.

More importantly, they’re built from the special nylon fabric that makes up vehicle airbags, which is designed to survive years’ worth of heating cycles and resist fire and water damage. This means these totes are naturally much hardier than the usual polypropylene reusable bags.

As a curious feature, the resilient bags have a wide mouth to adequately hold a towel and Japanese cypress tub, making them ideal for trips to hot springs. At the same time, thanks to their heat-resistant airbag material, they won’t melt in the onsen.

As implied above, the airbag-bags are, sadly, only available in Japan for now, for a price of ¥2,500 (US$18.50).

[via Autoblog and Motor1.com, images via various sources]