A few days ago, while I was scrolling through Instagram, I came across a news item about some special bags. They were made with lego pieces! And not only that, the people who made them were special people who I am more than sure have more than a few of the necessary competences to be part of our P.E. community.
This is the Bag&Block brand, which started more than 20 years ago in France.
BAG&BLOCK’s goal is to involve as many people with severe and long-term mental illnesses as possible in the different production processes of our bags; to this end, we collaborate with organisations that guide this group in developing a professional career that will help them in their integration into society.
The team behind this idea is Fundación Intras and Salud Mental Zamora. This Foundation is a non-profit organisation created in 1994. It has a team of almost 600 professionals, who accompany people with mental health problems in the recovery of their life projects. They offer different professional services to meet their needs. They work in 6 provinces of Castilla y León (Valladolid, Zamora, Salamanca, Burgos, Palencia and Ávila), in Madrid and in a network with entities all over Europe through the development of projects.
One of the products made by people with mental health problems is a type of bag that is sustainable, resistant, very original and handmade with a lot of patience. To make them, they first create a flexible and resistant framework with lego blocks, then they place the metal pieces and, finally, they join the sides with threads and place the inner lining. One of Bag&Block’s objectives is to create bags with a different type of material to what we are used to, and to propose a new concept of personalisation where each customer can give free rein to their creativity by changing their bag whenever they wish.
You have to know that nowadays the production of a bag takes an average of five hours of work and that when they started to produce, back in 2006, the average number of hours was 40. Since then, many tests, prototypes and improvements have been carried out until reaching what we can acquire today, quality, sustainability, originality and comfort.
The technique of producing bags is safe for the people who make them and is also a way of keeping them busy while helping them to keep their psychomotor system active.
There are many models, just have a look here or here, and even almost from scratch to make your favourite model, just enter here and here, and get your imagination going. Also, you should know that the Bag&Block bags allow you to put on and take off lego blocks so you can adapt the bag to whatever you are wearing at the time and give free rein to your creativity. Oh, and the pieces are also compatible with Megablock and other standard brands.
If you want more information, I invite you to visit their website, their Instagram account or their facebook account.
By the way, it’s already April and Easter is just around the corner.