Topiku

The Story

In 2014, while working at a non-profit in his home country of Indonesia, our founder Monty Hasan was given the opportunity to visit local villages and meet with artisans who crafted bags from upcycled materials. This inspired him to create TOPIKU. Our hats are each handcrafted from upcycled and recycled waste materials, salvaged from landfills, that would otherwise add to Indonesia’s ever-growing problem of waste management. Why does trash have to look like trash? We create one-of-a-kind hats that tell our three-part mission of sustainability: ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION With each product, we carefully evaluate appropriate alternative material sources. Buckets are salvaged from landfills and recycled into brims. Leather scraps are collected from local businesses and then recut into patches and straps. Fabrics are upcycled directly from garment manufacturers' leftover or deadstock textiles. This process allows us to divert material from ending up in landfills. Since we don’t order any new fabrics, we eliminate the need for the energy- and water-intensive stages of fiber, yarn, fabric, and dyeing production – Reducing our carbon footprint by over 80%. By encouraging our manufacturers to reuse waste materials, they can begin to reevaluate what waste truly is. To further cement our environmental impact, in Indonesia, we sponsor the cost of health insurance for 14 trash pickers and fund waste management education programs through our partner Waste4Change. ARTISAN EMPOWERMENT We utilize ethical craft rather than "sweatshop" garment factories commonly employed by fast-fashion brands across the world by collaborating with local home industries in the village of Cigondewah in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia. Home industries allow men and women to work from the comfort of their own home, participate in a closely-knit community, and provide them a platform to share their craft through their specialized skills. Our community of hat-makers are the only employer of women in the Desa Rahayu neighborhood in Cigondewah. We offer both men and women equitable work opportunities and pay them a living wage of almost double the local minimum wage. Our commitment to industrial ecology will form the basis for long-term sustainable environmental, social, and economic growth in these developing communities. CULTURAL HERITAGE Batik is a unique Indonesian wax-dyeing art form that has been practiced for centuries. We purchase excess batik cuts from Danar Hadi that otherwise would have been disposed of, and incorporate them into our hats. By doing so, we hope to share the beauty of this traditional art form as well as promote cultural story-telling patterns that add more meaning to each hat. Who needs polka dots when you can have mega mendung?