Freitag's Sweat-Yourself-Shop is a tiny factory for making bags
Swiss brand Freitag has created a shop in Zurich, which is a "micro-factory" where customers can help make their own bag out of recycled tarpaulins.
Named Sweat-Yourself-Shop, the interactive retail space on Grüngasse was designed by Freitag to take their existing customisation options one step further.
The 80-square-metre retail space was originally a standard shop for the brand but has been given a factory-style makeover.
"We were looking for a unique pilot retail experience to reduce used truck tarp leftovers from our factory," explained Freitag.
"With the new shop, customers can get further involved by assembling their bag to their own taste and getting involved in the final production steps," added the brand.
"From now on, Freitag is transferring the final stages of production and the entire responsibility for the bag's design to future owners, in our newly converted micro-factory."
Founded in 1993 by graphic designers Markus and Daniel Freitag, Freitag specialises in practical bags made out of recycled tarpaulins.
Used tarpaulin bought from trucking companies in Europe are cleaned, cut up and fashioned into bags. The material, polyester fabric coated with polyvinyl chloride (PVC), makes for durable and waterproof accessories.
At Sweat-Yourself-Shop, customers can make their own shopper-style bag.
The interiors of the micro-factory are designed to look "functional and industrial", with grey walls and floors. Freitag painted all the machinery in Colour Index industrial green, the brand's signature shade.
A rainbow of tarpaulin panels are clipped to hangers dangling from a looped conveyor belt that runs along the shop's ceiling.
Customers can press a button to power the conveyor belt, bringing more colour choices out from behind windows of frosted glass.
Workshop stations allow them to pick out colours for the main bag and the outer pocket and watch them be cut and stitched together.
"The sheer amount of colour choices for tarp pieces that go into the F718 BUH shopper will probably have our part-time bag makers in the new Sweat-Yourself-Shop perspiring more heavily than the production work itself," joked the brand.
Large windows frame the shop so that passersby can also watch the process from the street.
Sweat-Yourself-Shop is shortlisted for Dezeen Awards 2020 in the small retail interior category, alongside projects including a tiny bakery in Japan and beauty brand Glossier's Seattle shop that's covered in moss.