IFLY DESIGNS RECYCLES TENNIS TRASH INTO TENNIS BAGS
Women-owned and Operated Company Makes Tennis Bags from Windscreen and Net
Atlanta, GA — Ana Hawk and Linda Moser of Alpharetta, Georgia play year-round tennis in the largest recreational tennis city in the world, Atlanta. They saw first-hand the number of tennis court owners that use and dispose of windscreen every few years. Windscreen is an open-weave material that is attached to chain link fences to provide wind protection during play. Thousands of clubs and parks also throw away thousands of tennis nets as they become worn, mostly at the bottom where they drag on the ground. There is no known count on the number of courts in the country, but the city of Atlanta boasts more than 200 in public parks alone. One court maintenance company in Atlanta replaces 500 nets annually. This same company sends 50,000 linear feet of windscreen to the dump each year. Looking for a way to use their art backgrounds, and to reuse this tennis trash, Ana and Linda formed a company to design and produce tennis bags using the old windscreen and net.
Ifly Designs produces two styles of bags. The Tiebreaker bag is made of 90% recycled materials and comes in one color, windscreen green. The other bag, known as the Matchpoint, is made of colorful drapery-weight fabrics and is fully lined and bottom-reinforced with recycled windscreen. Both styles have pockets surrounding the entire bag made of recycled tennis net.
More than 80,000 people play tennis in the Atlanta area. That can amount to tens of thousands of cans of balls opened every week. Ifly Designs reuses both the cans and the balls. Recycled balls are cut and fitted with glass inserts to produce tea light candleholders. The candleholders are sold in sets of three, repackaged in tennis ball cans. The cans are also relabeled and used as packaging for the company’s original tennis logo shirts and accessories.
“I really love my tennis bag! Have had lots of compliments on it too.” — web customer
“. . . a stylishly sporty line that turns trash into tennis treasure” — Points North, July 2008
“ . . . thank you for the very cool recycled tennis bag and candleholders..” — silent auction
“Ifly is transforming materials once destined for the garbage heap into stylish tennis items.” — Ken Bomar, NetNews, March/April 2008
Ifly Designs, llc was formed in July of 2006 to produce fashionable and functional tennis gifts from tennis court discards. Ifly Designs products are available directly from the company’s website at www.iflydesigns.com.
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If you would like more information, email us at iflydesigns@comcast.net.
