Beat the Bag Tax with Ohyo and Felix Conran

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Ohyo BagThe makers of Ohyo, the collapsible reusable water bottle, originally named “Aquatina”, together with designer Felix Conran bring us now a new product that will not just be something to beat the plastic bag tax hits England on October 5, 2015, but that will also eliminate the use for a multitude of other bags.

The plastic bag tax hits England on October 5th when shoppers will be charged 5p per bag and Ohyo and Felix Conran have teamed up to produce a neat solution to this, namely the Ohyo Bag.

The UK-made Ohyo Bag is a bag that can you use every day for different uses but which can expand to accommodate your groceries. It is something of a transformer bag as it is:

• a tablet bag that increases in size to hold your gym kit.

• a travel bag that gets bigger to accommodate those last minute purchases.

• a backpack that adjusts for a long or short trip.

So, the Ohyo Bag is smart, desirable and can adapt to whatever the day throws at you and it truly is a case (or bag) of one size fits all.

Ohyo Bag launches on Kickstarter in late September with deliveries expected for Christmas. bit.ly/KickstartOhyoBag

Felix Conran, designer of the Ohyo Bag said “When Guy came to me with this problem, I was excited about creating a design that was both adaptable and desirable. The result is clever and surprisingly simple; the utility strips coupled with the gorgeous split rings allow you to make the OHYO bag yours!”

Although famously rejected by the dragons on the BBC programme Dragons’ Den (UK’s Shark Tank equivalent) for his original invention, Ohyo the Collapsabottle, Guy is delighted to have proved them wrong with the Ohyo’s widespread customer appeal, 700,000 sales to date, commercial success and international distribution.

“There’s only one thing worse than a bag of plastic bags under your sink, and that’s a bag of re-usable bags that you never remember to take with you. I invented Ohyo Bag to adapt to whatever the day throws at you.”

Ohyo (www.ohyo.me) manufacture Ohyo the Collapsabottle in Sheffield and manage the Find-a-Fountain campaign to promote free water sources in the UK – for more information visit www.findafountain.org

Guy Jeremiah, inventor of Ohyo the Collapsabottle, is also the inventor of the Ohyo Bag. Guy was famously slated by Duncan Bannatyne on Dragon’s Den, who threw the bottle back at him in rage. Guy’s more than delighted to have proved the dragons wrong. The bag has been designed by Felix Conran, a London designer and a third generation of the well-known Conran Design family.

The Ohyo Bag, designed by Felix Conran in London, is manufactured in London by Jas Sehmbi at Jas MB Ltd, and the bags are expected to retail at £79, however early bird purchases will be available on Kickstarter for £59.

A great concept as it does away with the need for multiple bags, which is a win-win situation itself, and it also means less stuff.

Once samples are available I hope to be able to give this bag a thorough testing and review it in the virtual pages of this magazine.

© 2015