From sculptures made from scraps, to running the company that transforms waste into fashionable functionality. Llandudno-based entrepreneur, Jasper Eales’s latest business venture is all about responsible consumption, empowerment, and making sustainability cool again.
Walking out of his office, Jasper Eales wears navy corduroy pants, a mustard yellow sweater, and a bright orange scarf. Nearly the same hue of orange can be found curving along the sides of almost half of the upcycled backpacks, duffle bags, and totes displayed all around the Sealand Campus store in Hout Bay.
Sealand is Jasper’s most recent entrepreneurial adventure and a tribute to his life of slow, sustainable, and eco-conscious living. It is a business dedicated to “responsibly made gear and apparel” by using repurposed waste and other ethically sourced material to make its products, like the bags on show in the Hout Bay store.
Jasper is passionate about the outdoors. He spends much of his free time in nature’s playgrounds; hiking, surfing, or camping.
“Without the outdoors, I wouldn’t be who I am today and my outlook on life would be completely different,” says Jasper. He is also adamant about translating this passion into his business. As Sealand’s co-founder and creative director, Jasper oversees all of the creative processes in the business – such as product design and digital campaigns.
“I don’t want to put things out there that are irresponsible for people to consume, much less promote that kind of consumption. I want to tread lightly on this planet, with respect, and in the best way possible,” he says.
“I want to tread lightly on this planet, with respect, and in the best way possible.”
Behind his mask, Jasper Eales sports a warm and welcoming smile that reveals his friendly and optimistic nature. PHOTO: Nicola Spingies
Entrepreneurial roots
Jasper grew up in Llandudno, a seaside suburb of Cape Town, with his parents and two brothers. His was an entrepreneurial home, with his parents being the founders of popular local kids clothing brand, Naartjie.
During his childhood, there was business talk in abundance. This inspired Jasper in his adult life to follow a similar creative entrepreneurship route. “Being creative is how I’ve gotten to where I am today,” he says.
He obtained his honors degree in industrial design at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) in 2010 after which he travelled and worked abroad as a freelance furniture designer. In 2012, he dug into his family’s roots and started his first business, Jasper Eales Original.
Jasper’s desk in his office is his own design, taken from his furniture business, Jasper Eales Original. Jasper today continues to focus on creating functional, but beautiful pieces through Sealand. PHOTO: Nicola Spingies
Scraps make way for Sealand
Jasper Eales Original was a small-scale product design firm that focused on “functional yet aesthetically pleasing” pieces of furniture. During his time with Jasper Eales Original, Jasper started making sculptures from his product offcuts and waste materials, and dubbed them Rawbots. “Rawbots taught me the value of what can be created through waste,” he says. “I ended up going to scrapyards to look for things that everyone else thought were waste, but that I saw as valuable components.”
With this in mind, Jasper expressed his interest in getting involved in a project with entrepreneur Mike Schlebach, whose business manufactured bags from old yacht sails. From this partnership, Sealand was founded in 2015. At the time, however, Jasper fell critically ill and had to undergo surgery for a liver transplant in the first quarter of 2016.
That process made him realise that he was “living an upcycled example”, says Jasper. A person has to pass away in order for their organs to be repurposed and used in someone else’s body, he explains. “It taught me the value in repurposed things […] and it made me want to journey alongside the business [Sealand] even more,” Jasper says. Sealand’s mission is purpose-driven and wants to make a positive impact on people and the planet by reducing and repurposing waste and giving it a new value, he adds.
A while later, also in 2016, Sealand launched its first essentials collection at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town. Sealand’s third store opened in the heart of Stellenbosch June 2021. “[Sealand] is still very much centered around this ethos; finding value in waste materials,” Jasper says.
While Mike is no longer part of Sealand, Jasper explains that the two of them were like “two peas in a pod”, because they were leading very similar lifestyles and inspired one another. “We wanted to empower people and create awareness on the impact that people have on the environment. Sealand became an extension of that,” he says.
Jasper is surrounded by memorabilia that reminds him of how he got to where he is today. On his office wall hangs a picture of one of his Rawbots, Stokie, alongside the logo of his current business venture, Sealand. PHOTO: Nicola Spingies
Family matters
Jasper’s passion for the environment, sustainability, and supporting local communities is apparent in his businesses. But he wants to make sure that this also shines through in his family and personal life. Since welcoming their firstborn to the world last year, Jasper and his wife, Alex, try to ensure that their lifestyles are extensions of what they truly believe in and value. “We are teaching our daughter the same thing; to be kind to the planet,” he says.
Because Jasper and Alex share a lot of the same core values of life, they use this to their advantage during their time as parents. “We can lead by example, which I believe is the best and easiest way to teach someone something,” explains Jasper.
In his personal capacity, Jasper has made the mental shift towards “investing in things with longevity in mind” in order to promote sustainable and responsible consumption. As he grows older, Jasper says that he makes an effort to buy items that have been locally made and will last for a lifetime.
At home, he encourages his family to be more aware of buying food and produce that is locally sourced, environmentally responsible and free of non-recyclable packaging. “Our outdoor spaces are becoming more polluted and messed up because people are consuming irresponsibly. For me, that is not an option,” Jasper says.
“Our outdoor spaces are becoming more polluted and messed up because people are consuming irresponsibly. For me, that is not an option.”
Optimistic outlook
Jasper feels that he has yet to reach success. “I am still working towards creating businesses that are profitable and can use that profit for good,” he says. At Sealand, Jasper is focusing on empowering the local community by employing people under good working conditions and making sure that they get paid a living wage.
The company has also partnered with various local organizations as part of its GIVE initiative, which donates a Sealand bag to a learner in the community for every R1 500 spent. This initiative not only plows resources back into communities and keeps waste out of landfills, but it also focuses on developing the skills of Sealand’s employees by ensuring that more products are available for them to produce.
Sealand focuses on reducing its carbon footprint by sourcing materials locally and producing all the products on-site and by hand. At The Sealand Campus in Hout Bay, the design, cutting, and sewing departments are within walking distance of one another. PHOTO: Nicola Spingies
The message that Jasper is trying to get across through his business – that sustainability can look and be cool – is spreading. He is optimistic that “people are slowly starting to become aware of their environmental impact”. Although there is often a type of classism attached to sustainability and having access to resources that have been produced in an environmentally responsible way, Jasper is quick to remind himself that rural communities are often the least wasteful because of the modest ways in which they live, consume and behave.
“You don’t have to own Sealand, for example, to be a Sealander,” says Jasper. “A Sealander is purely someone who is conscious of the things they do and how it affects the environment in their everyday life. Someone who wants to tread lightly on this earth.”
“A Sealander is purely someone who is conscious of the things they do and how it affects the environment in their everyday life. Someone who wants to tread lightly on this earth.”
“You don’t have to own Sealand to be a Sealander,” says Jasper. For this entrepreneur, it’s all about being more conscious of his environmental impact. PHOTO: Nicola Spingies