soulbottles made of stainless steel, produced in China & we are proud

Couldn’t you…?

Almost seven years ago, Georg and I founded soulbottles, and since then, I've used my soulbottle every single day. Of course, it's not exactly the same; I've given my soulbottles away far too often on trips and at events, but I'm at the source and can easily get a new one.

For at home or on longer trips, I take a 1.0l soulbottle, which we were able to produce through crowdfunding in 2016 thanks to you.

But sometimes even I'm not allowed to take my soulbottle with me, for example because certain sports locations generally prohibit glass, and even when I attach the bottle to my backpack while climbing and it bumps against the rock the whole time, the whole thing was too unsafe for me.

So I started looking for stainless steel drinking bottles . Unfortunately, many of them aren't leak-proof, and I didn't usually like the design. Additionally, almost all stainless steel bottles are made in China, and I wasn't entirely comfortable with that, as I found the production conditions mostly unclear.

So we thought about making our own steel bottle that looks like our soulbottle. Same shape, same cap, cool designs—and the perfect companion on the rocks.

Production in Germany: 300€ per bottle?!

Since we sell mainly in Germany and Europe and always try to produce as regionally as possible, our search for manufacturers began here as well.
After phone calls with over 50 companies in Germany, the conclusion was: While a lot of steel is produced and processed in Germany, most companies are highly specialized. For almost all manufacturers, our project involved too much effort, and there was generally almost no interest in "crazy new ideas." Yes, I know, a bottle, super crazy.

I did get a few companies to the point where we at least did the math. However, the production of the various parts of the soulbottle steel would have involved so many different stages that we would have had to ship a stainless steel bottle across the country. With production costs like that, we would have had to bring the soulbottle steel to market for around €300.

Of course this option would have been feasible, but we don't want to make products that no one can afford.

The other option would have been to buy all the machines and do it completely ourselves. However, that would have involved investments in the millions, and that seemed too much even for you crowdfunding heroes.

A cross-border search...

We believe in regional production because it means short distances with low emissions, making it easy for us to visit our manufacturers. We also find most labor standards in Germany and Europe very reasonable. But I'm also realistic and ultimately pragmatic: Our soulbrushes are made from agave, so they're vegan. It grows in Mexico.
The natural rubber in our seals comes from fair production facilities in Sri Lanka because the rubber tree does not grow so well in Germany.

After further research in Italy, Portugal, the UK, and France, among other places, we eventually started talking to companies from China. I was very(!) skeptical at first, but then, through companies like Shift Phones and Hydrophil, I saw that sustainable production is also possible in China (as you can read, for example, in the excellent article by Lina from Loveco).

I then flew to China ( CO2-compensated with PrimaKlima ) and visited factories. I learned that "Made in China" is far from always the same. There are very small companies that pay little attention to safety and working conditions, where some have no windows and workers work overtime every day. Environmental regulations, for example, regarding water and emissions, are not the same in all regions.

Of all the companies I visited, I had a particularly positive feeling about one. It was a medium-sized family business with approximately 150 employees that places great importance on fair pay for its workers.
However, there was still plenty of room for improvement in the areas of working conditions and environmental protection measures. For example, stricter compliance with protective measures such as safety shoes and hearing protection.

But the most important thing for me was seeing their willingness to continuously work on these issues and work with us to achieve improvements. And our manufacturer is totally committed to this. We've set goals together and are now tackling one project at a time.

Yes, and how do the soulbottles get to us?

All that remained was the transport to be sorted out. It's 8,500 km as the crow flies.

To transport products from China to Germany, you can use ships, trucks, planes, or trains. We quickly ruled out air transport by plane and land transport by truck, as both generate a lot of CO2. That's why, for the first delivery, we decided to transport the soulbottles to Germany by train, as resource-efficiently as possible. The distance by train is approximately 10,800 km, and fully loaded trains perform relatively well in terms of their ecological footprint. According to DB Schenker, 270 kg of CO2 emissions are generated per ton of transported goods.

For the transport of the first production this means:

4,500 bottles of 0.488 kg each = 2.196 t = 593 kg CO2

...less than a round-trip flight from Cologne/Bonn to Palma de Mallorca (0.7 tons). We calculate the exact total CO2 emissions from transport and the entire production process and offset them with our partner myclimate . Incidentally, the coronavirus pandemic that began in 2020 made it extremely difficult for us to continue using this mode of transport, so we temporarily switched to shipping. You can find more information about this in the blog article about the soulbottle steel utopia.

“the finish” or: how do we label the new soulmate?

The closure is the same as before – porcelain, stainless steel wire, and natural rubber, all made in Germany. When the stainless steel soulbottles steel arrive, they undergo a final inspection and assembly. So, the correct choice would be

Designed in Berlin.
Partly made in Germany.
Partly made in China.
Assembled in Berlin.

We could have simply made it "Made in Germany," since the final production takes place here . Some manufacturers do that ( e.g., Alfi ), but for us, as much transparency as possible is the better approach.

the Chinese government, weighing up the possibilities and giving the go-ahead for production

There are many things the Chinese government does that don't align with my values ​​at all, such as its treatment of Tibet, freedom of expression, or surveillance. Is that a sufficient reason not to work with a company from that country?

I find this an extremely difficult question, and I believe there are legitimate arguments on both sides. What ultimately convinced me was the balancing of more or less suffering against the impact we can ultimately achieve.

The share we pay to the Chinese government in taxes and customs duties is significantly smaller than what we pay to local people. We help people by providing jobs and by gradually improving existing working conditions. We're also creating another drinking bottle, which we manufacture in the most resource-efficient and transparent way possible. For me, that outweighs the disadvantages. And of course, by producing in China, we now have the opportunity to actively engage in dialogue and make our contribution locally.

If you see things differently and don't feel comfortable purchasing the soulbottles steel, then don't. This is and remains your voluntary purchase decision. And of course, there's still the soulbottle made of glass, made in Germany.

I see our new product as part of the change: behavioral change, sustainable living and saving plastic, transparency in production, intercultural exchange, and better working conditions around the world.

And of course a new climbing companion :)

If you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement, write to hello@soulbottles.com

If you can't get enough of our stainless steel bottles, we now also have matching drinking cups in our range. Whether plain silver or fancy colorful or gold – just one more reason to sip more tap water.