NEW IN: Simplicity Rucksack – How a question became a backpack
“What does a backpack look like that you never want to put down again?” I asked myself that question a year ago, having no idea how hard it would be to answer.
Because I actually ask myself that every day, just the other way around. MARAI was born from a sense of wonder that hides are burned when they could become leather that lasts for decades. Once you start down this path, you cannot help but ask with every new piece: Will this endure? Is it truly needed? Or will it just become something else that someone throws away in five years?
The things I’ve kept the longest are stripped back to what matters most. For them, that means the material and the form shaped by it. A cup I reach for every morning because it rests comfortably in the hand and the material has only grown more beautiful with time. A wool sweater that has been there every winter for a decade because it keeps me warm without asking for anything more. What remains has to be all the better for it.
And perhaps that is where the real beauty lies: in not constantly replacing things, but giving them the time to live alongside us. In knowing that a material doesn't stay the same, but softens, deepens in tone, and catches the light where your hands touch it most. Years from now, you will still see the places it has walked with you.
Easier said than designed, of course. For a whole year, the backpack lived on my table in various forms. It grew narrower, then wider again. Softer, then more architectural. Every time I took something away, the rest had to carry more. And eventually, there was nothing left to strip away without it ceasing to be a backpack.
I wanted it to do just that: to be taken along, every single day. On the way to work, to the train, out for a walk in nature, or away for the weekend… Nothing complicated. A piece you reach for without even thinking. And one that, with every passing year, looks a little more like you.
A leather backpack for everyday life – the Simplicity by MARAI.
Simplicity Backpack
Our answer to all these thoughts is the Simplicity backpack. A companion that wants to be precisely what you truly need through the rhythm of the days: quiet, enduring, naturally present. One you reach for in the morning light and love just as deeply when the evening arrives.
An upright, slender shape. A generous interior. Two brass snap buttons. Inside, there is room for a laptop, an A4 notebook, a sweater for later—and everything stays close at hand.
Its shape is clean and calm, never rigid. The sturdy leather lets the backpack stand tall on its own, holding its form even when empty. Worn day in and day out, the leather begins to soften, shaping itself quietly to your life. Over time, it grows more supple, deepening in tone and developing a character entirely its own.
The cowhide is around 2.5 millimetres thick. It is strong enough to carry the backpack and give it its characteristic shape, yet light on the shoulders, and it slowly evolves with time. For me, that is the exact difference between something that merely lasts and something you truly want to keep.
We use vegetable-tanned leather. The hides are a byproduct of food production, coming from organic, biodynamic, and regenerative farms right here in Switzerland. Each piece carries a trace of where it began, unfolding its own story as you use it. On these farms, the land grows more than just grass for the animals: insects thrive in and above the earth, birds nest in the hedges, and wildflowers and shrubs weave between the pastures. It is these small, living ecosystems that breathe life into MARAI for me—knowing a material comes from a circle where so much life already lives.
Tanned with plants in Tuttlingen, just across the Swiss border – there are no tanneries left in Switzerland that can craft this kind of leather. Vegetable tanning takes weeks instead of hours, which is why it has vanished almost everywhere.
Each backpack is crafted in the canton of Bern, where every piece of traceable leather is hand-selected, cut, and sewn. This keeps the origin of the material close, revealing the exact path it travels to become the bag in your hands.
And that is the essence of simplicity: less, but true. A single, good material. A thoughtful shape. And a backpack that doesn't lose its character over the years, but only grows more of it.
Simplicity leather backpack: room inside for everything that walks with you through the day.
I am so glad that the Simplicity backpack is finally finding its way to you after this long year. And I am even more excited to soon see it on your shoulders, accompanying you on your paths, through your small and big adventures – knowing that from now on, it will become a part of your everyday life.
Also available in our warm brown shade — over time, the leather deepens and grows even more beautiful.