It’s that time of year. You know the one. The time when gift guides are running rampant across the internet and all over the pages of lifestyle magazines. The time when a phrase so rarely uttered for the rest of the year – What do you get for the person who has everything? – becomes the question du jour. It’s also the time of year when, in pre-emptive answer to that question, production goes into overdrive; when a slew of senseless items that are bad for the planet – and, as it happens, also just plain bad – come barreling into warehouses across the world and into homes of lucky recipients.

Until, that is, the day – a month or two down the line at most – when they break. Or they’re out of fashion. Or they’re just not wanted anymore.

Low-impact, London-based design studio Oliver Co. is asking a different question, though: the more imperative, What do we do to stop this? And, in doing so, have put forward a neat solution in more ways than one.

With the release of a new MIRUM® key holder – which comes in classic black and tan colorways – the label has put a more sustainable twist on an item that continually tops the “classic” section of those aforementioned gift guides. But which – given that, as they say, “it comes but once a year” – is designed for everyday life, regardless of the season.

A product with enduring necessity – we’ve all got keys, right up until the moment we don’t and suddenly wish we had one of these – the key holder is crafted for function, designed for form, and built to last. Most importantly, though, it’s constructed from MIRUM® – Natural Fiber Welding’s animal-free leather alternative.

Described by its creators as boasting a “luxurious hand feel,” being “highly durable,” and topping all that off with “uncompromising style,” opening the high-end, small leather goods market to MIRUM® might well be a first step in challenging the stranglehold which animal-based materials have tightened over the years; a refutation to the industry’s claims to sole ownership over quality and staying power.

We’re not saying this product will change the world. But it might change some minds and maybe move the dial even just a little. That Oliver Co. prides itself on “sustainability without compromise” seems like a pretty convincing starting point.

You can purchase the MIRUM® Key Holder now on olivercompanylondon.com.

For more on Natural Fiber Welding‘s plans for a plastic-free future, take a listen to our most recent Progress Over Perfection podcast. Or, while we’re on the subject of animal-free materials, check out why PETA is offering $1 million USD for a vegan wool.