At Ibis Cycles, bikes are built for the long haul. Their carbon fiber bike frames are designed to be ridden hard, repaired often, and kept on the trail for years.
But for a company rooted in the outdoor landscapes around Santa Cruz, California, it became harder to ignore the disconnect between products built to last and packaging designed to be thrown away in minutes. That realization sparked a rethink of the bike box itself.
We spoke with Hans Heim and the Ibis team about redesigning their packaging from the ground up, eliminating plastic foam and zip ties with solutions like corrugated design and FibreStrap, and why meaningful sustainability progress often starts with small, practical changes.
Q (A New Earth Project): Ibis bikes are designed to last for years, sometimes decades. Why did packaging become part of that conversation?
A (Hans with Ibis Cycles): Because if you’re serious about making products for the outdoors, you can’t ignore what surrounds the product, especially the stuff that gets thrown away immediately.
We spend an incredible amount of time designing bikes that are durable, repairable, and meant to be ridden for a long time. It started to feel inconsistent that those bikes were arriving wrapped in foam, plastic, and zip ties that had no real end‑of‑life path. The bike might last 10 or 15 years, but the packaging could last hundreds.
At some point, that mismatch becomes hard to ignore.
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Q: What were the biggest problems with traditional bike packaging?
Hans: There were a few. First, waste, and lots of it. Foam, plastic wrap, zip ties, mixed materials. Most of it ends up in a dumpster behind a bike shop.
Second, efficiency. Historically, bikes were shipped as boxes of parts, which meant hours of assembly time for dealers. Even as the industry moved toward shipping bikes more assembled, the packaging itself often became more complicated, not less.
And third, the experience. Bike shops care deeply about the environment. Mechanics don’t love opening box after box of plastic that has nowhere to go. We saw an opportunity to improve that daily experience.
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Q: When you started this project, what were the non-negotiables?
Hans: No plastic foam. No unnecessary plastic. And no damaged bikes.
Those three things don’t usually go together, especially when you’re shipping a high‑end, mostly assembled carbon bike. But that was the challenge we wanted to take on.
We weren’t interested in a symbolic solution. It had to work in the real world. So we used vibration testing and drop testing at Atlantic's Packaging Solution Center to simulate long‑haul shipping and all the abuse that happens between our warehouse and a shop floor.
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Q: How did FibreStrap come into the picture?
Hans: Zip ties are one of those things that feel insignificant until you realize how many you use.
There might only be a few in each box, but when you’re shipping hundreds or thousands of bikes a year, it adds up fast. We’d been looking for an alternative for a long time, honestly close to 20 years.
When we saw FibreStrap, it immediately clicked. It wasn’t just a replacement, it was a signal. When a mechanic opens a box and sees a fiber‑based tie instead of plastic, the message is clear: these people thought about this.
That matters.
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Q: Some people see changes like that as “small wins.” Why do they matter to you?
Hans: Because small wins are how change actually happens.
If you wait for the perfect, all‑encompassing solution, you’ll never do anything.
FibreStrap might seem like a small piece of the system, but it normalizes a better alternative. Once people see it, they start asking why plastic zip ties are still the default.
That’s how momentum builds.
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Q: This packaging ships bikes up to 75% assembled. How did that influence the design?
Hans: It made everything harder — and better.
Shipping a mostly assembled bike means you’re dealing with tight dimensional constraints, shipping costs, weight limits, and protection challenges all at once. You can’t just add more material when something doesn’t work.
So the design became very intentional. Every corrugated component has a purpose. Parts are grouped in the order a mechanic needs them. Components are isolated to prevent abrasion. Almost everything is curbside recyclable.
The goal was to make the unboxing feel calm instead of chaotic.
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Q: Who were you designing this packaging for, ultimately?
Hans: The shop mechanic.
They’re the ones opening the box. They’re the ones dealing with the waste. They’re the ones trying to get bikes built and on the floor quickly.
We think of packaging as a form of nonverbal communication. If you can make someone’s job easier without saying a word, that says a lot about your values.
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Q: Sustainable packaging often gets criticized for being expensive or impractical. How did you think about that trade‑off?
Hans: If it’s not financially sustainable, it’s not sustainable at all.
We could design a beautiful, plastic‑free package that costs a fortune to ship, but then it wouldn’t scale. That doesn’t help anyone.
So there was a lot of iteration. Spreadsheets, testing different configurations, balancing assembly level with shipping dimensions. The final solution had to protect the bike, reduce waste, and still make business sense.
That balance is where the real work is.
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Q: Has the packaging stayed the same since launch?
Hans: Not at all. And that’s intentional.
We’ve already made running changes based on dealer feedback. Reinforced handholds. Slightly thicker corrugate in certain areas. Small adjustments that make a big difference once the boxes are out in the world.
It’s the same way we design bikes. You launch, you listen, and you keep improving. Sustainability isn’t a finish line, it’s a process.
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Q: What do you hope this project signals to the broader industry?
Hans: That sustainable packaging doesn’t have to be an exception.
This isn’t a one‑off marketing project. It’s a working system that ships real bikes, every day, without plastic foam or zip ties. If we can do it, others can too.
We don’t expect perfection — from ourselves or anyone else. But we do think it’s time to move in the right direction, consistently.
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Q: If there’s one takeaway you want people to have, what is it?
Hans: Progress matters. You don’t have to solve everything at once. But you do have to start. And once you start, you have a responsibility to keep going.
For us, this packaging finally feels aligned with who we are. And that feels really good.
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Learn more about FibreStrap here along with our custom corrugated design and Packaging Solution Center.
Explore Ibis Cycles and choose your ride with them today!