The episode in detail
Three social-purpose workshops making cycling accessories
Suzon & Suzette makes all its cycling accessories in France, in three social-purpose sewing workshops. Each one has a different set-up and a different group of workers. In Villeurbanne, a work-integration workshop supports people who are far from employment for six months to a year: sewing is used as a tool to rebuild confidence, establish a working routine and prepare a return to mainstream employment.
The second workshop is a sheltered workplace where 80% of staff are people with disabilities. The working environment is designed around their needs, but the profitability requirement is the same as for an ordinary business. The third, in Vichy, is an entreprise à but d’emploi (EBE, a work-purpose enterprise): it trains people who are far from employment in sewing and offers them a permanent contract at the end of the training.
“Today you can be a profitable company while manufacturing 100% French and 100% social-purpose.”
Adapting production to each workshop
The three workshops do not have the same equipment, the same number of seamstresses, or the same constraints. Suzon & Suzette adapts its production accordingly. In Villeurbanne, the workshop lacked space for a pneumatic machine and struggled with fitting press studs. The co-founders redistributed tasks between workshops rather than forcing an approach that did not fit.
Planning ahead is a rule. No unrealistic deadline pressure is placed on structures where workers’ well-being comes first. Anne-Charlotte and Laetitia schedule production in advance, adjust quantities per workshop and listen to feedback from the ground. The result is a slower but more humane way of manufacturing.
“We really adapt our production to each person. We don’t put these people under stress.”
Zero waste: every fabric offcut has a purpose
Suzon & Suzette’s eco-responsible approach starts with the design of the products themselves. The first accessory, the handlebar muffs, produces fabric offcuts. These offcuts are used to make waterproof saddle covers. The saddle-cover offcuts become skirt-guard clips and ear warmers for adults and children. When the pieces are too small to sew, they go into cushion stuffing in the workshops.
No plastic packaging. Products arrive in shops with a simple paper label, made by a fourth social-purpose workshop. The press studs come from a company located opposite Suzon & Suzette’s offices. Deliveries to shops in Lyon are made by bike. All the fabrics are OEKO-TEX certified, which guarantees the absence of harmful substances.
“All our other accessories were designed from the fabric offcuts of our first product.”
Products designed to last
In a market where fast fashion pushes quick replacement, Suzon & Suzette does the opposite. The co-founders’ own handlebar muffs, made before the company even existed, are still on their bikes three and a half years later. They go through the washing machine. The saddle cover has a drawstring system that fits any saddle size, even after changing bikes. The baby muff works on bike seats, prams and trailers.
The logic is simple: a product that lasts a long time and works in several settings does not just avoid repurchase. It reduces production, transport and waste upstream. It is the most eco-responsible product there is.
“When you buy your pair of muffs, it’s not meant to last a single season. It’s meant to last over time.”
French manufacturing: the limits and the drive to improve
All the manufacturing takes place in France, but not all raw materials can be sourced locally. Coated cotton is not grown in France. The co-founders are aware of this and work to push back the limits: Anne-Charlotte is exploring the possibility of having the cotton coated in France. Research is under way with French plastics manufacturers to industrialise certain parts that are still imported.
The approach is not to aim for perfection, but to keep improving. All suppliers are French. Sourcing is kept as local as possible. And when a local solution does not yet exist, Suzon & Suzette works to create it. The message to future entrepreneurs is clear: 100% French and social-purpose manufacturing does not offer the same margins as offshored production, but it is viable.
“We will never be perfect. No one can be, from start to finish. But we always try to improve.”
