Our Workshop — Made in France

Our Workshop — Made in France

Every POPSTRAP silicone strap is designed in Paris and manufactured in a small family-owned workshop in the Loiret region, 90 minutes south of Paris. Here is what that actually looks like.

The workshop

Our manufacturing partner is a third-generation mold shop. They have been working with silicone and TPE for over 40 years, originally for medical devices (catheter components, surgical seals) and now also for accessories. The facility is small — 12 people, 8 injection machines, a single floor.

The process

Each POPSTRAP strap goes through 6 stages:

  1. Silicone batch mixing. Medical-grade silicone (Shore A 50 hardness) is mixed and degassed on-site to remove air bubbles that could weaken the final product.
  2. Color masterbatch. Pigments are blended in for each colorway. We use only food-contact-certified pigments to ensure skin safety.
  3. Injection molding. Each strap is molded in dedicated POPSTRAP tooling at 180°C. The cage geometry requires ±0.2mm tolerance — we went through three molds before we hit it.
  4. Flash trimming. Excess silicone (flash) is trimmed by hand at the seams. Machine trimming would be faster but leaves visible marks on premium silicone.
  5. Quality control. Every single unit is visually inspected. Random batches go through UV-resistance and tear tests in the on-site lab.
  6. Packaging. Kraft tube + ribbon (the kraft is from Italy, the ribbon is from Lyon).

Why we chose France over Asia

The math does not favor France. A POPSTRAP made in Shenzhen would cost us €4 per unit instead of €40. But we picked the slow road for three concrete reasons:

  • Material quality. French and European silicone-grade specs are tighter, especially on plasticizer content and skin-contact certifications.
  • Geometry tolerance. The cage that wraps the 40mm watch head needs ±0.2mm fit. That is hard to control at high volume.
  • Iteration speed. When we needed to tweak the cage radius mid-production, we drove 90 minutes south of Paris instead of waiting six weeks for a sample shipment.

The certifications

Our silicone is certified to:

  • FDA 21 CFR 177.2600 (food contact safe)
  • ISO 10993-5 (skin contact biocompatibility)
  • REACH compliant (no SVHC substances above 0.1%)

Visit by appointment

If you are seriously curious, we host workshop visits twice a year. Email us to be added to the next list.

Shop Drop 01 • Read the longer Made in France story on our journal