Operating as Madlug C.I.C. (Community Interest Company) based in Portadown, Ireland, the social enterprise manufactures and sell its full range of bags, backpacks, and everyday accessories. It upholds its core founding mandate: "Buy One, Wear One, Help One". For every bag purchased by a customer, Madlug gives a specially designed, unbranded pack-away travel bag to a child or young person in the UK and Irish care systems.
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│ Madlug Enterprise Profile │
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│ Legal Entity │ MADLUG C.I.C. (Community Interest Company) │
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│ Headquarters │ Portadown / County Armagh, Northern Ireland, UK │
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│ Trading Status │ Active & Trading (Founded 2015) │
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│ Business Model │ One-for-One Social Enterprise (Buy One, Give One) │
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│ Core Impact │ Providing unbranded travel bags to children in care to │
│ │ replace the use of black bin bags during placement moves│
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│ Key Milestones │ Over 135,000+ giving bags distributed into care systems │
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Madlug was founded in 2015 by Dave Linton, a former youth worker with over two decades of experience working with young people across Northern Ireland. While working in youth ministry and engaging with the foster care sector, Linton learned an alarming, widespread industry reality: when children in care are moved between foster homes, residential units, or emergency placements, local authorities and social services rarely provide proper luggage.
Instead, children are routinely forced to pack their personal belongings—clothing, childhood toys, photographs, and keepsakes—into black plastic trash bags or disposable shopping bags.
Linton recognized that carrying one's life in a trash bag severely strips a young person of their dignity, conveying a heartbreaking message that their possessions—and by extension, their lives—are disposable. Driven by the core conviction that "no child should carry their life in a bin bag," Linton set out to create a sustainable solution. Armed with just £500 of personal savings and zero prior background in manufacturing or retail, he launched Madlug—short for Make A Difference Luggage.
The Madlug Story
Inspired by early social enterprise pioneers like TOMS Shoes, Linton structured Madlug as a self-sustaining commercial business rather than a charity dependent on grants or donations. The organization operates a "Buy One, Wear One, Help One" model tailored specifically for care-experienced youth:
Customer Purchase: A customer buys a backpack, roll-top, tote, or accessory from Madlug’s retail website or through corporate bulk orders.
Dedicated Giving Bag: The profit from that sale funds the production and distribution of a specially engineered Pack-Away Travel Bag.
Discreet Distribution: The giving bags are delivered directly into the hands of health and social care trusts, local authorities, foster agencies, and care-leaver charities across the UK and Ireland.
Preserving Dignity: The giving bags fold down into a compact, pocket-sized pouch so social workers can easily store hundreds of them in office cupboards. When opened, they expand into durable, spacious holdalls. Crucially, the giving bags are kept unbranded so children aren't visibly singled out or labelled as "care kids" when moving between placements.
Rather than relying on sympathy purchasing, Madlug competes directly in the retail, urban lifestyle, and corporate merchandise sectors by offering high-quality, functional gear.
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│ Madlug Commercial Product Range │
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│ Product Line │ Description & Target Audience │
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│ Core Backpacks │ Classic 14L and 20L daypacks, Roll-Top rucksacks, │
│ │ urban commute bags, and outdoor technical packs [1.2.4].│
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│ Kids & Pre-School │ "Little Madlugger" collection designed for younger │
│ │ primary and pre-school students [1.2.4]. │
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│ Travel & Daily │ Crossbody sling bags, duffel bags, Sandstone totes, │
│ │ laptop cases, and travel organizers [1.1.3, 1.2.4]. │
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│ Apparel & Gear │ T-shirts, sweaters, beanies, caps, water bottles, and │
│ │ insulated lunch coolers [1.2.4]. │
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│ Corporate B2B │ Custom co-branded backpacks for businesses, schools, │
│ │ & events (e.g. GRAHAM Construction, IKEA) [1.1.1, 1.2.1]│
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The B2B corporate sector has become a major engine for the company's growth. Organizations purchase co-branded Madlug backpacks for employee onboarding, conferences, or corporate gifts, which allows companies to fulfill corporate social responsibility (CSR) goals while funding large volumes of giving bags for local health trusts.
Madlug operates legally as a Community Interest Company (C.I.C.), meaning its assets and profits are legally locked to benefit its core social purpose.
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│ The Three Layers of Madlug Impact │
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│ 1. Direct Bag Donations │
│ • Over 135,000+ unbranded travel bags provided to children in care [1.2.4]│
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│ 2. Advocacy & Policy Reform │
│ • Raising national awareness around the treatment of care-experienced │
│ youth and encouraging local councils to ban bin bag moves [1.2.1]. │
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│ 3. Care Leaver Employment & Opportunity │
│ • Providing work experience, skills training, and employment for young │
│ people transitioning out of the care system into independence. │
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Through its public advocacy campaigns, corporate partnerships (including collaborations with major international brands), and relentless grassroots outreach, Madlug has successfully shifted the conversation around care-experienced youth across the UK. It stands as a prime example of how a purpose-led social enterprise can generate sustainable commercial revenue while solving a deeply human, often overlooked societal issue.