Luggage

We’ve been working toward this design for decades, no joke.  Back in 97, a customer approached us with an antique which had been made in 1932, and that he had been using since 1968 when he had found it second hand in a little shop in Vancouver.  The unique character that we wished to include in the redefinition of this original, was the Doctor’s Bag hardware with hinges and a frame, that when open, held it’s shape, and allowed full sight and access to the internals. We searched our suppliers catalogues, referenced historic samples of this concept from vintage stores, and consulted tool and die manufacturers to no avail.  

As our Travel Bag had evolved to having fold out triangles, like a wrapper on a present, so that when opened it achieves full sight and access, it further inspired two new approaches to solving the question of how to close the lid.  Our Toiletries Kit received the first, adding steel rods, utilizing the leather as the hinge, allowing for a formed, fully open, mouth.  Then, secondly our new Hybrid Pack repeats the double triangles, folding down as opposed to up like the Travel Bag (this is done on the Travel for the simple reason that it allows for a Shoulder Strap anchor).   

Our new Grip combines these in adding a much stouter steel rod to hold shape and say “ahhhhhhhh”.  This allows the bag to pop open, and hold its form.  It also adds to the appearance and structure when the zipper has been zipped.  There is no hinge to fail, or wear through the leather, as commonly happened on some other historic versions of this concept.

So finally, the very handsome, WideMouth Grip