Whilst we look for manufacturers closer to home, we also work with factories in the far east who we have a long standing relationship with. We rely on them for helping create our samples and ensuring our bags are the best possible quality in relation to the price we sell them to you, our end customers.
I've talked a lot about the design inspiration of our Neon range but now i'd love to share with you a bit about the manufacturing process.
The bags are made in separate stages. First the fabric is cut to the pattern size in thick piles. The blades are really sharp and can cut many layers of fabrics at the same time. Our fabrics are coated with waterproof coatings which ensures that the bags stay weatherproof.
The reflective strips are an important part of the design. They are stitched onto all the sides of the bags so that the bag can be highly visible when riding at night in the dark. The reflective strips that we use is quite retro with the layerings, i really like these for their retro look.
This is the eyelet station: we add eyelets onto the side pockets of the rolltop backpacks. This was because we got some customer feedback that if its raining really hard, the side open pockets could get filled with rain due to the fabric being waterproof. This is an example of a product design improvement that came directly from customer feedback.
The factory is laid out in the way that best suits the processes involved. In this case the process of cutting off frayed edges from panels before joining them best suits sitting on a stool and cutting the off cuts directly onto the floor to be collected later.
Here is a basket of padded laptop pockets which are made with foam inside and added to the inside construction of the bag. The lining material of our bags is a signature black (dark blue) and white fine stripe, the fabric is a water resistant nylon which is wipe clean. For anyone who has had a little lunch accident in their bags you know this type of fabric comes in handy.
In the above photo you can see the making of the back panel of our neon market shopper. She is currently stitching on the webbing that is used to hold the clips that attach the bag to the bicycle. (the pannier rack fixings). Have a look at the finished product HERE.
It takes a lot of experience with running these machines to perfect the stitching and processes involved in making a bag. Many of the people who work in the factories that we use have been making bags for a long time, they are experienced and expert machinists.
The front panels of our PINK NEON ROLLTOP BACKPACK PANNIER are pictured here above. Obviously all the edges are still visible before they get stitched into the seams. I love the clashing vibrancy of the neon yellow alongside the neon pink. We really had to take a gamble on this colourway so we really hope that you, our customers like this range too. Here is a photo of the full range we have launched this colourway with.
Here is the full range of bags that we have launched initially. Due to constraints we had to scale bags some of the other bags and colours we wanted to include, but we are so happy to this little range which includes our best selling roll top backpack, the saddle bag and our brand new rolltop handlebar bag and super spacious tote bag.