GearDefy Bags
Defy Bags, sleek messenger and courier bags, sleeves, and wallets made nearly entirely of reappropriated materials, are constructed with an attention to craftsmanship often forgotten and lost in this instant gratification, prepackaged, consumer based post modern condition. The company motto of “Old Materials. New Ideas” infects every aspect the bags. Hand made with sturdy industrial sewing machines – blacked with cast metal, and powered by exposed pulley belts of stark brown leather – Defy Bags are imbued with the spirit of America’s industrial heyday. Perhaps being fashioned from reused and repurposed tarps, belts, and canvases from that heyday serves as a subtle and poetic eulogy.
Proprietor Chris Tag started the Chicago based company in 2008, drawing from childhood experiences in Dayton, Ohio, where he witnessed the waning days of a proud manufacturing era in this nation. “My neighborhood’s dads were: engineers, metallurgists & mechanics. I was just surrounded by people who knew, seemingly since birth, how to fix, repair, or make things,” he describes.
The progenesis of the idea came as Tag, creative director for a major Chicago advertising firm, already frustrated with the seeming futility of spending months on a thirty second commercial spot, only to have the effort disappear in two weeks, saw a fourteen by forty eight foot test run vinyl billboard heaved into the trash. The proverbial light bulb went off. He decided to cram the huge, improperly and vividly colored vinyl sheave into his Mini Cooper. Teaching himself to sew at night, after putting in seventy hour weeks at work, Tag produced a prototype bag of crude stitching and loud colors. He continued on this path, improving sewing techniques, seeking advice and tips from Chicago area sewing companies, and dismantling dozens of military surplus bags. With each attempt at constructing a bag out of reused materials, Chris Tag did so with an intention of inserting that Dayton ethos of creation and manufacture he knew from his childhood.
Validation came – after long hours of studying and reverse engineering, and reincarnating old materials – a few bags were sold to coworkers at the advertising firm Tag was working for, and even a few fellow commuters on the Metra train. The business was born. He amassed literally tons of military surplus tarps, bicycle tubes, and other accoutrements in his basement, till the supply outgrew his space. A spot in a warehouse building with a history of manufacturing – including narrative of an alleged sweatshop once residing in the very space to be occupied – was procured.
The enduring equipment in his shop – from those iconic sewing machines to the caddies of marred wooden slats holding supplies – breathes new life into cast off materials. There is certainly not a lack of resources in the detritus of this post modern era. When asked about the future of Defy Bags, Tag spoke of exciting developments including sketch books filled with design options, distribution with a major U.S. retailer for 2012, and exportation of this tangible reinvigoration of American ingenuity around the globe. That, in effect, is defiant.
Defy Bags: Old Materials. New Ideas. from Jerry Rig on Vimeo.
Reader Comments (1)
Cool posting! We love Defy bags.
Shop Defy bags online at CITY SOLES and at our boutique in Wicker Park Chicago!