We’ve got some new products in development that we are planning to unveil in the next couple of months and wanted to share them with you first.
We’re branching out of our bag/wallet/case niche and expanding into belts and straps (it’s about time, really – we’ve got lots of seatbelt webbing around the studio).
Here are some photos of the prototypes:
The seatbelt belt.
We picked up a small batch of airplane seat belt buckles and metal end caps for our belts.
The camera strap.
The strap is adjustable, durable, and it looks great, too!
It’s been a while since our last roundup post and we’ve had a bunch of custom orders lately – everything from credit card wallets to messenger bags. Have a look:
The simplest custom job we’ve had in the last few months was a custom color combination for our Classic Credit Card Wallet – black and foliage green.
Jim contacted us about making a variation of our slim mini credit wallet. You can see an example of our standard version here. He wanted an extra row of pockets and a strip of velcro running the full width of the wallet.
We posted photos of Jim’s wallet on our Facebook page and one of our customers saw it and wanted one for himself in red and black.
We have had a couple of recent requests for variations on our ID wallet.
Brett wanted an ID wallet in one of our favorite color combos – grey and foliage green. He also wanted an extra row of card pockets and an extra bill divider.
Matt wanted an ID wallet in custom colors – blues on the outside and purple on the inside. Colorful!
Here’s an orange and black coin pocket wallet in a non-standard height and width (smaller in both dimensions). We overlapped the webbing and trimmed off as much length as we could.
Mathilde wanted a coin pocket wallet with grommet hole in custom colors – blue and yellow.
One of the first bags we made for .retool. was our vegan Weekend Tote Bag. It’s made of 1000D nylon and has interior and exterior slip pockets and a magnetic snap closure. It works great for a quick weekend getaway, a trip to the store, or even for carrying your daily essentials Here are a couple of photos (click to enlarge).
Our original Weekend Bag.
Fully loaded.
We’ve tweaked the design and are working on a small batch of them to bring along to upcoming shows. Next up are the Glen Park Festival in April and Maker Faire in May.
Here’s a rundown of the changes.
New lining material: We’re now using 4oz. pack cloth (commonly used in backpacks) for the lining. It’s light and durable, two things we like.
Pockets: We replaced the interior slip pocket with a zipper pocket in the lining. We added a zipper to the pocket on the front of the bag as well.
Hardware: We switched over to hidden magnetic snaps (they are strong!), changed the hardware from plastic to metal, and added a clip for keys.
It probably would have easier to list what we haven’t changed!
At any rate, we’re having fun with new color combinations and are looking forward to debuting the bags at San Francisco’s Glen Park Festival on Sunday, April 27 from 10 – 4:30pm.
Yesterday I finished up a small batch of nylon billfold wallets in black and red Cordura® nylon. Each wallet has four credit card slots and one pocket for bills.
Here are a few behind the scenes photos (click to enlarge):
Over the past 6 weeks or so we’ve had several custom orders come through. They’ve included custom color/fabric requests as well as tweaks to our standard designs. Here’s a recap (click on the photos to make them bigger):
M-8 Messenger Bag
At the SF Bazaar Holiday Show, we had a customer who was interested in one of our seatbelt messenger bags. He needed a larger size than we had with us at the show and had one more special request – no velcro! So we made him an M-8 messenger bag with an inside pocket and no closure for the flap. The flap is heavy enough to stay closed on its own and we were pretty happy with how the bag turned out.
Credit Card Wallet
We brought a wide selection of our Slim Mini Credit Card Holders to the Renegade Holiday show. Not quite wide enough, as it turns out. We had a special request for a credit card wallet in orange and silver seatbelt webbing with dark gray nylon card pockets.
Toiletry Case
This one was a special request for my good friend and awesome art teacher, Pam. A year or so ago, I gave her a toiletry case with a print I knew she would love. It turns out that her daughter also loves it and keeps trying to run off with it. So Pam ordered a second one for her daughter’s birthday. This one features a flashy red interior and zipper.
Custom smartphone cases
We have a longtime customer who has an unfortunate habit of losing smartphones (and their cases). So far he’s dropped one in the bay and left another on a plane. Last time he ordered from us, he got two custom phone cases, just to have a backup. They are still going strong and now that his partner needs a smartphone for her work, she’s come to us as well. She’s a stagehand and a ranch hand so she needed a case that will stand up to some rough treatment. She decided to get a pair of cases – one to attach to her toolbelt and another that can clip to her pocket.
A pair of phone cases
Smartphone case with loop for tool belt
Smartphone case with belt clip and grommet for extra security
We’ve started on some new wallet and bag models and thought we’d share a couple with you.
During last month’s holiday show season we got several requests for a coin pocket wallet with a grommet for attaching a wallet chain. We already had coin pocket wallets and wallets with grommets, but hadn’t gotten around to making wallets with both features. It’s something we had planned on doing, but just hadn’t found the time for. The good news is that we’ve worked them into the production schedule and have already added a couple to the shop. You can see them here.
We’re also updating our Weekend Bag. We’ve added zippered pockets to the outside and inside and changed the interior fabric to 4 oz. pack cloth. The new version has a hidden magnetic snap closure. Here are some photos of a prototype. Enjoy!
What better way to work through some new bag ideas than to make bags for friends and family. Awesome holiday gifts? Check!
Our standard M-7 messenger bag in Ocean
In our standard seatbelt messenger bag, the strap runs completely around the bag and forms the sides of the bag. Most of our bags have a single interior zippered pocket.
I wanted to see what would happen if I beefed up the design, so I made the bag deeper and added pockets to the inside and outside.
The experiment turned out pretty well and there is a good chance the new version will turn up in the shop in a few months.
Will’s bag
Will’s big bag.
Will likes a big bag. He uses his bag to haul around large amounts of library books, and random stuff he needs throughout the day. I made Will an M-9 (nine strips wide) in Fire aka black with oxblood and cranberry red stripes. It’s actually a little too big of a bag for the current .retool. sewing machines – there was much rolling and folding of the excess material. There may have also been some minor cursing at times.
Side view.
The sides of the bag are two webbing strips wide (a little under 4 inches). I used a contrasting color for the side panels, red for Will’s bag. The shoulder strap wraps all the way around the bag and is stitched securely to the bottom of the bag. I really like the black strip of webbing against the flashier red webbing. And no matter how many heavy books he throws in there, I’m pretty confident that strap isn’t going anywhere!
Pockets!
Under the flap, I added two pockets for carrying smaller items because, really, it’s hard to have too many pockets. I wanted the pockets to be easy to access, yet still secure so I went with a flap closure without an additional fastener. The outside of the pockets is 1000D Cordura® nylon. The pockets are fully lined in contrasting burgundy pack cloth. One of the pockets is just about square, the other is rectangular.
Onto the interior. The inside of the bag has a zippered pocket in burgundy pack cloth. It also has 2 slip pocket dividers attached to the back of the bag – perfect for papers or gym clothes. You can’t see it in the photos, but the interior bottom of the bag is the same red webbing as the side panels (it’s one long continuous strip). The red makes it easier to see what’s in the bottom of the bag. Plus, it looks sharp.
Zipper pocket.
Dividers at the back.
Jamye’s Bag
I made Jamye a smaller bag, an M-7, which is still large enough to hold a 13″ MacBook. His bag is in our newest colorway, Venom. It’s black with foliage green and lime green. The side panel is in the foliage green webbing. I used a grayish-green pack cloth for the pocket lining and interior pockets. It’s a pleasingly close match to the foliage green webbing. Here are some photos of his bag:
Last weekend we joined over 200 artists, designers and local food makers at the San Francisco Concourse Exhibition Center’s East Hall for the 7th Annual San Francisco Bazaar (formerly known as Bazaar Bizarre). We saw a few old friends, made some new ones and sent a bunch of .retool. items off to new homes. Here’s a recap in photos.
Oh – and if you missed us, don’t despair! We’ll be back at the Concourse Exhibition Center (East Hall) next weekend (12/21 & 12/22) for the Renegade SF Holiday Show. Hours are 11-6 both days. Perfect for some last minute holiday shopping!
Here’s a shot of the .retool. booth.
The back table of our booth.
We weren’t surprised when this pouch was one of the first items to sell.
Our pirate laptop case sold early on as well. Arrr…
Tardis teapot from Bugs and Monsters.
Boba Fett, Storm Troopers, Daleks, and more! Courtesy of The Beast is Back.
Cupcakes! From Cynically Delicious. Yum!
Just finished up a custom order for an SF Bazaar customer.
For more goodies from the other shops we mentioned, check out these links:
On Thursday, the .retool. extended family (Jacob, Jamye, and Will) got together for a vegan feast. Jamye and I planned a rather eclectic menu:
toasted bread with avocado and cilantro jalapeno cashew cream;
spring rolls with Jamaican Jerk tofu, rice stick noodles, carrots, and lettuce;
collard green rolls with black eyed peas and barbecue sauce;
pumpkin curry; and
cranberry muffins.
Given the wide ranging influences of the menu, we were pleasantly surprised that all of the flavors worked really well together.
Much of the prep work was done in advance, including marinating and baking the tofu, preparing the black eyed peas, and making the muffin batter. I was in charge of the bread and spring rolls, Jamye tackled the collard greens, pumpkin curry, and muffins, while Will handled a bunch of the prep work.
Here are some photos and yes, everything did taste as good as it looks! 🙂
Will slices bread
Toasted bread with cashew cream and avocado
Fixings for spring rolls
Jerk tofu and collard green rolls with black eyed peas and barbecue sauce
I recently finished up a new crop of M-7 messenger bags with tonal stripes. You can find the new bags in the Seat Belt Bags section of our Etsy shop here. To mark the occasion, we decided to do a special photo shoot. We got creative and went to a local park. Here are a few photos. Some of them are pretty cool; others are a bit weird. Enjoy!
In this photo, the M-7 Ice bag takes center stage. The textured cement is a cool background, but we need more of the bag strap to show for context.
We like the shape of the concrete bench in this photo of Jacob with the M-7 Ice bag.
Jamye hanging off a wooden pillar. This one looks a little goofy, but the bag looks awesome.
Jacob with the M-7 Ice laptop bag. One of our favorite photos – we just need to catch the light…
Jamye hanging around with the M-7 Ice bag.
Jamye does his spiderman impression with the M-7 Ice messenger bag. This one is almost perfect.
Jamye and the M-7 Ocean bag, webcrawling.
Jacob and the M-7 Fire (or maybe Lava – we haven’t decided yet) seat belt messenger bag.
Jacob and the M-7 Fire (or maybe Lava) bag. We like the idea of this one, but the light is not quite right.
Jacob – hanging around, looking intense.
This is a pretty awesome photo of Jamye who just happens to be carrying the M-7 Ice bag.
Jacob: “What?”
Jamye and the M-7 Ice laptop bag find the light.
Jacob and the M-7 Ice bag. This one would also make a nice GStar ad…
Jacob and the M-7 Ice bag.
Jamye and the M-7 Ocean bag dropping through the hole.
This photo of Jacob with the M-7 Ice messenger bag is one of the odder ones. We were trying to find something interesting to do with these rails…
.retool. 