Friday, October 15, 2010

Busy Summer :: New Product Sneak Peek

We’ve had a busy summer coming up with fresh, new bags for the holiday season. We have two – the Swift and the Roadrunner - that will be ready for purchase in the next few weeks. Both are two strap bags. Think of them as a cross between a 253 Courier and a Citizen Pack. The first bag you’ll see is the Swift:

The Swift



Swifts are speedy little birds that spend most of their time on the wing (their family name derives from the ancient Greek word meaning "without feet"), and can cover well over 100,000 miles in a year. If your feet rarely hit the ground and you travel fast and light, the Swift is for you.

This super durable two-strap pack has a weather resistant 1,000 denier Cordura outer shell and is lined with polyester coated nylon to keep your things dry all day. The front bellows pocket, complete with pen/pencil/phone holder, secures smaller items while the roomy interior, with an additional zippered pocket carries everything else. The Swift can hold nearly 700 cubic inches of your important things. Overall, the bag measures 15” high, 9” wide and 5” deep (front to back) and weighs in at a very reasonable 20 ounces. The padded back panel and adjustable, padded, shoulder straps create all-day comfort.

The Swift I’m testing currently holds all the supplies I need for a weekend of teaching in Seattle: the MacBook I’m using to write this post, a 1” 3-ring binder that holds a small stack of cases and notes, two paperback books (Return on Sustainability by Kevin Wilhem and The Prism and the Pendulum by Robert Crease), a couple of pens, an iPhone, an iPod (with chargers) my wallet, a water bottle, a Koka Moka ProBar and an IF catalog. At this moment, seated on a plane somewhere over Iowa, I offer a silent word of thanks to Jenn for making this very portable, extremely robust little bag!

(The other bag that I have to see me through this four-day, Pacific Northwest weekend is an extra small Whalemouth Duffle. Packed well, it holds more than you might have guessed. More on that later.)

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Paper Labels: Design Collaboration: The Event

The Paper Labels Design Collaboration between BaileyWorks, Independent Fabrication and The Bodega was unveiled this past Friday at a party at The Fourth Wall Gallery on Brookline Street in Boston.
Our friends and guests were greeted by an incredible tag painted fresh by Dan from Bodega on Thursday.
The were also beckoned in off of the street by the warm glow of reflective safety strips on a rainbow bank of SuperPros.
There are three "packages" to the design collaboration; each featuring a bag, bike and t-shirt combination that personify urban bike life. The color scheme for each was inspired by classic spray paint colors; hence the name, Paper Labels.
The first package features a fender bike known as The Duck Hunter. Equipping this bike for the urban hunt are leather wrapped sweep back bars, a front Nitto rack featuring an olive Bailey D-Rack bag, Brooks saddle and Velocity wheels. A matching 253 Courier bag with a padded computer sleeve ensures that your goods make it through the hunt as well. (click on the images to enlarge)
The second package is built around a classic city commuter called the Mellow Fellow. Why start and end your day fighting stress inducing traffic congestion and road rage when you can glide along comfortably on a bike? The Mellow Fellow has leather wrapped classic drop bars for a range of comfortable hand positions. Polished brakes and front and rear racks, along with silver fenders and wheels make this elegant cruiser the more civilized way to get around town. A custom Citizen Backpack keeps all of your necessities secure and dry on your back as you make your way to and fro.
The last of the three collaborations is to feed your inner rebel. Perhaps you aspire to be a bicycle courier, or just remember your halcyon days of being one, or maybe you just want to experience the thrill of threading your way through the urban maze... if so, the Higgins is your steed. Fast and sleek with it's Aerospoke front rim and deep profile rear Velocity fixed hub wheel, along with narrow flat bars, this bike is built for purpose. Add in the SuperPro bag featuring a custom printed liner and BaileyWork's class leading split-strap, and you've got all the mojo that you need.
All of the bags feature custom vinyl liners printed with a montage of vintage spray cans.

These packages, or individual components, are all available for purchase, so if you see something that inspires you, please give us a call.
We also displayed a number of vignettes to showcase the range of things that we've been putting together here in Portsmouth in recent months. This is a Whalemouth Duffle custom labeled for James and Jeremy, the dynamic duo behind Embrocation Cycling Journal.
This is the David Byrne, of Talking Heads fame, bag. It features David's original cover art from his recently published book, Bicycle Diaries, which shares his experiences riding bicycles all over the world. We made the bags to benefit Transportation Alternatives in NYC.
Here is a favorite bike from last year, the Ox. 2009 was the "year of the ox" in the Chinese calendar. Jenn recently made up this one of a kind bag to compliment the bike, complete with a built in beverage bandolier, or alco-hauler, as some have taken to calling it.
We also took the opportunity to display a range of SuperPros and 253's made from re-purposed vinyl architectural banners. The banners came from the design project to upgrade Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn. Each one is a true one of a kind, and if you are interested in purchasing any of them, give us a call.
Finally, none of this would be possible without a dedicated team behind the seams, and they are literally all about seams... stitching them that is. It was great to have Jan and Jenn make the trip down to the big city to join Toni, Jon and I to see the fruits of their labor, even though Jan would not let me take her picture (she's doing the rockstar look-away-from-the-camera-and-act-disinterested-pose).

Cheers,

Gary


Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Paper Labels: Design Collaboration Friday February 12th: Boston


Paper Labels is a design project uniting Independent Fabrication (Somerville, MA), Bodega(Boston, MA) and BaileyWorks (Portsmouth, NH)- three local DIY crews hellbent on creating the best in their respective fields.
Paper labels of vintage and dead stock spray paint serves as the palette upon which the three concept bikes, four cycling bags and three graphic t-shirts were created.

The color scheme and iconography of Paper Labels was derived from Bodega's archive of discontinued vintage spray paint which is heavily sought after and hunted for by collectors. These colors were popularized by the 80's graffiti culture. Krylon Aqua Turquoise #2008, Krylon O.D. Khaki #2301, and Krylon Metallic Blue #1903 serve as the foundation for the bikes color schemes.
Additional graphics for the bikes were created referencing some designs from other old vintage can labels, such as Diamond Finish and Smooth Coat. Only 15 of each model will be made and will include the matching bag(s), t-shirt and a can of spray paint mixed and labeled just for each bike.

So... introducing: The Duck Hunter:






The Higgins:







and.... The Mellow Fellow:




The project will be unveiled on Friday February 12th at 8pm at the FourthWall Gallery, 132 Brookline Ave, Boston, MA.

Items from this project can be purchased by contacting us here at BaileyWorks.

Download PDFabout the project HERE.

P.S. also expect to see (at the FourthWall) a preview of some of the bags that we are working on for the North American Handmade Bicycle Show which takes place in Richmond, VA on February 26th-28th 2010.

We will also have on hand for sale a number of limited edition bags made from banners re-purposed from the Brooklyn Grand Army Plaza architectural project:

See you there!