@thebrownbuffalo
Over the years, I’ve often been asked how factories insert foam into shoulder straps to create a clean seam. There are several ways to accomplish this.
One method is manually stuffing the foam between the two layers of fabric. This approach is still commonly used in outdated domestic factories that lack the experience and proper equipment. Another method involves using a vacuum, though this technique has its limitations depending on the complexity of the pattern (I’ll share more about this in a future post). Lastly, there’s a method that offers better flexibility for navigating curves in a pattern, which I posted here.
Each approach has its pros and cons, largely depending on the factory’s capabilities and the design requirements.
#thebrownbuffalo
Knowledge is the only thing you actually get to leave behind. The machines stay. The fabric stays. What you taught someone? That goes everywhere they go. Pay it forward.
Skiving is one of those skills that looks small until you try it.
You’re shaving leather down at the edge, sometimes by half, so when it folds or layers into a seam, everything sits flat and clean. No bulk
There’s something satisfying about teaching someone to build their first backpack. Watching hands figure out the machine, the materials, the work it takes, that’s where every good bag starts.
We’ve been chasing an idea with @jamesxkelley printing directly onto material substrates and seeing what the conversation between structure and surface wants to be.
CMF (color, material, finish) is one of those fundamentals that just keeps getting more fun the longer you sit with it. This sits somewhere between additive, textile, and weld and I’m not sure it needs a name yet.
Fabric supplied by @yawliamy thank you for keeping us in the good stuff.
More to come.
Ricky Powell on my mind. aka @thelazyhustler
First image is a print Ricky gifted me years ago. The rest are his, a few from his travels with bags I made him along the way.
@leejnny introduced us back in my Burton days, and we’d check in here and there over the years. One of the gifts of this work is meeting the creatives whose images you grew up studying. Grateful for every one of those crossings.
Rest Eazy!
September 2013. First day of kindergarten, and the first backpack I ever made.
I still believe one of the best gifts a parent can give a kid is a tool they’ll actually carry with them on the journey ahead. Something built by hand, made for them.
Wild to think this little guy is graduating high school in a few weeks and heading off to college.
