Design I Love: The Alchemy Goods Urban Messenger Bag

Designer Daily has a fun little game going on, a describe-your-favorite-design contest. How could I pass up this chance to give props to my the makers of my beloved new messenger bag? After all, especially small brands, shops and makers need all the promo they can get, and this case is no exception. What I’m talking about is the Urban Messenger bag by Alchemy Goods, a Seattle-based, bike-loving little mass-customizing bag and wallet shop.

Alchemy Goods Urban Messenger bag

So what’s the deal? Alchemy Goods (AG for short) uses almost exclusively recycled material, namely bike inner tubes and seatbelt straps. Yup, that’s right, old tubes. Nice thing, too: Not only are they absolutely water proof, they also have a distinct texture and nice haptic qualities. Oh, they can take quite a beating, too.

recycling factorIt’s all about the details with this bag that I’ve been lugging around for a few weeks now. (And I love it!) Just to name a few examples: A little indicator (see image to the right) shows you how much of your bag is recycled material. (The Urban bags are about 76 percent tubes and seatbelt straps.) Bike valves serve as zipper pulls. Whenever I look for a feature, it’s already there. Of course there’s a set of color options for the lining you can choose from.

Plus, of course, the bag looks pretty awesome, and outside Seattle you can be sure you won’t find too many of them. Also neat: Before ordering I had emailed Alchemy Goods with a few questions. Within a few hours I had all the answers I needed, directly from the founder. It’s a bag that just comes from a cool shop, and with good vibes. Oh, did I mention the lifetime warranty and all that? Well, seriously, my impression is that the bag won’t really need that. It looks pretty much indestructible.

Here’s two more details to get an idea:

the zipper pulls are made from valves The zipper pulls are made from old valves.

recycled tires And yes, the bags really are made from recycled inner tubes as this picture clearly shows.

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