Every bag they make is different, which creates a real marketing and display problem.
FREITAG has been making bags out of used vinyl fabric from the sides of European trucks since 1993, and I suspect that almost every single one is still in service. The fabric is tough and the straps are old seat belts, all materials that last almost forever. Margaret described them:
Lloyd Alter/ a truck on the autobahn/CC BY 2.0
But as I noted in my post about buying my bag in Berlin, they have a marketing challenge. Because they are made from used tarps from the sides of trucks (they can pack in more stuff and it is easier to access than solid sides), every bag is different. It’s harder than marketing shoes, where you have lots of different styles but you can keep the different sizes in the back room; in this case the customer has to be able to look at every bag.
Lloyd Alter/ big bags in Freitag store/CC BY 2.0
So the stores are basically a wall of cardboard boxes, with little pictures of the bag inside. It’s hard to make a good looking store out of a wall of cardboard, but they pull it off by leaving a few boxes pulled out and using them for a sort of minimalist display. Really, these stores are built out of almost nothing.
© FREITAG/ Nils Claus
That’s why we’re showing this new store in Seoul Apgujeong, South Korea. They are displaying 1100 bags in just 66m2, or 710 square feet, a lot of bags in a small space. They gutted the existing store back to the load-bearing elements:
Talk about being treehugger correct: an exposed structure, a recycled product, a cardboard display system and trees to hug. I would ruin it all if I mentioned what these bags cost.
