I discovered Freitag‘s bags in a local San Francisco travel store; they’re made by bicycle geeks for bicycle geeks, but not being a bike geek doesn’t make me love or want their bags any less. The company started in 1993 when Zurich locals Markus and Daniel Freitag were living by a highway and wanted waterproof, durable bags from recycled materials — so I think they helped themselves to a little roadside construction tarping and edged their creating with a bit of bicycle inner tube. All of their products are made from original recycled materials: used truck tarps, used car seat belts, used air bags and again, more used bicycle inner tubes.
They have a huge warehouse and spend time tracking down trucking companies that are getting rid of their old truck tarps. Then they cut them down to size, wash them and sew them into bags — each bag is different, no two alike. In fact, they want your old truck tarps, and are willing to pay for them (including shipping).
They also make iPhone and Mac laptop sleeves (even for the Air), you can even design your own bag, and it looks like they really know how to throw a party.
Here’s their shop (freitag.ch), where I seem to be spending too much time…