IN many cases, the best ideas come from personal experience. That’s very much the case for Trakke, a designer and manufacturer of stylish waterproof bags, luggage and accessories.

As an art student in Glasgow, Trakke founder Alec Farmer, was looking for a messenger bag to use when cycling. Instead of investing what little cash he had, he toured the skips of Glasgow to source materials that he could reuse to make himself sturdy bag.

“I found so many bits I could use, including old advert banners, and started to make the bag.

“I made one and it wasn't quite right, So I made another and that wasn't quite right, Over that summer I must have made something in the region of 200 bags, and as you can imagine my flatmate was not best pleased.”

The next idea driven from personal experience was to make some much needed cash after all this endeavour, so Farmer opened a stall at the Barras.

“I attracted a small and loyal group of customers for these prototypes,” he says, “so once graduated I thought I would try to make the leap into making bags for sale on a larger scale.”

Trakke’s bags, says Farmer, “wouldn’t go with you on a climb up Mount Everest. Our bags will work just as well in the city, maybe commuting on foot by bike, but it will serve you equally well if you're going for a hike up in Munro at the weekend whatever the weather. Instead of having to buy five different bags for all the different things that you do in life, you can buy one and use it for a bit of everything.”

Farmer knew he needed a different approach, however. He had to take the sustainability ethos into any company and that formed the basis of the Trakke approach.

“I knew I had to source new materials and fittings, but I was determined to source materials that would be extremely high quality and would last, and that, as far as possible, could be sourced from other British manufacturers.”

He cites two main reasons for that. “First, I know that the factories that they're being made in are treating people well and they're putting money back into the local economy. Also they are travelling a much shorter distance, instead of shipping fabrics from Asia for example. “Second. I really wanted us to make things that would last a lifetime. Obviously energy goes into making a product happens during the manufacturing process. With clothing there's also the environmental impact in how often they are washed. With us obviously there's a lesser of an impact in that we make bags.”

Trakke was born in 2010, and sourced waxed canvas from Halley Stevenson in Dundee and stainless steel buckles from the UK, to not only create a more lasting item but also to cut down on the firm’s use of plastic.

“Waxed canvas is a Scottish invention, created by fishermen in the 18th century. It lasted then and it lasts now. The beauty of it is that can be reproofed again and again, so it stays waterproof for a very long time. It also ages really nicely so we always say that it wears in and not wears out. “I’m originally from Derbyshire, and realised very quickly after moving to Scotland that I needed a waterproof backpack.”

Once production was under way around 2012, Farmer says he found Saturday October 9, 2021 the essential missing part of the product.

“Yes, I also managed to find a people who were much much better at sewing than I am. The quality of the product improved overnight. We could also offer a skilled inhouse repair shop, where a bag can be sent back to us and we will repair it for you. This just means that our bags live a lot longer and people use them a lot longer.”

Farmer says Trakke has taken a different approach to the “shop floor” at their premises based in SWG3 in Finnieston, Glasgow.

“We do everything inhouse so that means that we are part factory and part design house. We have 11 machinists but there’s a lot more fluidity in their roles than their would be in a normal garment factory setting.

“It keeps things interesting for everyone it keeps them creative and because it is a small team they take an immense amount of pride in the work that they do.”

The strong manufacturing base of the 1980s and 1990s is gone but although that generation of skilled machinists might well be approaching retirement age, Farmer says there are talented machinists coming from excellent garment production courses at Clyde College.

“We often take graduates and train them up. They learn to work to extremely high standards and they also have the licence to be creative. Often they will come in when machines are idle in the evenings and make their own clothes and bags.”

Farmer says that often someone will bring him a bag and ask if it should be going out for sale and when he examines it, there’s maybe one stitch that's out of alignment.

Last year was challenging of course. The doors had to close for periods of time for the team’s safety and also because Trakke’s products are for people who are on the move – and no-one was moving.

“As soon as we got back into the factory last year we immediately started to make really high quality face masks. Fabric that Halley Stevenson had developed. Then some of the profits we were able to make from that we put into charities across Scotland.

“That's one of the huge benefits of doing everything in house. We can turn ideas around very quickly. when it came to the face mask we could go from prototype to launch in just a few weeks. Being able to be as nimble as that will help us really felt so start full with an offshore factory not might have taken us months.”

The products are made to last a lifetime and with Trakke’s repair team a bag that you come to love can be with you through thick and thin and definitely wind and rain.

“Quality is one of those very interesting things. It's very difficult to describe what quality feels like, but as soon as you have it in your hands you absolutely understand.

“We sell predominantly online so for us that moment for the customer is when they open the package and get their hands on the product. We get emails saying just how different it feels.”

Restoration scheme is a fresh approach to carrying responsibility

The Herald:

THE success of Trakke’s repair scheme has been the spring board for the next stage in the company’s sustainability journey.

Next month Trakke is launching a “buy back” scheme, where customers can trade in an old Trakke bag, no matter its age or condition and receive a gift card towards their next purchase, giving a favourable discount.

“What we’ll do is take those old bags, restore them and breathe new life into them so that they can have a new start. There will be bags that have maybe been languishing in a wardrobe and not being used. This can find them a new home. It helps us to reduce waste and we know that it can drastically cut down on the percentage of our products going to landfill.”

Trakke also use standard production offcuts in their repairs and are looking at using offcuts creatively to make patchwork bags. “Our repair scheme has been invaluable,” adds Farmer. “We can see where bags are failing - and that helps with future design to address those fail points.” Trakke has also been working in collaboration with the established Glasgow outdoor company Vango. “They also have a repairs workshop and often are sent back large swathes of tent fabric that they can’t do anything with,” adds Farmer. “We have been able to turn these into one-off pieces.

One of these is called the 10-kilometre backpack, because all the fabric used in its manufacturer a source within 10 kilometres of our workshop.” Trakke’s ethos is to make its products as sustainable as possible. Apart from upcycling products in a creative way, the company also sells its workshop samples that don’t quite meet the high quality control to be sold with the usual lines.

“If we threw away everything that we didn’t feel quite made the cut it would be hugely wasteful. We will sell online now, but in pre-Covid times we would be queued out the door and into the street at our sample sales.” Even when for some reason they can’t source what’s needed for the production of any item in the UK, there is careful consideration and a lot of research carried out about which firms are in tune with Trakke’s culture.

“We always make sure that any suppliers we work with are looking after the people who work for them and are trading ethically and properly. “It’s not just the physical product that needs to meet our standards.”

For more information visit www.trakke.co.uk