Though the bag business is finally catching on to the need to use recycled materials and other textiles that already exist, few companies actually make products as nice to look at as they are functional.
Enter Portland, Oregon’s Truce Designs, a one-man business making bomber backpacks and duffel bags crafted almost exclusively with upcycled sailcloth and other repurposed, high-performance materials like Dyneema and drysuit fabric.
Helmed by jack-of-all-trades Luke Mathers, who has been crafting bags out of recycled sailcloth for the better part of the past decade in a series of workshops and maker spaces around the city, the small brand champions sustainable design practices and American manufacturing.
Though now a well known brand in the Pacific Northwest, Truce has humble roots, as most maker stories do. Mathers was first introduced to the craft as part of Portland State University’s sailing team while learning to sew at the North Sails loft in Portland (under the guidance of the team's coach who owned the space). He began transforming scrap cuts into messenger bags for him and his friends.