OWN BETTER THINGS
At North St Bags, we prefer taking the scenic route and following our own path. We seek out the sustainable and try to live simpler, more purposeful lives. This extends to every corner of North St Bags as a company and is why we do our own manufacturing.
When you buy a bag from us, you not only meet the folks selling it, but the people who are actually making it. It's a rarely found peek behind-the-scenes, lowering the barriers between the process and the end user. It's less of a transaction, and more of a coming-together of people, via commerce, in a busy age. We extend that ideal further by sourcing all of our fabrics and the majority of our trim and hardware parts from US sources--many here in the Pacific Northwest.
When you buy a North St Bag, you are supporting a part of our community that you can wear around and use. Take it with you and use it to enhance your journey. In the process of finding the more direct and simpler sources, we’ve eliminated wasteful transportation and costly inventories that come with sourcing overseas. We’re able to grow sustainably, adapt to change, and offer better service to our customers.
By producing all of our bags in house, we maintain a tight control over the design, quality, and details that set us apart. It ensures that every item we make is worthy of its North St. label.
All of our proudcts are handmade in-house in Portland, OR
As an outdoor company, we aim to reduce our impact
We take our choices seriously - everything from which shipping materials we use to how our shop floor is laid out to which nonprofits to partner with. Here are a few initiatives that we've taken to reduce our environmental impact and help preserve the natural world.
- We use 100% recycled fabrics for many of our products.
- We buy 100% recycled paper products for our bathroom, office and shipping desk. We only print when we have to and when we do, we use both sides.
- Our shipping mailers are reusable and biodegradable. Even our shipping label backs are curb-side recyclable.
- We don't use excess shipping or packaging materials for our products.
- We use machine washable rags for keeping our shop and machines clean.
- Product patterns are nested carefully to reduce material waste in our cutting department.
- Just-in-time manufacturing means we only buy the materials we need when we need them. By not over-stocking fabric or other materials (even if they come with bulk discounts), we make sure that we keep the earth's resources where they belong - in the earth - for as long as possible, and not sitting idle our our shelves.
This video, featuring owner & designer Curtis Williams, was made early in North St's history. The styles and colors shown may have changed since those days, but our commitment to creating the best bags possible has not.
