It’s 1992. A young man sits hunched over his grandmother’s old sewing machine in a shed in Ballarat, Australia. He’s trying to get the machine to sew through a truck tarp, so he can make a bag strong enough to carry a slab of beer home on his bike. Grandma may have helped with the prototype, but it was a parachute-maker who in 1993 really helped Stuart ‘Stu’ Crumpler on a path to making better bags.
‘I went into his shop to buy some material and he looked at the bag I’d made, grabbed it off me and ripped it apart. Then he showed me a better way to stitch it back together.’
Some products are a business idea, but Crumpler bags evolved simply out of Stu’s creative desire to make a great bag. ‘Here is the design for the first bag,’ Stu says, showing a piece of wood with a pattern drawn on it in pen. ‘It’s called “Mr Pattern”’ The bags were cut from a single piece of tough fabric and sewn together on another old sewing machine he bought for $20 at a flea market. Each took quite a while to make and if a mistake was made, well, it would be back to Mr Pattern.
‘I used a circular saw to cut out all the linings, but it melted the edges of the fabric. But, because no one could see it, I just sewed over it.’ Stu laughs. ‘When I couldn’t sew through a tough section of a bag, I used a staple gun and hid the staples… There was so much material and off-cuts on the floor when I was making the bags that it all used to hang off my chair like seaweed.’
So, one bag at a time, Stu kept working at his vision. When bike couriers came across his bags and started using them for their deliveries, they offered him feedback about what did and didn’t work. Stu ran their ideas across his machine and kept on sewing.
“Hey, do you want to
Dave Roper, crumpler Cofunder
start a bag company?”
David Roper and Will Miller’s owned a Melbournia bike courier company, called Minuteman. They ordered some of Stu’s first bags for their riders. They noticed that they loved the bags. Not only because they were strong, but also because they could open and shut them without taking them off.
The story is, Minuteman needed better messenger bags. Dave approached Stuart who was working part time as a bike courier and asked if he could make 20 for the fleet. The simple shoulder bags were much more practical for the job than a backpack. Using the messenger bags, there was no need to remove the bag completely to access the contents.
Gradual improvements were made to the materials and design of the bags. Stuart & Dave met at The George Hotel in St Kilda. And decided to start a bag company.
They had a brainwave. ‘I met Stu in a pub,’ Dave remembers, ‘And I said, “Hey, do you want to start a bag company?” He said hell yes, and we leased a floor of a building in Flinders Lane so we could have a place to work from. We went to an auction and bought all these sewing and cutting machines.’
From the beginning, the bags were designed for bike messengers. The range then grew to include more options in colours and sizes.
Marketing
Crumpler became known for unusual marketing. It was Dave Roper who spearheaded this area. It included a giant logo stencil of the Crumpler man (logo) painted on building site hoardings. It appeared at the infamous Beer for Bags event. At the event, beer was the only currency accepted in store during the sale. Crumpler logo fruit stickers were placed on millions of apples and oranges. A colour by numbers toilet paper, tiny boxes of matches, and controversial websites. Crumpler also hosted the Australian Cycle Messenger Championships. Crumpler continues to be an active supporter of grass roots projects. This includes student art, film, photography projects. As well as many creative pursuits, often sponsoring and/or financing projects.
In 2018, the Crumpler brand evolved with the launch of a new logo. It continued to adhere to Crumpler’s core principles of creativity, quality, design, innovation, and a playful spirit. The brand continues to expand its international footprint with a push in to mainland China and Taiwan in late 2018
Funding
Stuart sold his share of Crumpler to Dave & Will in 2011, with Will selling his share in 2014 to investment group, Crescent Capital.
Product Development
Over the last 25 years Crumpler’s range has expanded to include backpacks, suitcases, bum-bags, wallets and beyond. In 2018, Crumpler became the official luggage supplier to the 2020 Australian Olympic Team. Crumpler designed a bespoke and premium luggage collection for the athletes. This is the second time that Crumpler has collaborated with the Australian Olympic Committee and had supported the Australian Team. Crumpler also armed the national team for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics in Brazil.
Building a team
Crumpler has a retail and online presence in Australia, Europe, USA and Asia, with more than 31 storefronts and distribution across 37 key department stores and online retailers worldwide.
Company name: Crumpler
Founder/s: David Roper, Stuart Crumpler and Will Miller
CEO: Adam Wilkinson
Established: 1995
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Main Products/Services: Maker of backpacks, suitcases, bum-bags, wallets and more
Number of employees: Estimated 63 employees
Turnover: Estimated US$2.3M pa
Web site: www.crumpler.com
Sources:
https://www.transformmagazine.net/articles/2018/the-evolution-of-crumpler/
https://money.cnn.com/2006/06/06/smbusiness/beer_for_bags/
https://www.crumpler.com/au/blog
