Modern Industry | Heirloom Bags

Live Uncompromised

with preeminent bags and accessories, community-driven and handcrafted in the United States.

Technical features with heirloom distinction

Forward thinking design made using only the best time-tested heritage materials

Ethically Epically sourced materials

Crowd-funded and built using sustainable American-made materials

Delivered with integrity and vision

From a family owned factory to you for the lowest possible price with free domestic shipping

This is the result…for now

We're taking the first step by launching three products that are the result of intense research, careful consideration, & prototyping until our ears—and fingers–bled.

Magnitude Backpack

Size Matters.

Our Magnitude Backpack is designed to meet your extreme urban carrying needs. It has a large main pocket, a padded laptop sleeve, and three accessories pockets allowing for maximum usability and functionality. The flap system allows the pack to expand and contract as your carrying needs change through the day. The laptop sleeve has been moved away from your back for improved comfort, while the bag's large footprint and slim profile offer the best combination of stability and storage space.

Materials

The bag is constructed of a combination of Martexin Original Wax 10.10 oz. Army Duck and vegetable tanned Horween leather. The bag is lined with brightly colored organic cotton canvas that helps you see your belongings. We use recycled PET sheeting and Soy based foam for protection and support. Our herringbone weave polyester webbing provides the best combination of strength, durability and easy recyclability. Our high quality waterproof zippers keep your belongings dry. We use custom designed aluminum buckles that are both incredibly strong and environmentally friendly.

Dimensions

Expanded 20.5" x 13.5" x 5.75"
Contracted 16.25" x 13.5" x 5.75"

Features

Large Main Pocket
Computer Sleeve (Fits a 17" MacBook Pro)
3 Accessories Pockets
Flap system fits pack size to carrying needs
Ergonomic Shoulder Straps
Side Cinch Straps
Carrying Handle
Supportive, Ergonomic Back Panel
Vegetable Tanned Leather Branded Tag

Conduit Sling Pack

Strap in. (Strap on?)

The Conduit Sling Pack is a multifunctional product that redefines an existing category by introducing a professional appeal. This bag can carry your essentials or function as a stowable tote bag for groceries. It features a removable strap that allows you to adjust the bag's fit based on your carrying needs. Conduit has a large main pocket perfect for a laptop or jacket and an exterior accessories pocket for quick access to your personal items.

Materials

The bag is constructed by a combination of Martexin Original Wax 10.10 oz. Army Duck and vegetable tanned Horween leather. The bag is lined with brightly colored organic cotton canvas that helps you see your belongings. Our herringbone weave polyester webbing provides the best combination of strength, durability and easy recyclability. The high quality waterproof zipper keeps your belongings dry. We use custom designed aluminum buckles that are both incredibly strong and environmentally friendly.

Dimensions

Expanded 18.5" x 10.5" x 4"
Contracted 9.25" x 10.5" x 4"

Features

Large Main Compartment
Exterior Accessories Pocket
Adjustable Closure Height for Versatility
Removable, Multifunctional Shoulder Strap
Vegetable Tanned Leather Branded Tag

Deviation Wallet

Grass Fed. (maybe)

The Deviation front pocket wallet strikes the perfect balance between minimalism and functionality. Constructed of the highest quality vegetable tanned leather, Deviation features a card slot on either side with an interior partition for your cash. The wallet is hand sewn with burnished edges and conditioned with beeswax for durability.

Materials

Our wallets are made of the highest quality vegetable tanned leather from Chicago’s Horween leather company. All of our leather comes from American cows and is a byproduct of the food industry.

Dimensions

3.125" x 3.875" x .25"

Features

Two Card Slots
Interior Cash Pocket
Interior Embossed Branding

This is who we are

Artists, Gentlemen, Scholars, Nerds.
Mike Domina

At Modern Industry, we like to call Mike the Party Whip. He is both the life of the party and enforcer of a coherent brand image in all Modern Industry activities. That means making sure everybody's having fun, whether we like it or not. We're not quite sure how that works, but he makes it happen.

The pure artist of the group, Mike lends his talents wherever possible from establishing identity guidelines to designing posters. Not afraid to get his hands dirty, you're likely to find Mike behind a sewing machine, dominating a wallet or with a squeegee in hand printing t-shirts.
Tony Dihmes

Tony is Modern Industry's digital wizard, and is responsible for designing and developing our web presence as well as working side-by-side with Mike in cultivating our brand. Fueled by milk and sugar with a side of coffee, he creates beautiful and engaging interfaces that never sacrifice function in the name of style. Instead, they merge the two to help us tell our story in the most effective way.

When he's not designing and developing chronic carpal tunnel, Tony is known to be an avid Gamer and eater of all things awesome in San Francisco. Hailing from Baltimore, Maryland, Tony has in fact NOT seen The Wire…yet.

Taylor Keahey

Taylor and Dirty Harry have one thing in common, they take their coffee black. Other than that, you won't find many similarities. Taylor's the type of guy who is friends with everyone. We mean everyone. That makes him a perfect fit as our social media and marketing guru.

A talented musician in his own write, Taylor honed his skills working in the music industry doing everything from designing t-shirts to directing photoshoots. He works hand in hand with Mike to craft a consistent product and brand presentation in everything from product photography to engaging copy. Did we mention that he skates to work everyday?
Patrick Healy

Patrick likes to think he's the guiding light of Modern Industry. While he's no god, he is responsible for charting our path forward while making sure that everything we do helps to achieve our vision. A rare breed that actually enjoys reading about business strategy, it's probably a good idea to leave the room before he starts talking.

Patrick works with Lorris to bring our ideas to life. When duty calls, he frantically puts pen to paper, shaping concepts into actionable images. With a Racer 5 in hand, Patrick enjoys studying human behavior and emerging trends while trying not to cross the line from inquisitive to creepy.
Lorris Williams

Lorris is the moral compass of the Modern Industry. As our resident socialist... I mean Canadian... Lorris is responsible for crafting and enforcing our social and environmental responsibility guidelines. As a former roughneck, he can be quite convincing when he wants to be.

A master craftsman and skilled designer, Lorris has an influential role in the development of our product line. When there's something we can't figure out, Lorris takes the lead by turning a sketch into a tangible reality. As our most... mature... partner, Lorris has the innate ability to smooth ruffled feathers and keep us focused on achieving our goals.

We're a group of creative individuals connected by the belief that together we can make life a little bit better, for all of us.

United by a common culture, we are working to give something back to the experiences, people, and places that have shaped who we are.

To start, we believe that secret identities are a good idea for superheroes, but not for companies.

So we're making an effort to pull back the curtain to be completely open about what's being made, how it was developed, and who the hell is making it.

Often, creativity and design are treated as luxuries, relegated to doing the bidding of marketing and engineering. We think design and creativity are the true creators of value in contemporary culture and will only become more important as resources diminish and technological innovation accelerates. We believe so strongly in the power of creativity that we place it at the nucleus of Modern Industry.

As designers we are motivated by the faults we find in the objects, experiences, and world around us. It is in these faults that we are able to find opportunity for evolution, innovation, and change. Through this spirit of discontent that the Modern Industry was born.

We wanted products that spoke to who we are without sacrificing our personal beliefs. That meant developing products that would allow you to be comfortable on a board or in a boardroom. To do so, we carefully balanced performance features with flexibility in order to create the kind of discrete differentiation that we look for.

Our beliefs guide us to source ethically produced American materials and partner with American manufacturers. Using the highest quality materials and manufacturing techniques we will produce heirloom quality goods that add value to the lives of our users.

We want to change the way you think about business. We’re going to start by improving the things you carry.

We're taking the first step by launching three products that are the result of intensive research, careful consideration, and prototyping until our fingers... and ears... bled. Our core product line is anchored by a large backpack designed to meet the extreme urban carrying needs. Our Sling Pack is a multifunctional product that redefines an existing category by introducing a professional appeal. Finally, our front pocket wallet strikes the perfect balance between minimalism and functionality.

We want to change the way you think about business,
& we’re going to start by improving the things you carry.

This is what we care about

We aim to make environmental and social responsibility a cornerstone of our brand, even if it means breaking some rules along the way.

So, is a 100% sustainable product possible? Not yet, but complacency is boring. This means constantly working to better ourselves, our processes, and the things we create.

The Vision

At Modern Industry, we strive to produce sustainable products from local materials to be a part of a healthy and diverse natural and industrial ecosystem. We want you to choose our products because you like how they look and work, but we also want you to feel really good about that choice from an ethical standpoint.

The idea of local production from local materials for local use is important in achieving sustainability. This type of production provides vitality to regional economies while reducing energy spent on transportation of materials and finished products. However, this does not go far enough. The earth is a closed system. Non-renewable resources we consume are rapidly disappearing and their extraction is becoming increasingly costly; the toxic chemicals we create- chemicals with extremely long half-lives, are here to stay.

We must rejoin our local ecosystems. Each component of an ecosystem depends on the others; there is no waste. What one organism might consider waste is a necessary meal to another. We must adopt design principles ensuring that all personal and industrial waste becomes food for industry or an organism. We must produce waste only in the sense that a tree produces waste when it loses its leaves.

We are going to be totally transparent so you can see what we are doing and judge for yourselves.

A Conversation

There is a lot of skepticism about sustainable products these days and with good reason. Is a 100% sustainable product possible? Probably not. But here at Modern Industry we scoff at the impossible.

We want to engage those around us in a conversation about this. We are going to be totally transparent so you can see what we are doing and judge for yourselves. Who knows you might even have suggestions for how we might do better.

Transparency

For every product we sell, we will share our progress in decreasing our negative impact on the planet and it’s inhabitants. We will report on our energy, water, and chemical uses to the best of our ability. Specifically, we will chart energy use in materials, manufacturing and transportation. We will share our water usage and management. Any chemicals used in manufacturing and present in the bag itself will be illustrated. We are committed to showing you who makes the materials we use and who assembles our products. Our hope is that this commitment to transparency will constantly remind us that we need to improve and allow you to decide for yourself how well we are doing.

This is how we do it

Informed by a myriad of creative backgrounds, we put the creative process at the center of everything we do, from the products we make to the way we run our business.

This allows us to create products that align with our beliefs through careful material selection, strategic manufacturing alliances, and prudent product features.

What is this creative process that we at Modern Industry are so passionate about? Simply put, the creative process is a flexible method for identifying problems or opportunities and developing solutions for them. This process consists of three phases: Discovery, Creation, and Implementation.

The goal of discovery sounds simple enough: identify the problem(s) that needs to be solved and gain an understanding of context in which you are working. In this phase, we must identify our target users and high level project goals. This foundation guides secondary and ethnographic research.

Through this research insights will be gained into consumers, competitors, applicable materials and technologies, and market trends. These insights are then leveraged to create frameworks that include requirements, constraints, user needs, and final deliverables.

These frameworks drive the Creation phase. Creation is a cyclical process consisting ideation, Prototyping, and development. At each step of the process, concepts should be evaluated against the frameworks established during discovery.

Ideation uses a variety of tools including brainstorming and sketching to generate as many ideas as possible. Here at Modern Industry, we work as a team. A sketch allows us to have a meaningful conversation about an idea.

The goal of the ideation process is not to make pretty pictures, but to quickly generate, communicate, and test as many ideas as possible.

If a sketch allows us to communicate an idea, the prototype allows us to test it. Early prototypes may be as simple as folded sheets of paper and later prototypes will begin to closely resemble the finished product. Activities may be prototyped by acting out the assumed steps of a process. The best ideas are then developed to fill in the details neglected in prototypes or initial ideas.

In the implementation phase, concepts become reality. Solutions are specified to an exacting detail, leaving no uncertainty. These specifications are then produced, with the product of this process taking it’s fully realized form. These products, services, or experiences are then delivered to the end user.

The creative process is not limited to “visual” pursuits. It can be used to do anything from generating business models to creating a new manufacturing process. The process tames the creative beast by allowing us to reliably identify and solve problems effectively.