Ideas To Action - RUX Progress #1

So have we spent the last year picking our noses and drinking beers or locking ourselves in a design cave masterminding new ways to shake-up the carry/storage realm?  We'll answer that burning question and more in our new weekly(ish) RUX Progress blog thread. Let's throw it back to day 1...

I have a confession to make: I'm a bit of a hoarder. There, I said it.

Actually while I'm at it,  I have another; I'm kind of OCD.

The struggle is real. I hate throwing stuff away but I hate clutter. My whole life I’ve been collecting stuff and trying to keep it organized; from the lead figures I would paint as a kid to the stacks of climbing and skiing gear I would pack into my van as a youth to my studio full of fabrics and buckles, tools and machines I have now.

So back in June, when Andre came to me with his kitten saving idea (aka building durable bag boxes for carrying and storing gear) everything in my life had prepared me for that moment, sort of.

Over the following weeks and months I began to “unpack” what a bag-box could be. Right from the get go I knew that it had to be a fusion of the two, combining hard box elements and soft bag parts - the best of both of course.

I wanted to make something fast, like a sketch. I went to Wal-Mart and got a couple of bins, chopped them up and added in the fabric parts. My first few concepts were as literal as you can get - a box lid Frankensteined right onto a dry bag.

And a Rubbermaid lid welded to a small bag. Who'd have known this random proto would still be getting used 8 months later as a compressible compost/grabage bag for weekend trips and camping. 

And so began many fall and winter months of toying with bag and box parts in our studio in Squamish, BC.

Right away the idea started to evolve - adding waterproofing options, playing with different sizes, brainstorming ways to carry it. This was jus the beginning of our deep dive into the world of all things storage, boxes, bags, duffles, totes, baskets, carry, luggage, organization, containers, and beyond.

Where it would go, we didn't knows. But we did know this... we were infinitely further ahead than most ideas out there, because we'd taken the blind leap of faith into action. 

Next stop, Vision Questing. Stay tuned...