My wife and I stumbled on Topo Designs during a cruise down the beach, when we walked by a store we had never seen before called Wicked+. Truth be told, the store probably deserves a post of its own. Wicked+ is a communications, marketing, and design firm based in Hermosa Beach. In 2011, they converted their office space in to a general store with a goal offering "a selection of design-minded, lifestyle products, each with a story to tell and an inherent value to enrich your life". Carrying brands such as Topo Designs, Linus Bikes, Sun Bum, Yellow 108, and Organic Coffees, among other things - the store definitely supports the company's mission. I snapped this picture in the store around Memorial Day 2012 - and would have forgot to post it all had it not been for one of my buddies finding a way to bring up Wicked+ in every conversation we've had the last few weeks.
I digressed a bit - but be sure to check out Topo Designs quality bags and clothing - all hand made in the USA (Coloroda to be exact) and built to last. More about Topo Designs after the jump.
At Topo Designs we talk a lot about how things are made and why, about the value of creating versus consuming, and how to work with that tension. When making the decision of where to produce our designs, we talked about importing and making locally. While drawn to the ideas of making things in the US we also understand the importance of making things work. After research we were pleased to find that we could make things locally and even more, we could control quality at a closer level, we could drastically reduce minimums which gave us more flexibility and, if we were careful, we could bring things in at a price that didn’t reduce it to a luxury item. We’re global citizens and enjoy things made all around the world, but we’re very proud to be making and producing things in the country we call home. We hope you enjoy them.