The Bag Messenger BlogBag Design and Urban Living

Tucker & Bloom on Handbags 101

Tucker and Bloom was recently featured on Handbag Designer 101.

Here’s what David had to say about being in the bag business.
“I have been designing, and producing bags since the early 1970’s. My first company, Bloom Fine Leather’s, based in Boston, Mass, found success through much publicity brought about by national news publications. The “roll top” bag was featured in the New York Times fashion section, and the bags were sold in national retailers, Macy’s, Jordan Marsh, Henri Bendel, Saks 5th Ave. Neiman Marcus, as well as other specialty stores across the country. Our small “mom and pop” bag company produced bags by hand, and consisted of me, my wife Dru, and one hired hand. After the birth of our son, Case it was apparent that we could not keep up with the demands following the birth of our daughter Maddie. We eventually closed the company and our family moved to Brooklyn, NY.  I began working for mainstream handbag companies including Etra, Sirco International, L.J. Simone shoes and accessories, and Ishihara Industries.(a Japanese company with the License. for Courege and Valentino).

After that, our family moved from New York to Nashville in the 1990’s, when I started working for Hartmann Luggage. After working for Hartmann as a senior designer for five years, I left to begin freelance work. On my own, I designed for some of the biggest names in the industry including: Perry Ellis, Atlantic Luggage, and others. In 2006, my son and I decideed to start a line on our own, Tucker & Bloom. The focus of this new line would be to cut out the middle man and give the designer the chance to work directly with the customer. My design skills and craftsmanship with my son Case’s business savvy personality and entrepreneurial attitude makes for a good partnership.  As our desire is to create our products in the US with a focus on direct selling through our website, we have just redone the site to provide a simple to use site with many layers to explore. It is my contention that it is possible to provide great design, service and flexibility with a made to order company based on US manufacturing and still provide a competitively priced product.

Our products have been designed around three lifestyle categories, transitions, work and leisure. Our target consumer is unisex 25 + , with a need to organize their electronic tools and create a professional image that is still hip but not too young. Our materials follow the lifestyle category for which they were designed, with minor diversions.
a. Transitions: This category is mainly Neoprene with ballistic nylon trim, though our sub-category of Impress is a collection of soft leather sleeves for computers and cord management zippered bags.
b. Work: This category of products is mainly ballistic nylon or Ballistic nylon & hair-on cow hide, all lined in Taslan nylon
c. Leisure: This category is made of 100% cotton with striped cotton ticking.

Our products are a combination of fresh interpretations of classic bag shapes, as well as new shapes designed for certain generic functions (traveling light). Our hardware is both metal and rubber. We use an aluminum side release buckle in a matte nickel finish with our logo laser engraved on it, a small micro-injection rubber logo detail and metal double bar rings for shoulder strap adjustment.

I have been in the bag business a long time and feel the time is right to re-think the way business has been done in the past. Small is beautiful, family business is great and the internet represents the future.  Tucker & Bloom is based in Nashville, TN, an iconic city for America, though our designs don’t really reflect Nashville (except for the hair-on cow hide). We like to think of ourselves as quintessentially American.

Last summer we were provided a wonderful press opportunity in Nashville Lifestyles magazine but our website was not completed at the time the article came out. Though this was a tough break, it was a lesson for us to be patient, until we are ready for exposure. The process of getting our website designed, developed and launched has been by far the hardest part of this project. However, the bigger picture is what we focus on. Working with all of the people surrounding this project continues to be a joy and makes me realize what I love about my profession.”

Make sure to come out to see DJ Catchdubs of Fools Gold Records, Thursday October 8th at The NY’s Finest Party. Tucker and Bloom will be doing a drawing for a free transit pass bag, and watching Catchdubs do his thing.
Hope to see you there!

This past Saturday marked the second annual Philadelphia DJ Day. Coolout and I went down to check out the festivities, and grab some free Redbull.
The event was set on quiet street Parkside N. in the heart of Fair Mount Park, and was adjacent to a large golf course. What is normally a serene spot to play a few holes was transformed into a bumpin block party. You could hear LL Cool J’s “Rock The Bells” from two blocks away, and I’m sure some golf scores were affected.
All of the DJ’s we’re playing it peaceful as far as attitudes go, and the MC for the event kept reiterating the days mantra. “Today, all DJ’s are equal. No one is better than anyone else.” I think that last year things got a little rowdy.
The star of the day was without a doubt DJ Touch Tone, who is a veteran radio DJ of 20 years, and also just happens to be blind. Yes blind, he can’t see.
The man rocked doubles so nice he had people jumping up and down in front. Quite a treat indeed.
Check out the photo’s, and stop back to see some video from the event. I should get to that in a few.

From www.phillydjday.com

“Philadelphia disc jockeys have long played an invaluable roll in promotioning music.  A DJ’s “mix” often serves as a soundtrack to a celebration or sets the mood to evoke emotion.

In the 1980s, Philadelphia experienced an explosion o f rap and hip-hop, with has launched the careers of music sensations including DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, Mike Nyce and the late EC La Rock into stardom.

Using turntables to express themselves, numerous Philadelphians have proudly earned accolades for their innovation in the music industry.  Cash Money, Baby DST, Gary O, Cosmo Baker, and Brendan Bring’em are just a few noteworthy DJs who have put Philadelphia on the map for this music genre.

Today,  Jonene Taddei and Kamau Stanford will bring together more than 100 local mix masters for the 2nd annual Philadelphia DJ Day.  With several days of celebration,education and inspiration to follow.

THEREFORE…

I, Michael A. “Mix Master Mix” Nutter, Mayor of the City of Philadelphia, due hereby proclaim September 24

THE PHILADELPHIA DISC JOCKEY DAY and urge all citizens to recognize the creative influence of Philadelphia’s prominent disc jockey in our cities and around the world.”

The 8th hole was Jumpin!

DJ Touch Tone killing it.



Check out our DJ bag The North To South Messenger here. Perfect for going to the record store, the club, the coffee shop, or office.

Tucker & Bloom caught up with DJ Ayres at the September NY’s Finest, a party happening monthly in NYC’s Plan B.
If you don’t know about the man, make sure you do your homework. Check out www.djayres.com, and
The Rub.

Tucker & Bloom: What’s in your bag at all gigs?
DJ AYRES: Serato records, headphones, laptop, serato box, and allergy pills

T&B: What is one track you can pull out at any time, that is guaranteed to always rock it?
A: I do so many different gigs. Umm..Hot Music by Soho.

T&B: Bathroom break song?
A: We have these records that we made…rough edit records that are mega mixes. Each side is 15 minutes long but it changes songs like every minute and a half to two minutes. We just recorded ourselves djing really good sets and did a rough medley. So I put that on and it sounds like I’m still djing. So I can do whatever and come back.

T&B: Most influential DJ?
A: Jazzy Jeff. DJ Spinna. Guys that can play hip hop, R&B, house, classics, reggae, rock, or whatever and are really good at all of those things.  I like really versatile sets.

T&B: Strangest request?
A: Oh god! At Lotus about year and a half ago they would transition over from a being a restaurant to being a night club. When I would get there they would make me wait till everyone was done eating. So you would get there at 10:30, but it might not happen till 11o’clock depending on how much people were spending. So anyways that would bring really odd people into night club situations who wouldn’t normally be there, because you have a dinner crowd rubbing elbows with a nightclub crowd. There were these girls who must have been ether teenagers or college kids, they were very young with their mother and her friend. You know, two middle aged women, two younger women. So the girls come over and they bring me a napkin, and usually when you get a napkin its gonna be like “Can you play Chingy” “Can you play Black Eyed Peas” or Brittany. You know some pop shit or something like that, but she had written on the napkin “Can you play some old music? My grandmother just died and it would really mean a lot to my mom.” This is still in the warm up part of the night, so I did a Motown Set, which I would do anyway. Its not a stretch at all (for me) to play oldies. They loved it and came over afterwards.  They were really happy. It was so weird. You look at them and think Brittany Spears fans, or you know..“These cougars are gonna want to hear some bullshit”, but all they wanted to hear the Temptations. It was great and weird. That happens like one in a million.

T&B: Have you ever had anyone who didn’t know you were a professional DJ come up to you and emphatically demand that you switch the song or turn off what’s playing?
A: Yeah all types of shit. You know you will have people who are going to the club for themselves or with their little group of people, and a girl will come up and be like “Can you play Motley Crue? Everyone would really love it if you played Motley Crue right now.” No…I’m not gonna do that because the crowd here. It’s ten o’clock at night, so even if I were to play it, it’s the wrong time. These people want to here Total or 112, they don’t want to be banged in the head with bottle service rock. Than another girl comes over and is like “Can you play Motley Crue?” and you think, “Didn’t you just come up here?” Ooh…that was your friend. They send all their friends over . I get it. EVERYONE wants to hear Motley Crue right now, but I’m still not playing it. You can’t trick me.the demographics don’t work. A lot of times people just want to hear something and don’t understand that there is a room full of people your entertaining. And that you’re trying to hold on to 90%, not trying to please 10%. If I can get to the other 10% over the course of several hours I’ll be really happy, but you cant just shift gears just to make one person happy because its their birthday and loose everyone else. You have to make them feel like they are a part of something and not in exclusion to everyone else.. You have to explain to someone in so many words that it’s not all about you. It’s not all about me. I don’t love this song that I’m playing right now but look at the crowd. Other times at The Rub, its just like “Fuck No”,“We’ve been here for seven years, and there is a line around the block. Please leave so someone else can come in and I can make ten more dollars from someone who would love to get in and be very happy to be here.” Sometimes I’ll be doing a wedding or something and someone will come over and say “Can you play some metal?” and its like “hummmm.“That actually happened to me at a venue in when I played a wedding for this music executive guy who was very emphatic about wanting this song, and this song, and this song, and this song. “This is my second marriage and I just want to hear what I want to hear.” So you’re just gonna do what this guy wants and try to make it a good wedding. A woman comes over and asks, “can you play metal?” and its like…let me figure out who this person is. If it’s the bride, fuck yeah…I’m playing what ever you want.  If its just some drunk asshole cousin, than no…what are you doing? Your making a huge mistake. This guy wants world music. Metal is definitely not gonna get me tips.

T&B: Do you still dig for records?
A: yeah.

T&B: How has Serato changed the way you dig?
A: Oh hugely. Now getting the record is like a last resort because it used to be that you were judged for your selection, but now with Serato everybody has everything. Even with CDJs it was like this before Serato. You could play the stupid song that they did on Saturday Night Live the night before and get a reaction. So the digging from that perspective…nobody cares. Nobody is gonna come in the booth and be like “Eww, he’s playing that off an Ipod”, or mp3, or he’s using Ableton with a midi controller or whatever. Nobody gives a shit. If people here a hot song, they like it.  On the other hand, there is a ton of shit that you can get on record that you can’t get on amazon.com or itunes. Stuff you can’t find it on a blog, kids don’t know about it, that’s still really hot, that excites me and my peers. So for that reason I’m still buying records because that stuff just hasn’t made it to mp3 yet, or you’ve looked for it and a mp3 doesn’t really exist. Nobody has it and you just have to spend $100 on it because the ten other people who have that 45 aren’t trying to let that song get out. There is much less of that than there used to be. Every year it gets less and less. I think that now it’s less about getting really exclusive records and more about getting really exclusive edits, getting tracks from DJs before they come out. Not on some breaking a record shit, but just a cool version of something before everyone else has it.

Check out Ayres rocking the North to South dj bag in gray, get it here .