Un-Gatekeeping the Tree-Hugger Tote
They took their sweet, sweet time but FREITAG bags have at long last found their cool and hit IYKYK accessory status. As a years-long fan, I must reluctantly un-gatekeep.
Once my sock-and-sandal-wearing geography teacher's satchel-maker of choice, the Swiss brand has become an unassuming favorite amongst style-savvy city folk. I'd know ‘cause I see them all around me.
Sure, it has long been popular with an eco-conscious, slightly cliché cohort of otherwise disengaged consumers. But FREITAG is picking up momentum among young fashion disciples, not unlike what happened to Birkenstock.
FREITAG was founded in 1993 in response to Markus Freitag’s need for a roomy, waterproof means of carrying his coursework.
Legend has it that, while studying art in Zurich, he noticed trucks zooming past on a nearby freeway and felt compelled to reimagine their colorful tarpaulins as bags.
To this day, every FREITAG bag is still cut from weathered truck tarps with old seatbelts for straps. It's in their nature to be unequivocally unique in pattern and texture.
No FREITAG is exactly like another, each individually assembled from a stock of circularly salvaged textiles and priced anywhere between $100 to $400.
Add a handful of scene-y collaborations with the likes of Hender Scheme and COMME des GARÇONS — FREITAG has particularly style-conscious presence in Japan, where it maintains a flagship in Shibuya — a couple of especially smart stockists, and you've got yourself an intriguing case study.
For most of its lifespan, FREITAG was more functional than cool. Its sturdily sizeable bags and green-ish backstory granted it popularity with a bookish, if not stylish, sort of shopper.
But, as far as today's 'fit-checking Gen Zs are concerned, FREITAG is due more flowers. Its bags are a welcome relief from overhyped competitors to some, a “Cool Copenhagen Girly workwear bag” to others. Its crossbodies are what one ought to opt into when seeking something with more personality than the COSs and UNIQLOs of the world.
Though somewhat painful for me to say, I fear this might be a taste of the slow-growing but juicy fruits of FREITAG's low-key splendid social media game, labored by its own camp as much as by fans.
Each party has put a PR team's worth of efforts, actual or figurative, purposefully or not, into shifting the bags’ perception from tree-hugger totes to familiar TikTok sight, not despite but because of FREITAG's previous lack of cool.
Are we on the cusp of a post-Wirkin Sirkin — the Sustainable Birkin? Nah, don't think so. But does the FREITAG have the potential to resemble a Telfar-ian takeover?
I mean, hey, quasi-recyclable bags seem all the rave anyway, am I right?
