MADE AND CRAFTED – Chrome Citizen Salvage Series
Sometimes being fed up is one hell of an option. More times than history could ever recount, it’s the only option you could ever have that’s going to make a significant difference in your life. No compromise, just everything you need and everything you could ever use to build it better, to build something stronger.
That’s what I did. That’s what the founders of Chrome Industries did.
Chrome Industries was founded 1995 in Boulder, Colorado by a couple of bicycle messengers fed up with a the quality and function of the bags being manufactured for everyday working messengers. Starting with a Juki sewing machine, several yards military grade fabric, some car sear belts they were able to tear out and a determination to make something that works hard for them. They began sewing and crafting a reputation for creating some of the finest and incredibly functional bags around. Seventeen years later and a giant leap to San Francisco, the company is still doing what it does best. Sewing durable bags and today they are constructing beautiful apparel and functional footwear for the many who absolutely need something more out of the products they entrust to have as a part of their lives.
One of the first pieces I purchased that exemplified the standards of quality and the motion to purchase “irreplaceable, not disposable” was my Chrome Salvage Series Citizen Buckle Bag. It completely solidified my thoughts on how I should approach a product and how it’s utility in my everyday use. I simply thought to myself “Is this something I’ll use for now?” or ”Do I want this as a integral part of my life?”
“Do I want others to look at this product and have it echo the stories I’ve experience with it?”
The bag has done just that. It’s a specialty release from Chrome Industries that forgoes it standard Cordura shell and instead fabricated with reclaimed U.S. Army canvas tents. Each one is unique as the next, individually stamped with the number in it’s lot and every run of the model ending when the fabric finally runs out. It’s a product that I consider close to my heart because it’s unique in it’s own run and it carries a rich amount of the experiences I have had with it. From midnight rides on the south side of Chicago to the lakefront with a mini keg in tow, to hauling parts of my life 2,000 miles across the country to my new home of San Diego, to becoming an heirloom of my personality that when viewed upon, depicts the kind of person I have grown to be.
It’s a bag that people have come to identify myself with. As if were no different then the hair on my head. It’s practically a part of me. I’ve worked myself hard into this bag and it shows on it’s scarred fabric and the stress into it’s seams. I’m proud to own it and proud to support a company like Chrome Industries. They make fantastic products (to which I own several!) and believe the functionality and merits of their products outlast and over performed what their makers ever intended for them to do.
- Cruz