It's with both misty eyes and a smile that I write, this is haul's final Xmas.
In 2013 we close the doors for good.
Last month I decided it was time to move on from haul and do something else.
I started haul back in 1998 in my parents garage in Tasmania. Initially turning old number plates into photo albums and journals, then making bags from truck inner tubes and advertising billboards. It's always been a family business, my mum Jan a dressmaker by trade sewed bags and my father Keith worked the stall at Salamanca Market in Hobart where we traded for years.
As a boutique business that grew, we sourced the materials, designed and made the products and flogged them in the physical and the digital, won an award or two along the way and maybe even helped steer a new word into the vocab: upcycling
I had bigger visions of what the brand would become; it just never quite got there. The last couple of years have been tricky, independent retail has become more challenging and the companies interested in getting products made from their old advertising billboards became less opening of their wallets.
It became clear that it is the right time to wind it up.
Some great people have worked at haul and helped grow the business over the journey: Vijitha our singing Sri Lankan production manager, Ana who did everything from admin and accounts to graphic design and building the website you're reading this on. Thimo our production, quality control and logistics guy and Luke who drove business development with a burst of energy when he came on board earlier this year.
I'd like thank all of the punters who bought our products over the last 14 years, it seems like I've actually met half of you!
To all those that have been eyeing one for awhile now is your last chance to own a piece of haul.
The retail store in North Fitzroy is open everyday until Xmas and the online store is full of gift ideas for those of you that don't want vanilla.
Gus the Boxer will be in the shop up everyday until Xmas then he is retiring to Tasmania to chase rabbits.
Cheers
Scott
ps. I've had to disable the comments because of spam. Head over to facebook if you'd like to leave a note.
Ana "The Spaniard" Garcia - Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Depite @MattIrwinPhotog being behind the camera, it really was @gustheboxer who called the shots on the Fitzroy and Flinders Lane @haul shoot earlier in the year. Great day. Good looking people with great looking products and eventually even Matt came round to Gus' direction.
Up top Scott flexes his muscles while below left we jump for joy. Below right was shot at Caffe Piccante, just across the road from haul in North Fitzroy. The models are Tyler (aka our barista) & his gorgeous lady Lindsey and of course an upcycled billboard MacBook case in it's natural environment.
Have a gawk around our site to see which photos made the final cut and to check out some more eye candy. For you and your Mac products.
He brought his girlfriend's 11"inch MacBook Air in to haul over the span of a few days and helped us design our new range of upcycled printer blanket rubber cases.
We made a sample, he brought in the MacBook Air, we refined the sample, Ben brought the MacBook Air back in, then we rinsed and repeated.
And there you have it. The new range is created.
Now we're tweaking the iPad case range. There is a new one out after all.
We put out a tweet earlier in the week for anyone
traveling back from the USA to Australia this weekend. Why? well we
needed an iPad2 and they launch in the USA pretty much now.
The iPad
isn't being released in Australia until March 25.
The reason we'd like to get hold
of one asap is that Apple being Apple don't release details of the iPad
specs until the bloke in the black turtle neck walks on stage and it's
hard to design an accessory for a product without having one to work
with, especially if you are designing cases to be an exact fit.
A
customer & friend of haul, Tom Howard answered our call. Tom has a travel
search business called Adiosoand is in San Francisco growing the biz. Tom and the Adioso boys are
flying out on Saturday so hopefully he'll have enough time to beat the ques, snag an ipad and make it to SFO in
time for the flight.
If a few fan boys have to be trampled for the greater good....so be it.
Ana "The Spaniard" Garcia - Thursday, December 16, 2010
In the words of Robert Palmer, they used to look good to you but now you find them, simply irresistible! Well, that's what you'll be thinking when you finally get a glimpse of our long awaited padded laptop bags.
So what's changed? Have we had a haircut? Lost some kilos? not quite.
Previously,
the main body of our bags were made up of a single piece of vinyl that
would wrap around to form the lid and main pocket of the bag. Which was
great, but after a bit of wear and tear, some rough usage, our bags were
looking a bit tired. You know, a bit of exercise and work is great, but
if your not offering good support and a balanced diet, things can start
to go pear shaped.
So we locked
the ringmaster, Scott, up in the haul attic with an old messenger bag, a
drawing board, a pencil and a toothbrush to see what he could come up
with (MacGyver can do it, why can’t Scott?).
The result? A toothbrush that can act as flying fox and support the
weight of a full grown man and a new design for our messenger bags.
To begin with, the new bags have a padded strap for extra comfort on
those long hauls. Zippers to make sections a little more secure and more
pockets!
Another thing you’ll notice is that there's more pieces of vinyl making
up the one bag. Combine the vinyl pieces with our top secret super
strength special black stuff and a little bit of padding (no one ever
complains about extra padding) and you've got yourself a pretty
impressive laptop bag.
Ana "The Spaniard" Garcia - Thursday, November 18, 2010
As we’re all about working with the past, who better then to combine our skills with someone working with the future?
So, we got to pondering, tarot readers and astrologists aside, who best creates for the future? Who are the thinkers of tomorrow? Universities, that’s who! Plus how many fortunetellers have their own billboards AND read your palm off a 15” MacBook*?
So after a little idea quid pro quo-ing, several coffees & some invigorating games of email ping pong we whipped up a little something-something for those academia at Melbourne’s RMIT.
The collaboration sees haul creating a range of products from recycled RMIT advertising banners – so similar to haul's very own stock, the RMIT range will be unique.
You find someone with similar interests, whether it be a shared appreciation for Hall & Oates circa 'Private Eyes' or like you, they just don't get Inception (so wait, let me get this straight, it's Leo's dream within a dream within a dream...?). And it means one more Christmas card in the mail and that extra 'happy birthday' Facebook wall post on your special day.
It's even more exciting when you new friend is gifted in the styling department. We've always thought haul's products were pretty styling, and our new friend does to. We've always said "haul's ideal for those effortlessly stylish 20-40 year old students and young professionals ". Our new friend couldn't agree more.
If you haven't figured it out yet, our new friend is local mens fashion store Brooksfield and we're developing a bit of a man crush!
Brooksfield will be stocking a range of haul products, including our iPad and MacBook sleeves in their two brand spanking new stores in South Yarra & World Square in Sydney.
You all have known, for quite sometime now, just how sexy haul is. It's a fact of life. Our products are pretty slick, everyone wants a piece of us. In fact, if you were at a bar and haulwas standing within your vicinity, you would be playing some serious eyesies with us.
Although they didn't quite think we were Sustainable enough, the design with-it kids at Desktop Magazine have fallen for our range's good looks and boyish charm. Our iPad sleeves and folios have left them weak at the knees. So much so, they feel we deserve our own centerfold. As seen in DESKTOP's September issue.
And just a heads up to those faint hearted out there, not since Don Johnson's 1987TV Guide centerfold (circa Miami Vice) have you seen a sexier photo spread.
We think it captures our curves in just the right light.
