Imagine you were going to make a man's bag. A large, luxury bag that you could take away for the weekend. What features would you include? Tanned leather? Of course. Handmade by skilled craftsmen¹? Yes. So beautiful that flight attendants line up to talk to you about it? OK. Now, think how much it would cost to make such a bag in America.

 

These were questions that entrepreneur Steven Fischer asked himself when developing the bag he has just brought to market. The answer he came up with is $10,000. Seems like a lot for a bag. But there are good reasons why the price is so high.

 

His story started when he spotted² an old leather bag in auction³. He says it spoke⁴ to him emotionally, and he bought it on the spur of the moment. When a group of flight attendants said to him, "Sir, we don't know where you got that bag, but that is the most beautiful bag we've seen in a long time" he started to think about the viability⁵ of producing more, similar bags.

 

Finding suppliers was not easy - the pool of talent needed to make handmade products has shrunk enormously in America and other developed countries. Fischer spent months driving across America's mid-West finding artisans. But as time passed he built up a network of skilled workers including saddle makers⁶ and craftsmen from traditional Amish communities who reject modern technology.

 

The result is a highly desirable, 100% US-made bag. But will it find buyers? Industry experts are unsure. On the one hand, competition is fierce, and big players in the industry will always have an edge because they benefit from economies of scale. However, the experts also say there is a growing interest in the provenance⁷ of luxury goods.

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