Back of the Napkin
May 13th, 2024

A few Strathmere thoughts and updates

The post below originally appeared on my personal blog, putting it here because this is where thoughts like this belong as all of this is really some back of the napkin thinking.


The Strathmere
I originally set out to make a duffle bag, ended up with this lovely creation instead.
I originally set out to make a duffle bag, ended up with this lovely creation instead.

The launch of The Strathmere leather weekend bag didn’t happen last week as I had originally planned. I want to launch the initial Strathmere Bag in tandem with The Strathmere Club which is going to be a membership program of sorts and offer an initial primary benefit of knocking 35% off the retail price of The Strathmere leather weekend bag. I want this initial launch to coincide with the “club” so that those initial owners of the weekend bag have a bit of buy-in to the ground floor of what I see becoming an entire line of leather luggage: The Strathmere Collection. Members being able to enjoy that discount for the entire collection, members also being able to have direct input on the pieces included, the designs, etc. Members also having access to member only products and product variations. I really see awesome and exciting things with this program!

All of this is just waiting on me to build out the backend support of the membership program. Maybe initially more complicated than it should be, to get the bag available for sale, but I want to at least get part of this idea baked out and available for use so I can iron out any wrinkles sooner than later. I’ll ship it all this week. Ideas are one thing, putting them out there is required though. They can’t just live in draft form forever. 

Chat GPT
I fed ChatGPT some thoughts on a sticker design for "the club" and it came up with this...which was almost an exact match to my expectations!
I fed ChatGPT some thoughts on a sticker design for "the club" and it came up with this...which was almost an exact match to my expectations!

Related to The Strathmere, I’ve been using Chat GPT heavily as a research tool, source of ideas, a sounding board for my crazy thoughts, and even to generate images or at least the idea of images. It has really helped me to think outside of the box on several things related to The Strathmere weekend bag, The Strathmere Club, and the Strathmere Collection. Is this crazy? I even find myself using it to talk out loud to in the car while I drive. Using that time to get some really crazy ideas processed, do research on things, and so on.

an image by ChatGPT using words I gave it...pretty impressive.
an image by ChatGPT using words I gave it...pretty impressive.

Other Strathmere Ideas

One of the first bags I made was this lovely thing I called Across Town. I’m going to be making it again, with a few tweaks, and will have it has part of The Strathmere Collection. Where The Strathmere, the original, the weekend bag, the “cabin size” bag, is intended to carry clothing for up to around 4 days or so, Across Town, a name which may change, will be more of an overnight bag, being suitable for one or two nights away. I love this size of a bag because it is perfectly suitable as-well to use as a “day bag”. My plan at the moment is to remake the bag this week, or even next week, so that I have it for my Pittsburgh trip at the end of the month. That trip is two nights, Friday and Saturday, with all day Saturday being out of the hotel and going from cigar shop to cigar shop. The bag will be perfect for that initial carry of luggage to the hotel. It will then be unpacked at the hotel and become the day bag I use for Saturday...and so on. 

Product Pricing

I don’t mean to make this such a work related post but it is always on my mind. I have so many ideas and so many things that I want to do and try. A lot of which I should be writing about on my other blog, Back of the Napkin, but I’m here at the moment and so will just put the thoughts here. One of the big changes I’m making this year with my business is how things are priced. Profit is needed, margins. I need to cover cost of material, I need to cover cost of equipment and such, I need to cover the minimal overhead I have, I need to eat and pay my bills. And I also need to have money set aside within my business for investing in growth, marketing, buying in bulk at lower prices, and so on. As such, my prices need to go up. The Strathmere line will reflect this from the start, variations of my other current product lines will reflect it as well. I’ll be very close to: 

((Material+Labor)*2)*2


This allows for discounts that don’t eat into things, and also allows for wholesale opportunities. Plus allows for seasonal staff, and so on.