The Victoria Saddle Bag design for Brooks grew out of playful fashion observations within cycling. By initially observing how women carried their bags while cycling and the problems associated, along with the problems of using existing saddle bags in inner city environments. We started to think about how a bag could be more integrated with the bicycle, make for an easier ride and be easy to add and remove.
These observations lead to considering the relationship between the saddle and the bag. Initially we thought that there might be an idea in being able to take your saddle and saddlebag with you as you do your bag.
The bag and saddle integration became a functional product as well as something compelling and full of character.
The bag takes on a very saddle look, which makes it very iconic as a bag form. A conscious decision was made not to hide much of the bag expression in its saddle use so as to express its other function while transformed. Existing saddle bags do not offer a friendly opportunity to ‘take it with you’ and are therefore not really a viable option when thinking inner city use due to risk of theft.
Designed by Ian Mahaffy
