Nothing worth having is easy. Just ask the folks at Knickerbocker Mfg. who we contracted to do the sewing of our design. They'll tell you it takes at least two hours to sew each strap.

This strap design was quite a challenge to construct. We started sampling in the West. After many failed attempts, we turned our sights to the East. We both travel the USA with frequency for work with clients. Adding some extra time on either coast was exciting. The challenge became finding the right partner to construct our design.

"We wanted the camera strap to be our first completed design. They say you should never want something so bad you'll do anything for it, but that was exactly where we were at. Elsewhere is about great photography that tell a story without needing a single word. It had to be the strap!" - Jasen

Knickerbocker calls itself a true union. It shows. Everyone is working together, even if they're working on separate projects. Sharing rent, lunch, beers, an afternoon skate- all lend to this vibe of togetherness. Its an idea that many factories in the USA could benefit.

But what about us, how did we fit in? We were just getting started. We had nothing to offer such a great organization . We were just two people with an idea that didn't make sense to anyone. What is Design Travel? You do what? We spoke from our hearts, told the guys what Elsewhere would be. Hell, we hadn't even launched our site yet. All we had to show was a shoddy sample and a small Instagram feed. We showed them our design. Explained our life of travel. We knit up our network of common friends. Things started to gel.

Asking these guys to make time on thier machines was quite a reach. Our first sample took a one half of a day to make with a seamstress. Take into account that we sourced our materials from 1970's Army Surplus. Working with vintage is not easy. There is no consistency. That makes the cutting and sewing difficult, not to mention slow. Then, keep in mind we only wanted to make *35 straps (as a nod to the 35mm camera). *This last one almost made this design project impossible.

Lucky for us, Dan Mc Rorie who co-founded Knickerbocker MFG took us under his wing. Dan handles projects in the factory that aren't related to its namesake brand. For all things branded, Andrew Livingston takes the reigns. Dan's passion (and responsibility) is to take on projects from which the factory can benefit. For some lucky reason, he decided to add us to the queue. Our gut tells us Dan saw something in Elsewhere that he lives each day. A passion to build a well designed product. That's what lead him to help us out.

Lucky for us, not only did the stars align to get our first project constructed. We also made some new friends that will be part of the family at Elsewhere for years to come.

If you care to read a much deeper story, you can head to our journal and read design notes, journal posts from the various trips to NYC to build this project and more. Just use the filter and select Elsewhere001.