From Truck Till Bag

By Daniel Freitag in the category From Truck Till Bag

Story date

27. Aug 2012

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STEP 1: TRUCKSPOTTING

It’s hard to believe with the endless columns of trucks out there on the transport routes, but used truck tarps aren’t just lying around on the street. And especially not the really good ones. Sourcing raw materials for FREITAG may not be Glencore but it is definitely hardcore. To ensure that our 250 F-Workers always have something to do and to eat, our five tarp buyers – also known as truck spotters – have to find and bring back approximately 800 tons of tarps to Nœrd each year. To accomplish this, the truck spotters are on the phone non-stop, or prowling around the truck stops of Europe to hunt down the best tarps in the hottest colors from trucks, truckers and shipping companies. Once they arrive at the F-actory, the tarps are given an ID for traceability and their constituents tested so that we can guarantee the safety of our products.

The endless hunting grounds of our truck spotters.

That one is still too young. Tarps need five to 10 years on the road to become fully mature.

Even small trailers can have beautiful tarps.

We receive about 500 deliveries per year at Nœrd from 350 different suppliers.

STEP 2: CUTTING TARPS

Freeing tarps from their imprisonment as dirty, bulky truck covers so they can be processed further is no walk in the park. We need men like Thomas to turn the gigantic tarp monsters into R.I.P.s (Recycled Individual Products) by first freeing them of eyelets, straps, belts and anything else that a FREITAG bag doesn’t need. With a sharp eye and an even sharper knife, the toughest boys on the F-Crew see the potential of each tarp that lands on their table. They then hack and carve prime cuts from the scruffy beasts and cut them into standardized 7.8-foot pieces, fold them together and send them off to the Laundry Department.

An entire tarp can weigh up to 132 pounds.

We really don’t like eyelets and other metal parts. We recycle them instead.

We manufacture “just in time”. We store a few tarp treasures in our warehouse for “bad times”, too.

STEP 3: WASHING

What happens in the NŒRD cellar has nothing in common with what you do in your laundry room – even though it might look almost the same. Obviously, bags have to be clean. However, the real work that our tarp washers like Mustapha and Zija carry out is to transform “used” into “patina” and “old” into “vintage” using 3963 gallons of rainwater daily along with our secret tarp-wash bath additive. After they have released the inner beauty of the old tarps and dried them, the tarps are bundled according to color and sent to the bag designers.

Approximately 10 tarp pieces can fit into one load.

Each wash cycle at 149 degrees requires between 130 to 150 gallons of water, which amounts to almost 5300 gallons daily. It’s a good thing we use rainwater from the rooftop garden.

Off it goes to Bag Design on the first floor.

The only thing that our bag designers have in common with all the other designers in the world: they like to wear black.

The parts that don’t make it as bags can look forward to their next life as an iPhone sleeve or shoulder pad.

A round peg has to fit in a square hole.

Numbered, stacked and off to be stitched and sewn.

STEP 5: COMPLETION

Only prototypes and test bags are sewn at the F-actory. We entrust the sewing of your FREITAG bag to experienced partners in Portugal, Poland, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Tunisia and Switzerland who understand how to carefully stitch together tarps that are thicker than leather. As soon as the bags are back at Nœrd, we show off our Swiss side and go over the bags with a fine-toothed comb to ensure that everything is in order and then select the products that will end up in a crate together according to the secret FREITAG color scheme. Unique products, which will be sold in the Online Shop, are then put on a pedestal and photographed from all sides.