Chapter 01

THE IDEA THAT WOULD NOT GO AWAY

It started the way most real ideas start. Yes, frustration.

We spent years buying, carrying and selling bags from brands across the globe. We knew what the market offered. We knew what it kept getting wrong.

The same gaps kept showing up: Bags that looked right but carried wrong. Sleeves with no real protection. Bases that collapse the moment they were set down. Buckles that needed

The same gaps kept showing up. Bags that looked right but carried wrong. Sleeves with no real protection. Buckles that took both hands and half a minute to adjust. Interiors impossible to read in dim environments. Materials that looked premium but failed in six months.

New releases came. The gaps remained. And we stopped waiting.

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Chapter 02

6 Failures Nobody Was Fixing

Before we designed a product, we wrote down every failure in a requirement list. Every problem we had personally experienced across every sling we ever owned, carried, or sold.

Every sling we tested before building our own.

#	The Problem	What We Experienced
01	No bottom protection for iPad sleeve	Most slings place padding on the back panel facing the body instead of the ground. When the bag drops, the device absorbs the full impact directly.
02	The bag collapsed when set down	Place most slings on a table and they tip over. Takes ten seconds propping it against something every single stop, everyday.
03	Taking too long to adjust carry position	Chest to side, then to back required removing the bag, loosening, repositioning, re-tightening. Thirty seconds with both hands.
04	One handle for everything	A single handle for a bag picked up, set down, and stacked on luggage.
05	Interior that is impossible to read	Dark lining inside a dark bag, and items disappear on every open. Digging becomes the defining experience of the bag.
06	Wrong choice of materials	Thin nylon that scuffs, coated fabrics that crack, and soft shells that absorb water. Materials that look good in photos and fail in actual conditions.

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Chapter 03

BEFORE FABRIC, THERE WAS PAPER

Before sourcing a single piece of material, we built the bag from paper, tape, and cardboard.

Base width, handle position, and what a 9L looks like at actual volume on an actual frame. These can't be answered on a screen. We had to answer them by building paper models.

13 paper versions were built before the structure held. Each one was folded, worn, adjusted, torn apart, and rebuilt. It taught us more about the bag than any software or AI ever could.

Now came the harder problem: finding someone capable of building it.

Early paper prototype. Three versions before this one was right.

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Chapter 04

THE SEARCH FOR SUPPLIERS

Building a bag from scratch means finding the right people to build it. This process alone was longer and more challenging than what we've expected.

We reached out to multiple suppliers across Mainland China. Factories specialising in carry gear, tactical bags, and premium outdoor equipment. We sent spec sheets, reference photos, and detailed questions about stitching standards, and material sourcing. Some replied fast. Some went silent. Some sent samples that looked nothing like what we asked for.

Every exchange taught us something. How to write a brief that left no room for misreading. Which factories understood quality versus which ones were optimising for speed. What would reveal whether a factory actually cared about the quality and build of the bags.

At one point, remote communication was no longer enough. We flew to them.

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Chapter 05

14 DAYS IN CHINA

Both of us flew to China for 14 days. Not for a sourcing tour or a holiday, but a business trip with one purpose: to find the right factory, touch the right materials in person, and confirm that the bag we had been designing for months could actually be built to the standard we needed.

We visited multiple factories. Some were large operations running dozens of production lines. Others were smaller workshops where every stitch was done by hand. We were not looking for the biggest factory. We were looking for the most attentive one.

Inside the factories we visited

At every stop, the assessment was the same: whether the factory personnel engaged with technical corrections or resisted them, whether they cared about the details the same way we did, and whether they could glance at a spec sheet and immediately understand what we were trying to achieve.

Machinery is replaceable, but the quality of attention isn't. We kept going until, we eventually found one.

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Chapter 06

FEELING THE MATERIALS IN PERSON

A material cannot be chosen from a photo. Spec sheets cannot replace what physical handling reveals. We handled every fabric in person before any decision was made. Bent it, scratched it, stretched it, and stressed it.

During the trip, technical fabrics like Ballistic Nylon, X-Pac, and Dyneema were evaluated on-site. Each one performs differently and tells a different story about a bag.

Assessing various fabric options

Material	What It Is	Our Verdict
Ballistic Nylon	Originally developed for body armour. Dense, tightly-woven, highly resistant to abrasion, tearing, and puncture.	Selected. Durable enough for daily punishment, and structured enough to hold the bag's form.
X-Pac	Laminated composite from sailing and ultralight outdoor gear. Lightweight, waterproof, distinctive cross-fibre appearance.	Impressive but did not fit the Nomadic's identity. Set aside for a future product.
Dyneema	One of the strongest fibres by weight. Used in bulletproof vests and ultra-premium carry gear.	Extraordinary material. Price point places it on the roadmap for future development.

Ballistic nylon was the clear and right call. It is a deliberate choice made with full knowledge of every other alternative.

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Chapter 07

STITCHING IS EVERYTHING

A bag can be made from the best material in the world and still fall apart at the seams. The quality of stitching is the difference between a bag that lasts two years and one that lasts a decade.

At every factory, stitching was the first thing we checked. Stitch density, thread tension, seam finishing at high-stress points. Whether bar tacks were correctly placed and corners reinforced, or simply folded and sewn over.

Then we gripped every seam and tested it under force. A bag that cannot survive a pull test cannot survive daily carry. We eliminated every factory that did not pass.

Inspecting stitching quality up close at the factory

The factory we chose passed every test. More importantly, they understood why we were testing. They welcomed the scrutiny. That settled the partnership. Prototyping could begin.

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Chapter 08

11 ROUNDS OF PROTOTYPING

Signing a factory is not the end. It was the beginning of a new set of problems.

We carried each prototype hard for a full week in Singapore. Took it apart at the end, went back with a list of everything that wasn't right. Four key reiterations over months before a single unit was approved for production.

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The Result

EVERY FEATURE IS AN ANSWER

Every feature closes one problem from our requirement list.

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The Capacity

MOST IMPORTANTLY: WHY 9 LITRES?

9L is the exact volume that replaces a backpack for a focused day out. Tablet. Daily essentials. Water bottle. Everything that matters.

The Nomadic was designed to be the sling you reach for when a backpack is more than the day calls for, and a small sling falls short. That gaps is where the 9L lives.

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