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The world of fashion and textiles is steeped in a ton of history, and one of the better examples is the fabric behind our new Commuter Backpack & Tech Sack from English textile company British Millerain.
If you’re like me, when you first heard that name you may have wondered what makes it so interesting that it’d be the primary selling point behind a new LTTStore product. Lucky for me, all I had to do was go downstairs and chat with our fashion design team. Lucky for you, Linus sometimes lets me out of the LTTStore Customer Service mines long enough to tell you what I learned.
In the fashion industry in general, everyone wants to move away from synthetic fabrics, both for subjective value as well as environmental sustainability concerns. Because of that, we’re seeing a lot more products being made with naturally-derived materials like cotton. With that philosophy in mind, we were led to explore what products in our catalog might be suitable for a redesign, and with what materials.
British Millerain, the company, got its start in the 1880’s making sailcloths. Before they came along, Royal Navy sailors would treat their sailcloths with linseed oil to keep them from getting too wet. Linseed oil was effective at the time it was applied, but didn’t last. The sailcloths would turn brittle and yellow over time.
To combat that problem, British Millerain developed a paraffin-based wax (similar to what’s used to make candles) to replace linseed oil. They found that not only did the new wax last longer, but it didn’t damage the sailcloths and the wax could be continually re-applied, dramatically increasing the service life of the sails themselves. Over time the use of British Millerain’s waxed cotton grew to encompass a variety of different applications.
How does that translate to a better backpack though? Well thanks to that century-old innovation, we know that much like leather goods, waxed cotton lasts a long time with a little bit of upkeep, and when we say long, we mean not just years, but decades. Re-applying the wax is easy. Whenever you notice the water resistance starting to fade a little, you can buy more wax and easily reapply it yourself. Just spray on a thin layer and let it dry.
Another thing that improves the longevity of our waxed cotton products is the added ripstop. A ripstop is exactly what it says on the tin; an added yarn applied over top of the fabric that adds tear resistance. Usually these are applied in a square grid pattern, but we did ours in a hexagon pattern because we love hexagons in this house.
When a normal fabric becomes torn, that rip can easily continue along the entire length of the fabric. With a ripstop, in the event that something does puncture or tear the fabric, that tear is actually prevented from growing because the additional yarn gets in the way. That's important because the other thing we love in this house is repairability, and a ripstop makes it way easier to sew in a patch and keep on rollin’.
Of course, we can wax on (...sorry) about waxed cotton forever, but you’re the ones who’ll really decide, and we’re excited to see how it lands with you! So if all this sounds like it’s up your alley, be sure to check out our British Millerain-edition Commuter Backpack & Tech Sack and pick yours up while they’re still around! We just might look into what other products we can refresh with this new partnership, so keep your eyes peeled and make sure to get subscribed to the LTTStore newsletter in the meantime.
