Mike Reilly

Flashbags, the creator of hip handmade handbags (including its signature "Buzz Bags") and accessories, continues to generate a buzz of its own. The company co-founded by Ali Marchildon and Laura Cheney has moved to expanded quarters, invested in new production equipment, and taken on staff, while expanding production and tending to a "triple bottom line" to measure its growth.

At the same time, the owners have developed new product lines; nurtured partnerships with local and international nonprofit organizations, museums, and corporations; and worked with The Boston Globe to create a line of fashion gear celebrating the Boston Red Sox World Series Championships. In doing so, they have garnered significant local, regional and national media attention.

Flashbags products feature images ranging from art prints and photos to custom designs copied to paper and sealed in protective vinyl and finished with decorative stitching. The expanding line of Buzz Bags features thematic word collages. In addition to a number of sizes of bags, the company now offers wallets and checkbook covers, placemats, storage flash bins, wine totes, clutches and more.

Flashbags, which started production in Marchildon's living room less than two years ago, recently left its small office in downtown Burlington for 1,500 square feet of space in the Champlain Mill in Winooski. With the move, Flashbags expanded their team to include three new full-time and several part-time staffers. Cheney notes all staff are cross-trained and everyone of us is involved in production. Marchildon says the company also invested in three industrial sewing machines, and each machine is involved in the making of each bag. As a result, Marchildon reports, "We have increased production capacity by eight times."

Cheney says she and Marchildon took a calculated risk to hire core team members versus wage labor. "We hired brains and product knowledge, and people that complement us" she says. Marchildon says the new full-time hires also took risks, noting that Susanne Weidie moved from Washington, DC and Jeannie Tucker left a long-time professional position locally to join the staff. Her neighbor, Marina Ecklund, brought substantial production knowledge to the company. "They will all help train the next wave of employees," Marchildon adds.

Cheney says Flashbags short-term goal is to quadruple both sales and production. Both owners say that, as the company grows, they want the community to share in its success. They report Flashbags is working to establish a collaboration with COTS (Committee on Temporary Shelter) to provide pre-production positions, as well as job training and development.

A growing area of focus and activity for Flashbags is partnership with nonprofit organizations. The company launched a "Benefit Bags Campaign" with custom products aimed at generating awareness of, and contributions to, a number of local, national, and international causes. Flashbags' partnerships are as varied as its product line.

One is with Special Olympics. Working with chairman Timothy Shriver, Flashbags designed and produced a number of bags for the International Special Olympics held in China. "They sold out of all 50 bags we made," says Cheney. "They initially viewed it as a one-time purchase, but when they saw how well it worked out, they wanted to talk further." Cheney says they are finalizing a wider partnership with Special Olympics.

Locally, the company produced "Beat It" and "Save Our Assets" Flashbags for the S.D. Ireland Cancer Research Fund. The fund, launched by Kimberly (Wilson) Ireland and Scott Ireland, owner of S.D. Ireland Concrete Construction of Burlington, directly funds the work of UVM cancer researcher Dr. David Krag.

According to Cheney, another bag developed to benefit COTS is being displayed and sold at Stephen & Burns Salon Spa and Boutique in Burlington. Marchildon and Cheney report reaching out to Dragonheart Vermont, a breast cancer survivor dragon boat race team, about possible partnership, and are also talking with the Humane Society and other local organizations.

Courier Bag "Reflashed" for Echo

Flashbags is working with a number of companies to use the paper and vinyl "flash" process to create new products from old items, a process it calls re-flash. The concept of re-flashing is to reuse marketing or archival materials. "Ben & Jerry's started the conversation over a year ago," says Cheney, "but it had been on the back burner." She says talks were re-energized at the 2007 South End Art Hop. Flashbags has since developed 10 products, designed from old posters, cartons, and t-shirts. Marchildon says Ben & Jerry's plans to test-market the products at its factory store in Waterbury and the Burlington scoop shop on Church Street. Successful test marketing "could mean distribution to over 450 Ben & Jerry's scoop shops worldwide," she adds.

Cheney reports that the ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center shares a similar vision. She says ECHO's Julie Silverman approached Flashbags to help the Science Center "close the circle and reuse banners" from past exhibits as part of its commitment to the "green and sustainable museum" effort. The result is reflashed items, crafted from recycled materials, from ECHO's Grossology, Dinosaur and Bloodsuckers exhibits, on sale in ECHO's gift shop.

Another customer request led Flashbags to create a new line of limited-edition designs on bags, flash bins, wallets and checkbook covers: the Boston Globe Red Sox Championship edition.

"Jeannie fielded a call from a boutique asking if we could create products using Boston Globe pictures of the Red Sox' World Series win and celebrations," says Marchildon. After Tucker contacted the paper directly, Flashbags signed Boston Globe as a commissioned artist and went to work on the products, using pages referencing both the 2007 and 2004 Red Sox championships.

While they note that sales through the Boston Globe's online shop are a possibility, for now Flashbags is selling and distributing the products themselves. Marchildon says it remains to be seen how strong or far reaching demand for Red Sox-related products will be. " We'll see what happens," she says. "It's a wild card, but a fun one to play with,"

Marchildon says the experience with the Boston Globe takes the company back to its roots. "The idea was of 'flashing' iconic images, with an eye toward selling through MoMA [Museum of Modern Art] and The New Yorker."

Cheney says the pair see themselves moving somewhat away from custom photo and artisan bags in the future, and increasingly toward custom designs for specific marketing purposes, from news-driven events such as the Red Sox line, to corporate gifting designs, museum contracts, and nonprofit campaigns. She notes that Flashbags' partnership with Play Pumps, a campaign to solve the fresh water crisis in Africa, has driven significant business to their Website.

Still a small and relatively young company, they acknowledge Flashbags is still learning its production and distribution capabilities and limitations. "But we haven't held back on accepting orders and we haven't yet faced one we can' fill," says Marchildon.

While pursuing increased efficiency, Cheney adds the company is committed to more than the financial bottom line. "Flashbags are crafted products, made in Vermont. Our prime market doesn't want something mass-produced in China," she says.

Cheney and Marchildon say they did research on what processes to outsource and what to keep in-house. "At the end of the day," Marchildon reports, "we decided to keep it all in-house."

Cheney says the research also convinced them Flashbags is doing something brand new. "We are going against the grain," she adds. "But if we do it all here, we can maintain quality and we'll figure out the volume questions later."

The two agree that ultimately the decision was about the kind of company they wanted to have and the image they sought to project. "We're bringing new skills, new people, new training and jobs, and new products to the Vermont market," explains Marchildon. "We want to flash cool images, be successful, and contribute to the social and environmental bottom line at the same time. And I think we can do it."