Press breakfast at Pack & Smooch 2018
No, Sunny and Trixie are not new additions to the range. The two elderly wire-haired dachshunds who belong to the family nonetheless stole the show from our phone sleeves, laptop bags and accessories when we invited journalists to a press breakfast at our Hamburg premises in 2018. Over canapés and freshly brewed coffee we walked them through production, followed at every step by our two part-time four-legged residents.
We began by telling them how we became what we are. It all started in 2011 with a roll of wool felt costing 700 euros. With a template and a rotary cutter we cut the pieces for our first laptop sleeve on the floor at home. The sewing machine we had borrowed from our mother rattled away tirelessly. Our first product went out into the world through Etsy. Since then Pack & Smooch has stood for handwork, selected materials and functional design.
Enthusiasm for vegetable-tanned leather
In our rooms in a former Hamburg chocolate factory, half a dozen rolls of wool felt and layers of leather wait to be worked. The five members of the writing profession felt and smelled our vegetable-tanned leathers with real enthusiasm. They were particularly taken with the „Demeter leather", a matt light brown hide from cattle raised biodynamically.
What we have not lost over the years is the pleasure in the work, and the appetite for trying things. We are not externally financed and get no pressure from outside. Back then we still sourced our raw wool from Australia and announced that we wanted to establish our own wool felt blend. We have since done exactly that: our own mulesing-free blend now comes from New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina.
Looking over our makers' shoulders
On the tour of the workshop our guests walked past oversized cutting tables and delicate sewing and embossing machines. Here and there they looked over the shoulders of our makers, for instance while snap buttons were being set into the CORRIEDALE XS cable bag, whose ultra-flat magnetic closures are checked every single time.
A KESWICK with embossing to take home
On leaving, every journalist had the chance to give our KESWICK card holder a personal touch: initials of their choosing in silver, gold or blind embossing, pressed into the leather with heat and a good deal of force.
After two hours the dachshunds Sunny and Trixie had had enough of public relations. Dog-tired, they settled on the workshop floor.
