"With the energy of being twenty-something, I’d spend hours past midnight making bags, still showing up for my work the next morning. "
In the early 2010s, I was working as an industrial designer in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was an exciting time to be there. I got to work on projects ranging from consumer electronics, sports equipment, to pet products. Startups seemed to appear overnight, endless investment was pouring into new ideas, and as a young designer, this was my dream job. But despite all of that, I couldn't shake the feeling that something else was calling me.
While I was designing products during the day, I was learning how to sew bags and backpacks after work. I spent nights teaching myself how to sew, construct patterns, learn how materials behaved, and improve my craft. There was something deeply satisfying about sewing a bag inside-out, flipping it over to reveal the finished product, testing it, then tearing it apart and making it better. Bags brought out an obsessive side of me that I still can't fully explain. With the energy of being twenty-something, I’d spend hours past midnight making bags, still showing up for my work the next morning.
As Tony said wrote one time, "Travel isn't always pretty. It isn't always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that's okay. The journey changes you; it should change you." For a roundup of Bourdain's episodes in Vietnam, see: Anthony Bourdain in Vietnam: Retrospective & Review by Vietnam Coracle
I used all the days off I could to fly to various countries in Asia. Naturally, I wanted to start bringing my bike along. Exploring an unfamiliar place on foot is liberating, but a bike opens up another level of freedom. I love the feeling of building your bike at a destination and, within minutes, exploring roads, neighborhoods, and landscapes that most travelers would never experience.
Except my first attempt to bring a bike to Asia never actually happened.
I booked flights for a multi-country trip, but didn't realize until later how much it would cost to fly with a bike on every leg of the journey. Between the airline fees and the thought of dragging a huge bike case from country to country, I eventually gave up on bringing it.
I had a great trip without the bike, but I came home with a problem to solve. I channeled the energy of that trip into designing a bike case small enough to avoid many airline fees and compact enough to actually travel with once I landed.
The bike travel cases available at the time were bulky, difficult to store, and awkward to move around once you arrived. As a designer, I couldn't stop thinking about how they could be improved. The more cyclists I spoke with, the more I realized the problem wasn't unique to me. And so I started building my own bike cases—one prototype after another, solving one problem after another. This project eventually became the Transfer Case. You can read more about the origin of the Transfer Case here.
It all came together.
Looking back, I'd accidentally built a career around the four things I loved most: bags, bicycles, design, and travel. What started as a personal project, quickly grew into something I didn’t expect.
In 2018, I left California and moved to Vietnam. Originally, it was to be closer to manufacturing. Being closer to factories allowed me to prototype faster, solve problems more directly, and spend more time refining products. Being on the ground in Vietnam gives me direct access to factories, materials, and prototyping.
What I didn't expect was how much I would come to enjoy living there. Bourdain always said Vietnam was his favorite place, and it was only when I was there that I could see why. Weaving through noisy streets, eating at tiny food stalls, and being immersed in the energy of the city suited the way I like to work and design. Vietnam eventually became home.
I launched my first product, the Transfer Case, a compact travel bike case that grew out of the frustrations of my first attempted bike trip. Every product since has followed the same philosophy: solve one very specific problem, and solve it in a way that doesn't already exist. If I can't make something meaningfully different, I don't think it deserves to exist. For the first time, I wasn't designing someone else's product. I was designing something that reflected exactly how I thought products should be made.
You can read more of the origins of other bags in more detail here: The Slim Frame Packs / The Loomer
Eight years later.
Post Carry Co. has taught me more than being a designer in the Bay Area ever would have.
Remember I mentioned all those bags I made when I was starting off, POST-work? That's actually where the name Post Carry comes from—it all happened after work.
In a strange way, Anthony Bourdain played a small role in that journey. He told me to get out of my comfort zone. Years before I moved to Vietnam, his shows convinced me there was a bigger world worth exploring, and I just ended up exploring it with a bicycle. The bags just happen to be the best way I can share my skills to the world, and I hope it inspires other cyclists to explore the world too.
-Marc Mendoza
Founder & Designer @ Post Carry Co.