Hi.
I boulder, and I like having a project going. Something to figure out on my own, something that's mine. At some point that project became: could I make a chalk bag I actually wanted to carry?
So I did. The design, the site, the back and forth with the factory. I liked all of it. The part that scared me was the rest. Putting it out there, selling it, talking to people about it. That part I kept putting off.
Then I jumped, and the scary part turned out to be the best part. The people I've met. The nerves before a conversation. The strangers who said yes to drawing something on my bag. I set out to make a product and ended up with a whole lot of stories.
You don't need to ask people to draw on it every time. But ask a stranger once in a while. You'll be surprised by the conversations it starts.
's-Hertogenbosch.
Every other chalk bag is finished.
Grey, brown, a logo you didn't choose. Fine at the wall, boring in your hands. And half of them still close with a drawstring that fights you while you're pumped.
MAG BAG started as a list of complaints: magnets at the top so it doesn't spill, a mesh pocket on the side, brush loops that hold a brush, a bottom you can stand it on. And a surface you can draw on, because if I'm making my own bag it's not going to look like everyone else's.
Six samples. Three factories.
One bag.
I talked it through with a friend, then went looking for people online who could turn a list of complaints into a real design. That gave me something I could send to manufacturers in China.
The hard question was the surface. Nobody could tell me what you can actually draw on with chalk and still wipe clean. So I asked three factories to send samples and find out. Sample 01 was rough, but chalk showed up on it, and that was enough to keep going. The surface got sorted long before the closure did. Six samples later, one bag had both right.
People drew on it before I asked them to.
The first bags went to friends and to the gym. They liked the magnets and the mesh pocket. Then they picked up chalk and started drawing stupid things on each other's bags, and that was the moment MAG BAG stopped being a product I designed.
You spend months on something without knowing if anyone else will care. They did. I ordered 500.
There's no
other like it.
Blank black surface. You decide what goes on it, you wipe it, you decide again. That isn't a feature, it's the point. Every other chalk bag is already finished when you buy it. This one starts when you pick up the chalk.
Walk into a gym with a MAG BAG and there's no question which one is yours. No logo, no colourway you didn't choose, just whatever you drew. And the next session you can draw something else, or add to it, or start over.
Most gear blends in. A MAG BAG stands out, not because it's loud, but because it's yours.
- MAG BAG makes one bag.
- Black. One colour.
- The chalk is the pen.
- The bag is the canvas.
- No two are the same.
- Brush off. Re-draw. Repeat.
- Designed in the Netherlands. Shipped from 's-Hertogenbosch.
We've got answers.
Cleaning, shipping, returns, chalk. The stuff people actually ask. Read the full FAQ →
Secure your pre-order.
Get free chalk.
Pre-order today and get free chalk included.