Problem: Poor quality tote bags, most tote bags people use are throw aways from the supermarket or bad quality muslin or a canvas with a boring print on them. 

Solution: Something durable, reusable, functional, with a tip of the hat to my target audience… NYC artists

As mentioned before I have developed a deep appreciation for street art that has been expanding since I was a child. This combined with one of my close friends making fun of how childish I looked with a backpack, inspired me to explore bags besides the backpack. Out of all of my options I decided to experiment with something I hadn’t used before, a tote bag. I heavily considered how to cater this design to myself, but then even further to my current target consumer, and beyond that how I could constantly remarket it in the future. During covid street art picked up and as a result it became easier to sell products marketed towards graffiti writers. This inspired me to give the bag a plush lining with a print of NYC’s subway system. Everybody draw parallels between graffiti and the NYC subway system of the 70s- early 90s. With that said the NYC subway is a broadly appreciated cultural icon that relates to people globally, and I can make new prints of different city maps to sell to new markets. I stuck with my ottertex durable waterproof fabric for the face, including durable polypropylene straps, a 2 way zipper closure, and an inside pocket for organization. Overall these bags were a hit and I sold them to a variety of stockists throughout the city, in hand to hand meetups, from my own websites, and even sold altered versions with different linings to stores throughout the country including: California, Florida, Washington, New York, New Jersey, etc. The NYC tote bag comes in 21x18 inches and 13x11 inches.