The Art of Business

In the Bag: Ameribag Combines Comfort and Practicality
By Mala Hoffman. Photos by Beth Blis

According to company co-founder Irwin Gaffin, it’s no secret why AmeriBag® has grown significantly over the years. “We have a good niche market and an excellent product,” he says. “There’s no magic here.”

With factories in Asia and Barbados and a small production unit in Kingston, which is also the company’s headquarters, AmeriBag offers its ergonomically designed products in 1,500 retail stores across the country. The products, which include the Healthy Back Bag® as well as a collection of lifestyle bags, are also available in most of the major catalogues and in the United Kingdom, Europe, Japan, and the Caribbean, says vice president Todd Ravinett.

Gaffin, who owned the Woodstock Leather Company and has been working with leather goods since the 1960s, and his wife, Margery, started the company in 1987 originally to do contract work for L.L. Bean. After Margery had back surgery five or six years later, they designed their signature bag, which redistributes weight to reduce stress on the back, with the guidance of a local physician. While the original bag was leather, the products are now offered in a variety of materials, such as polyester, cotton, and micro fibers. “We’ve expanded the product offering while trying to stay within the constraints of the healthy design and ergonomics, which is a good selling feature of the products,” Gaffin explains. “We’ve been trying to increase the value and to use better materials, and we have successfully integrated new materials to update the products.”

The company has also continued to redefine its market. While the products were previously featured in luggage specialty stores, that area has grown soft in the recent economy. As Gaffin points out, “The luggage industry per se is falling by the wayside. That product offering is now found in mass merchandisers.” Instead, there have been inroads into other areas, such as small boutiques, chiropractors’ offices, and shoe stores, specifically those selling comfort shoes. “For us, it’s a conundrum,” Gaffin says. “We’re not really a handbag, but we’re not really travel luggage. We’re our own unique item.”

While that might seem like a limitation, it allows for some flexibility as well. “Even when sales are down, we suffer like all other companies do, but not at the level other companies do,” Gaffin says. “It’s peaks and valleys, but it has a softer curving. Our sales are pretty steady.”

The prices of the bags range from $25 to $200 and include different styles, sizes, and materials. The original bag comes in six sizes, Ravinett says, with extra small, small, and medium the most popular. Among the other selections are the Healthy Back Tech Bag®, designed for an active lifestyle; the Healthy Back Expedition Bag®, geared for travel; and the Healthy Back Baby Bag™, with an organizer in the “Parents’ Section” compartment. All of the bags have pockets and storage areas that are also designed to provide balance and comfort. “We tried to sort of build a product for every price point,” Gaffin explains.

The typical customer is middle-class and in his or her mid- to late-30s to 70s, though the company is trying to break into the younger market. And the products aren’t just for women. Ravinett produced a recent clip from the New York Post with a photo of sometime local resident Robert De Niro wearing a Healthy Back Bag, and Gaffin points out that actor Pierce Brosnan owns one as well. “Our client list is the most coveted in the world,” Gaffin adds.

But it could be the ordinary consumer who is AmeriBag’s best spokesperson. “The most amazing thing about our products, and something that never ceases to amaze me, is the star-like fan mail we receive,” Gaffin says. “It’s an interesting product. We’ve done very little to promote our products, considering the large expanse of market we cover, the entire United States. Since developing it, it’s really been a word-of-mouth product. It’s almost like guerrilla marketing.”

Ravinett cites as an example a chat room discussion on the Internet where the bag was mentioned. “We got calls from fifteen different people,” he says. And Gaffin recalls a recent trip to Grenada. “I was in the airport at seven in the morning and eight or ten people came walking by and four of them were carrying healthy backpacks. And they were from Canada! It’s kind of almost like a best-kept secret, but not.”

For Gaffin, it all comes back to the quality of the bags themselves. “I wish we could say that we’re that smart, that we understand marketing that well, but we don’t,” he says. “Basically, people always like bread-and-butter items. They like things that are well made, that function. It’s nice for us too, to serve a function with a good product.”