Wizard Works was founded back in 2016 by Veronica and Harry, brought together by a love of cycle touring and camping. With their first designs being crafted at home in Vancouver, the brand now design and manufacture their bags with an ever growing team from their South East London studio. Wizard Works are known for their high quality finishing and innovative, thoughtful designs ranging from some of the best basket, rack and saddle bags on the market. BESPOKED recently caught up with Veronica for a workshop visit, diving into discussions on design, how to run a business, ethics, and of course, bike snacks.
What made you first want to start making cycling bags?
Making bags was a hobby that Harry started while we were living in Vancouver. We had just finished our first bike trip, a year-long cycle tour through East and Southeast Asia, that trip was fresh in our minds and Harry had a lot of opinions about what would make a great bag. We had also depleted all our savings on the big adventure, so having an inside hobby was a great way to pass a particularly wet and cold Canadian winter.
How do you come up with the designs for your bags? Have there been any particular influences or mentors that have shaped the way you work?
Not being from sewing backgrounds, the design for the bags has always been from a user first approach, practically the bag had to work in the way we were happy with. Aesthetically, structure is very important, we’ve never liked how some bags look saggy when they’re empty. We’ve also never liked anything too techy or masculine, so cute shapes and fun colours are paramount.
Can you talk us through a standard day at the Wizard Works studio?
Wizard Works is a little team of 6, Harry and I used to do all the sewing, but we are pretty off the tools these days, mainly consumed by running the business (emails). Tasha, our first employee who joined the team in 2020, is responsible for making sure the production floor runs smoothly. Tasha, Adam and Anna do all the sewing, supported by Alfie who does cutting, prep and shipping.
Our space is in North Greenwich, London, when it’s not raining Harry and I have a lovely 50 min ride in. If it’s Wednesday, we get up early to meet some like-minded bike folk to make a coffee next to the river (7 - 9am Southwark Park if you’re interested in joining us).
On Monday morning we have a meeting around the cutting table to discuss the coming week, what needs to get done and any exciting or unusual things. Alfie will pack and ship the weekends orders and the production team will start sewing. All the bags are sewn in batches for efficiency reasons. Peak efficiency for a batch usually tops out at about 20 bags, sometimes a whole batch is sewn by one person sometimes as a team, but everyone knows how to sew all the bags from start to finish.
At 11am we have elevensies, if it’s sunny we sit outside by our garden, we custom made cushions because the new concrete wall was making our bums dirty. More coffee, and this is also when we would share a Colin if it’s someone’s birthday, or maybe an exotic snack if someone has been on a recent trip.
Prep work for Alfie might look like doing a big cutting of Core Range bags (up to 45 layers of fabric cut with a fabric saw) or individually cutting custom orders, and then picking all the things to complete the upcoming batches (lining, webbing, buckles etc). Tasha might be working with Adam and Anna in the production line or working on prototyping new bags. When we are working on new stuff, there’s usually a time where we all come together and talk about it, lots of interesting stuff like how to hide a seam.
Harry’s days are usually filled with design and pattern making, new material and hardware research, resolving on going shipping problems (thanks Brexit) and emails. I oversee marketing so the bulk of my day is spent planning upcoming campaigns and doing my best to appease the social media algorithm. I also do stuff like take and edit photos and video content, and answer questions like these. The workday finishes at 5.30, but Harry and I are often kicking about for a little longer.
You’ve managed to keep your manufacturing in house, have you found this challenging and what was your intention behind it?
We started Wizard Works because we really love bike travel, an unexpected thing that happened is that now we really love manufacturing. We always wanted to make the things ourselves for ethical and sustainability reasons, but since starting Wizard Works, we have become even more passionate about being a British Manufacturer and creating more jobs in the industry.
Making your own stuff can be challenging, space is at a premium especially in London, and you need quite a lot of space to make stuff. It also requires a big investment in machinery, staff, and knowledge. Making our own things is woven into the fabric of who we are as a company and despite the challenges the business wouldn’t be as rewarding if our bags were made by someone else. Making stuff is really cool.
How do you find it working as a partnership; do you have similar skill sets?
I always thought we had more similarities than differences, and weirdly it took working together to realise that this is not the case. I think that’s an advantage though, Harrys good at the stuff that I’m not, and vice versa. Being life and business partners presents its own set of challenges (it took us a while to grasp the concept of boundaries which we have learnt are crucial if you wish to maintain your sanity) but ultimately, I get to hang out with my fav pal every day and that’s neat.
Has the cycling industry changed since you first started designing bags?
I think having a bag on your bike is becoming more popular, which is nice.
You talk often about community and inclusivity being core values of the brand; how do you go about implementing this on a day to day at WW?
We try our best to showcase a kind of cycling that is fun simply because riding your bike is fun, not because it’s some sort of grueling activity you need to overcome to find fulfilment. Often the narrative around cycling is very sport/challenge focused and can feel elitist. Even after riding my bike thousands of km, over mountains and across several countries I still didn’t consider myself a ‘cyclist’ because I didn’t see myself in traditional cycling media/marketing.
If you ride a bike, any bike, you’re a cyclist.
Cycling is fun because it’s fun, and having a little bag on your bike so you can take a snack with you makes it more fun. This is the narrative we want to push with our marketing, and it informs what events we participate in and clubs/people we support. We have a regular coffee hangout on a Wednesday morning that couldn’t be less cycling focused, which is ironically on brand. We all get there on bikes, any bikes, some people ride hours some only minutes, but the main event is hanging out and enjoying the company of pals with a coffee by the river.
We are also of course acutely aware of how white man centric all aspects of cycling are, we want to see more diverse bodies on bikes at all levels, across all disciplines, and this dictates who we work with and how we spend our limited budget.
You often collaborate with other brands and artisans, have you got any exciting projects coming up?
YES! We have a collaboration coming up with our pal Matty Waudby, we’ve done two collaborations in the past and are excited to be doing another. We also have some things in the pipeline that we can’t tell you about because they’re secret.
From Japan to South Korea, China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and Malaysia, you’ve been on many a cycling adventure as a couple. Have you got any more trips on the horizon?
Annoyingly, Wizard Works was born from a love of bike travel, and now we have no time to do any bike travel. But we are looking forward to two weeks in Scotland in September and some weekend escapes from London when the weather is a bit more pleasant. I think it’ll be a while before we’re able to go on a BIG adventure, but when we do it’ll be South America. Or central Asia. I also really want to go back to Tasmania.
Lastly, snacks; what’s the best snack combination you’ve packed to date?
Peanut butter on anything and everything.
Photo Credits : Simon Weller
We are excited to announce that Wizard Works will be showing at both the BESPOKED Manchester and Dresden shows in 2024, buy tickets to the Manchester show here. You can find out more about their bags via their website here and Instagram @wizard.works
Comments