Philippine Bag Makers Interviews

Philippine Bag Makers Interviews

Philippine Bag Makers Interviews
I have three Philippines bag makers to interview, I have now completed the first one and they,
“Crashed and Burned.”

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Manila, Ermita Philippines
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Blog of Andy HoboTraveler.com --- Add a Hotel --- Backpack Design Survey
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Interesting efforts here, I showed them a complete set of 10 pages of printed backpack component designs. I was told before I came to this Philippines Bag maker that they had 50-80 employees.

They decided to make one sample, I still needed to make the Patterns, which was quite ok, I think only about 1 in 50 could make a bag from scratch, they more or less copy good but patterns would make easy.

Well, I started to make the patterns, telling them I leave on the 10 of August for Bangkok. The owner knew this from the beginning; I would only be in country for 15 days. However, I am ready to stay longer if I found the Pro Philippines Bag Maker.

Finally, I realized they was going to take one month to make one bag. I keep thinking, they build house in three months. We finally decided I would make the patterns, then give me a worker with me for 4 days to make two samples. Then they decided they did not have any spare workers.

She wanted 8000 Pesos for a worker who is paid 400 pesos per day, not give or take here, even when I do all the work, do all the patterns. I started too laughed; I did not say stupid, even though this person was outrageously greedy. She kept saying you can trust me, I almost never trust a person who says trust me all the time.

Finally it came down to this, she just finally admitted this bag was too much for them, they do not have the people, plus none of them spoke English good enough to talk with me. SNAFU

Hmm, she told me they had 50-80 workers, which would make finding one extra worker easy to find, sort of funny to me in a way, but I know I need a special Bag Maker to do this bag.

One great realization was this,
“This backpack will not be easy to copy, so very few will try to pirate or knockoff this bag.”

This is a nice thing to realize, I can give a shop all the designs and they cannot steal the design. I would have to give them the complete patterns and show them how to make the Backpack.

The owner of this Philippine Backpack Maker lied to me about the number or employees and the size of her operation. This is my fault for trusting the woman, I should have made her give me a complete tour of the shop and see all the machines and workers.

Ok, now to go to number two, I have 100 percent realized now, no amount of drawings or patterns would make this bag happen. There is a need for one perfect Backpack to copy; they cannot work from designs, maybe on simple school bags.

When a person wants the best, the majority of companies will not work, this stands to reason.

Philippine Bag Makers Interviews