It's a Breeze

By Katharina Hagmann

Old sails never die, they just turn into must-have accessories

Hannah Kubiak and Beth Shissler, owners of Seabags on Custom House Wharf, manufacture durable tote bags made from recycled sails from vessels plying the Gulf of Maine. They say breezily, “We’re being featured in upcoming issues of Elle magazine and Latin Glamour.”

Why, all of a sudden, does everybody like the cut of their jib?

“The very night we appeared in a 90-second segment on HGTV’s I Want That, we received over 2,000 hits on our website. Orders and special requests for our tote bags really started rolling in.”

The TV coverage included “images from our studio, as well as footage of popular Old Port haunts, because we insisted that the segment be filmed on location. 

“At first they didn’t think it was necessary to come up to Maine for the shoot–they wanted us to go to Washington, D.C., or Boston,” says Shissler, who thought that might take the wind out of their sails.

“Instead, we were able to convince them to come here because we’re proud of Portland. This waterfront is the true inspiration for our products. Also since the segment aired, we’ve gotten offers from out- of-state investors who want to produce our bags [in a land far, far away], but we want to keep Seabags Maine-made.” 

So much so that they’re involved in a program with women at the Windham Correctional Center to provide employment to inmates. “We have two great girls over there who do most of our sewing”–presumably without the advantage of a water view. “It gives them responsibility and keeps our business in Maine.”

As for Seabags’ other six part-time employees, “they’re responsible for marketing, cutting sails, splicing rope, and sewing,” Shissler says.

“Every sail is unique, so we try to build the tote around the seams and numbers or letters on the sail. It’s best when the sail is still salty, because it’s more authentic.” One reason for the bags’ popularity is that they’re recycled, full of memories of sweeping down the reach when they were free and whipping with the wind. “People love to see a chic result from their responsibility for the environment.” It’s like stitching, and capturing, summer, “which would be unthinkable without the image of sailing in Maine.”

Kubiak grew up in Kennebunkport sailing “with my father, who actually made the first Seabag. I saw it could be a business and started turning out bags about six years ago.”

“I grew up on Isle au Haut in a fishing community,” says Shissler, who joined Kubiak after she started selling her bags at Shissler’s mother’s store, The Sea Urchin, on the island.

“It was my first and only wholesale account,” says Kubiak. 

“We’ve had some interesting requests, mostly for specific lettering on the bags,” says Shissler. “One order was powerful with memories. A Massachusetts widow of a soldier in Iraq requested a bag as a gift to the soldier’s mother to commemorate the spreading of his ashes at sea. We stitched the words ‘September Sea’ onto the bag and put it in the mail.”
Seabag’s maritime memorabilia range from $75 to $130.

You can buy your own Seabag online at www.seabags.com or walk into their studio. Like the vessels that carried them, these sails are going places.