I have been designing, and producing bags since the early 1970’s. My first company, Bloom Fine Leather’s, based in Boston, Mass, found success through much publicity brought about by national news publications. The “roll top” bag was featured in the New York Times fashion section, and the bags were sold in national retailers, Macy’s, Jordan Marsh, Henri Bendel, Saks 5th Ave. Neiman Marcus, as well as other specialty stores across the country. Our small “mom and pop” bag company produced bags by hand, and consisted of me, my wife Dru, and one hired hand. After the birth of our son, Case it was apparent that we could not keep up with the demands following the birth of our daughter Maddie. We eventually closed the company and our family moved to Brooklyn, NY.  I began working for mainstream handbag companies including Etra, Sirco International, L.J. Simone shoes and accessories, and Ishihara Industries.(a Japanese company with the License. for Courege and Valentino).

After that, our family moved from New York to Nashville in the 1990’s, when I started working for Hartmann Luggage. After working for Hartmann as a senior designer for five years, I left to begin freelance work. On my own, I designed for some of the biggest names in the industry including: Perry Ellis, Atlantic Luggage, and others. In 2006, my son and I decideed to start a line on our own, Tucker & Bloom. The focus of this new line would be to cut out the middle man and give the designer the chance to work directly with the customer. My design skills and craftsmanship with my son Case’s business savvy personality and entrepreneurial attitude makes for a good partnership.  As our desire is to create our products in the US with a focus on direct selling through our website, we have just redone the site to provide a simple to use site with many layers to explore. It is my contention that it is possible to provide great design, service and flexibility with a made to order company based on US manufacturing and still provide a competitively priced product.

Our products have been designed around three lifestyle categories; transitions, work & leisure. Our target consumer is unisex 25 + , with a need to organize their electronic tools and create a professional image that is still hip but not too young. Our materials follow the lifestyle category for which they were designed, with minor diversions.
a. Transitions: This category is mainly Neoprene with ballistic nylon trim, though our sub-category of Impress is a collection of soft leather sleeves for computers and cord management zippered bags.
b. Work: This category of products is mainly ballistic nylon or Ballistic nylon & hair-on cow hide; all lined in Taslan nylon
c. Leisure: This category is made of 100% cotton with striped cotton ticking.

Our products are a combination of fresh interpretations of classic bag shapes, as well as new shapes designed for certain generic functions ( traveling light). Our hardware is both metal and rubber. We use an aluminum side release buckle in a matte nickel finish with our logo laser engraved on it, a small micro-injection rubber logo detail and metal double bar rings for shoulder strap adjustment.

I have been in the bag business a long time and feel the time is right to re-think the way business has been done in the past. Small is beautiful, family business is great and the internet represents the future.  Tucker & Bloom is based in Nashville, TN, an iconic city for America, though our designs don’t really reflect Nashville (except for the hair-on cow hide). We like to think of ourselves as quintessentially American.

Last summer we were provided a wonderful press opportunity in Nashville Lifestyles magazine but our website was not completed at the time the article came out. Though this was a tough break, it was a lesson for us to be patient, until we are ready for exposure. The process of getting our website designed, developed and launched has been by far the hardest part of this project. However, the bigger picture is what we focus on. Working with all of the people surrounding this project continues to be a joy and makes me realize what I love about my profession.