In The Works

Following on from our last blog, I suppose the obvious retort from some people might be - well, that’s rich, when your company helps contribute to the consumer mountain. What about ditching retail and going frugal? How about rejecting consumerism altogether?

But we never said that people can do without goods and possessions. We all need stuff. For us, it’s about how that stuff gets produced, whether it’s really essential, what its shelf life might be, and what happens to it afterwards.

And we’re firm believers in grassroots movements like Freecycle with its brilliant way of redistributing used goods.

Truth be told, if we believed the naysayers and submitted to the economic gloom, we might as well as shut up shop right now.

But we’re actually feeling rather jaunty. As if spring is in the air. Any company, even one pledged to sustainability, needs to keep growing and stay ahead of the game.

We’ve been reviewing the product suggestions that you, our customers, scribbled in the little notebooks on our Millican stand as we toured the country this summer. And partnering with maestro Adam Atkinson of fellow Cumbrian brand, Cherchbi, we're designing some new products.

Starting up our own home-grown company, it’s been a blast to receive input from the visitors to our stand.

You’ve offered numerous requests, from the sublime to the distinctly bizarre. I mean, can anyone give us more information about what exactly one might do with a ferret bag? And what the likely national demand for this item might be?!

Then there were the other fab ideas that you scribbled down:

A smaller shoulder bag
A waist-pack, similar to a money belt
Suit-carriers
Bike-panniers
A camera bag with inserts
A saddle bag
A Blackberry holder
A swag (bed roll)
Vintage car bottle bags
A larger Gladstone bag with wheels

So how do we evaluate these ideas? For us, it comes down to some key questions:

Does this fit with our passion for utility shapes and for reviving them in modern, sustainable materials and with contemporary functionality?

How does the product fit into our overall range in terms of pricing and looks?

Does a new product replace an existing one or does it add something new?

What will help us stand out from the crowd? And what is this item’s part in the bigger Millican “story”?

Your notes give us the raw feedback about what you’re looking for and what you’re currently missing in our range. And if we can oblige we’ll be delighted. I mean, maybe we can combine the ferret bag with the smaller shoulder bag? Perfect for carrying a furry mammal across the fields or an ailing moggy in the city?

Photo courtesy of Zigiella

Right now, we’re pillaging the contents of our loft - a treasure trove of classic bags and hold-alls - and re-examining some classic designs and shapes. This is a designer’s dreamtime. Next we’ll ask Adam to draw up some sketches based on your feedback and research. Then we’ll sample three or four of the strongest ideas and get going with production of two or three for early May 2010.

So winter may be drawing in but it feels like it’s a green shoots time in another way. That old farming wisdom comes to mind - always have three seeds in hand. The one you’ve just planted, the one that’s growing, and the one that you’re currently harvesting.

In other words, don’t rest on your laurels. Or on the ferret bag.

The Season Of Stuff

We’re huge fans of Annie Leonard’s campaigning film The Story of Stuff .

This twenty-minute broadside against consumerism is well worth checking out, if you don’t know it.

But, as Christmas draws near, it also gets us thinking about our own mountain of possessions. Our very own story of stuff.

I mean, why buy presents at all? Even with a family cap on how much we spend on each other, we begin to wonder if there’s any merit in this orgy of gift-giving. Or whether, outside its role in giving the economy a kick in the pants, Christmas really has had its day.

With all this in mind, it’s good to mark the end of the year of the 100 Things Challenge.

It was only a little over a year ago that 37 year old entrepreneur, Dave Bruno, from San Diego ditched most of his possessions and embarked on a year of simple living. The proud owner of only one hundred possessions, Bruno recorded his subsequent year in a much-followed blog.

Well, one hundred possessions may sound a tad generous to any of history’s great hermits or anyone’s who headed into the outback with only a rucksack on their back. I doubt that local legend Millican Dalton had more than a couple of dozen possessions lying around his Borrowdale cave. But given that Bruno’s one hundred list included paperwork and all clothing items, his venture still represents a worthwhile experiment.

How would any of us find it cutting down our possessions to one hundred? Well, it all depends on how much stuff you’ve got to begin with. If you’re wondering, let me tell you about a regular guy who’s probably pretty average in this respect and who provides a useful test-case.

Meet Michael Landy. Landy is a British artist who, in 2001, destroyed all his lifelong possessions in a disused store in London’s Oxford Street. Using an assembly line and ten assistants, he oversaw the destruction of every one of his possessions. All that was left at the end of the process was a pile of sealed bags of rubbish.

The number of personal items that he’d gathered until this point in his life? No less than 7227. So if you’re anything like Landy (and most of us probably are), you need to ditch about 98.6% of your possessions if you’re going to match Dave Bruno’s challenge.

Which brings us back to Christmas and how any of us can make informed decisions about buying presents, assuming we don’t want to turn into miserable Scrooges and “Humbug!” the whole event.

For Nicky and I, it comes down to working out what it is we value in things. We like to think about stuff earning its keep because:

a) it’s got a purpose that matches need. In ergonomic terms, that balance of
function and beauty.
b) it fits in with a sustainable ethic. Think organic or recycled materials produced with minimum harm to environment and people.
c) it’s a quality item with promised longevity. Think Granddad’s leather brogues rather than that pair of cheapskate trainers.

Interestingly, Michael Landy’s artwork took on a whole new direction after his exercise in auto-destruction. He subsequently exhibited a series of incredible miniaturist drawings of plants and weeds growing up from cracked pavements. The showy performance artist graduated into the mature draughtsman.

So maybe we can all learn something from the 100 Things Challenge. What about taking it on? Or even the Seventy-Five Things Challenge? Or, if you’re feeling ambitious, the Two Dozen version?

And then there’s all the mental clutter to deal with. Hmm. Anyone come up with a good solution to sorting out that one?

Keswick Flood Appeal

Last week I wrote about A Drop in the Ocean and the reality of water shortage in many parts of the world.

A week later, and our home-town Keswick is reeling from the worst floods in living memory, following 300+mm of rain in 24 hours. Taking its reputation as the wettest part of England just a tad too far.


Home of Millican is situated on top of a hill big enough to protect us from the torrential rains. A lot of people aren't so lucky.

In fact, most of those affected this time, were also flooded in 2005 - some had only been back in their homes a few years, before being evacuated again yesterday. Evacuated with the knowledge that this time, they're not insured.

Uninsurable on Keswick's flood plains.

To help those people worst affected, Keswick & Cockermouth Rotary have set up the Keswick Flood Appeal. If you're still feeling flush after your donations to Children In Need, and can support this appeal, visit keswickrotary.org.uk for your donations.


A second organisation close to our heart is the Keswick Mountain Rescue Team.

Not only because friend Simon (of waterbottle fame) is out with KMRT on a very regular basis, but because this group of unique volunteers provides a safety net to anyone in trouble in the outdoors around Keswick.

As they did yesterday. And will do again tomorrow, providing the donations keep coming in. Check them out at keswickmrt.org.uk.

The power of nature was demonstrated again yesterday. As if to say "don't mess with me".

Today it's already hard to believe all of this actually happened.

Tomorrow we'll get on with our lives again, almost as if nothing happened.

But nature just got a bit more of my respect ...

A Drop In The Ocean

I don’t know about you but it isn’t always easy having a heart big enough for every world issue.

Don’t some problems seem just a little remote compared with those on our doorstep?

It was that way for us with water. With the wettest valley in England on our doorstep, it’s easy for us to take water for granted.

So it’s sometimes hard to get our heads round a possible future water crisis. But that’s what we’ve sought to do after reading about the reality of water shortage.

I mean, did you know - we didn’t - that 97% of the earth’s water is sea water?

And that just six countries contain half the world’s renewable fresh water supplies?

Diminishing supplies of fresh water are set to cause increasing problems for our world.


Photo courtesy of ashitparikh

Good, then, to see the global water issue getting wider coverage, thanks to a clown. We refer to a recent broadcast transmitted from space. No, we’re not joking. Check it out.

It was broadcast by Guy Laliberte, Founder of Circue Du Soleil and the ONE DROP Foundation.

Laliberte spent $35 million dollars of his own money on being launched to the stars. I know, I know, it is a lot of money. But he is one of the world’s top 100 Entrepreneurs and it’s his cash at the end of the day.

While orbiting earth, Laliberte broadcast a two-hour presentation on the water issue, featuring mates Bono and Al Gore. This must be one of the major internet events of our time. And all to educate and inform the world about water shortage.

Now, much of our business is in bags. But since we moved from the city to the Lakes, we’ve been taking a fresh look at our lives and how we can make more informed choices.

The big question with water is - what can you or I do on a daily level to make any difference? What follows is one modest suggestion.

We were shocked to learn that 200 billion litres of mineral water is sold in plastic bottles each year. That’s a lot of bottles. And only one in five is ever recycled. The rest ends up in landfills and out at sea. Then there’s the amount of water used in producing bottled water - it turns out 2000 times more ‘virtual water’ energy than in production of tap water.

So when we’d finished designing our bags, it seemed the moment to launch a re-usable bottle. Out with those endless plastic bottles of mineral water we bought while travelling the length and breadth of the country. In with tap water in friends Simon and Andy.

Reusable bottles that can be refilled on the go.

It’s a humble start. But it feels a positive step.

And after all, given the rain levels in Borrowdale, we’d hardly know what to do with a hosepipe ban.

Where On Earth Are You?

Navigating one of my favourite websites - for Moleskine notebooks - I was reminded of the late, great travel writer, Bruce Chatwin.

Moleskine, you probably know, are the legendary notebooks beloved by European artists and intellectuals ranging from Henri Matisse to Ernest Hemingway.

A streamlined black notebook, the Moleskine has been the trusted travelling companion of generations of diarists and thinkers.


Photo courtesy of Mecookie

A scribble, a sketch, a creative seed idea - all have been committed to the pages of a Moleskine. It’s the analog equivalent of our Inspirations page here at Millican. But for all our affection for digital inspiration, we’d still never be without a Moleskine.

Writer-traveller Bruce Chatwin swore by the notebook, stocking up on them in a dusty Parisien stationery shop before another of his marathon journeys. “Losing my passport was the least of my worries”, he once wrote, “losing a notebook was a catastrophe”.

It’s a tantalizing idea - that a personal journal is more valuable than a passport. However much the passport embodies our legal identity, it’s a journal that gives full expression to who we are and where we belong.

One of Chatwin’s most influential works was his 1986 "Songlines", a book spun from the journals that Chatwin carried on his travels through Australia. In "Songlines", Chatwin proposed that there is a vital link between the Creation stories of Aboriginals and their physical landscape. According to Chatwin, Aboriginals speak or sing their songlines both as a navigational tool and as a way of preserving the spiritual life of their people.

Perhaps writing in a modern journal - or Moleskine - is also part of our attempt to etch our thoughts into concrete form, to anchor ourselves to our environment.

It’s something that I muse on since Nicky and I moved here to the Lakes partly in order to find a more anchored way of life.

Of course, it’s just as possible here to spend a busy day at work, eyes glued to the computer, sealed inside, and oblivious to the presence of Nature beyond.

But we certainly find a certain slowing down essential to remind ourselves who we are, where we are, and what really matters to us.

Via his jottings in a Moleskine, Chatwin - the eternally restless traveller - defined something vital about our need to discover who we are and to belong. Our need to attach ourselves to a specific environment instead of floating rootlessly in cyberspace.

The page of a journal, a patch of fells - both can mark the places any of us belong. So let's keep alive the spirit of Chatwin’s notebooks and songlines. Let's keep scribbling, let's keep walking.