How we make our bags

All of our bags are made by hand by our small team of skilled craftspeople in our 2500 square foot workshop in Kake, Alaska. Our makers are artists & outdoor enthusiasts who are dedicated to creating quality, long lasting products that are truly ultra-dry. 

We have ample opportunity to test the durability & usefulness of our product. In Kake, which lies right in the heart of the Tongass National Rainforest, we get an average of 132 inches of rain per year (the national average is 38 inches). We spend our off-time fishing, camping, boating, hunting, biking, kayaking, hiking, and foraging for food in one of the wettest places on earth. 

To ensure the longevity of our bags, we source the highest possible quality fabrics and materials. Our fabric is custom milled in Northborough, Massachusetts to our specifications. The fabric we use is a nylon pack cloth that has been polyurethane coated and embossed for abrasion resistance. Our zippers are custom made to our specifications in Germany by TIZIP.

We put everything together in our workshop using a proprietary “hot air sewing” process, which uses radio frequency welding and hot air technologies to create double thermal bonded seams. They require no stitching and taping. Our suspension systems and other non-waterproof components are sewn in house. 

Our remote island location creates some challenges- materials and equipment are expensive to obtain. We minimize our waste as much as possible by using shop scraps for our small anchor point pieces and pull tabs.

Each Sagebrush Dry bag is submerged in a water bath and inspected to ensure that there are no leaks and it is completely waterproof prior to being sold & shipped.