The Jalopy Journal

A single entrepreneur or a group of like minded folks get together with a glow in their eye and manufacture something that makes the world just a little bit better simply because passion drove them to do so. You can tell these companies by the detail in their work. It goes into their marketing. It goes into their packaging. It goes into their product. They beat customer expectations in every thing they do not because they see profitability in it, but because their work is that personal to them. I know, it sounds like a load of bullshit… But it does happen.

Rickshaw Bagworks is the perfect example. Admittedly, I know nothing about the company. I don’t know who started it or why they started it or if they are having much success in the market at all. I do, however, know that they are a passionate group of folks and I know that solely from my buying experience with them. It went a little like this:

I had heard that Rickshaw made a pretty nice iPad sleeve and browsed to their site to buy one. Once the deed was done, I noticed that they also make a Moleskine Portfolio and decided that I had to have one of those as well. I emailed the company and asked if it would be possible to amend my order. Within minutes they responded and made it happen… Custom fabrics, colors, and all…

The next day, I got another personal email from an employee that stated that my custom bags had been manufactured and were shipping. Something about that email sang to me – it wasn’t a form email. It was an email from some chick sitting at a computer next to my new Rickshaw bags – admiring them and seemingly excited for me to enjoy the same view as hers. It was unexpected and unusually satsifying.

A few days later my Riskshaw bags showed up in a… well, Rickshaw bag. To save paper and be green, Rickshaw ships all of their items in a custom made nylon bag with a shipping label sewed on the face. A perfect little color coordinated zip-tie locks the zipper. You know when you get a brand new laptop or iPod from Apple and you get that incredible feeling as you open all of the glorious packaging? Same thing here… And it’s nylon. How rad is that?

Inside the mailer were the custom made bags that Rickshaw had made for me as well as a label with a return address. You simply place this label on the outside of the previously mentioned nylon goodness and then hand it over to your UPS man. Presto… Green mailing. Brilliant.

And then, there are the bags… Again, laced with passion. All of the stitching is perfect, the fabrics are great, and it’s so damned obvious that there has been a ton of thought put into the little details. As such, this one is more suited for a video review. Enjoy it:

To get your Rickshaw Moleskine Folio, just cruise on over to their site. They run about $50.