Jeff Mullins | Pack Designer

You are going to quickly discover that I like packs. All of them. Daypacks, technical packs, lifestyle packs, you name it. I like designing them, developing them, tweaking them, wearing them.

I have nothing against bags. Travel bags, shoulder bags, school bags. I like them too. In fact I like creating almost anything you can cut-and-sew.

The following pages are examples of my work in this wonderfully niche world of soft goods. Enjoy!

Jeff
softgoodsdes@gmail.com

My role as Head of Product with the 5 Horizons Group included leading the product vision for Eddie Bauer wholesale packs and gear. We hit the ground running with over 10 new lines of product in the first two years!

New additions to the iconic brand include trendy puffer-style packs and bags, heritage inspired back-to-school packs, highly versatile insulated coolers, and re-engineered adventure travel gear.

I was enlisted by Carhartt’s team for packs and bags to design their entire new launch of work gear. We focused on the Legacy Series: a line of work bags designed after the iconic Carhartt® cotton-duck pants and jackets.

Items ranged from:

- On-site work packs

- Duffels and briefcases

- Soft-sided tool bags

- Modular tool belts and accessories

- Bucket organizers, tool rolls, coolers and more

High-tech water-resistant Elements gear and casual E89 lifestyle bags were also part of the launch. Overall its been a huge success, with updates and additions being added every year.

Featured Product: Legacy Deluxe Work Pack

Worker hydration is a critical concern on construction and job-sites across the country. Builders are exposed to extreme conditions and often find themselves far from centralized water stations.

Camelbak and 5 Horizons teamed up to provide practical solutions to worker hydration. Common tool-belts and aprons were re-engineered to include water bottles, flasks and reservoirs. Hydration packs used in outdoor and military applications were re-imagined for the job-site. Built to withstand the toughest treatment, the reception of our initial launch has been extremely positive!

As an active family - always on the move from sports to parks, the pool to the zoo, up-north to the lake-shore, we’re always in need of simple travel gear. Not air-travel luggage, not expedition duffels, just well-organized, intuitive gear to help get you from point A to point B.

Dity Bags was a concept exercise for the busy family, and the brain-child of three design dads who needed to get out of the house! The line was built around brightly color-coded nesting gear and packing accessories - something for each member of the family. A system that could grow as your family did.

Despite being in the bag industry for most of my career, when my family hopped in the car (often late and frantically) for a weekend road-trip or over-nighter, we typically mounded up laundry baskets and stuffed canvas grocery totes with twice the stuff we would need and headed out. Instead of pretending we’d ever be more prepared, we instead embraced our tendencies and designed some family travel gear around them.

Pack People is “as organized as you’re gonna be”. They are simple, open bags, intentionally designed for spontaneous living. Pick you color, fill your bag, hit the road!

Inflatable lifejackets are yet another category of soft goods that have evolved by taking inspiration from the outdoor pack industry. This is what the team at Ocean Safety® was looking to accomplish with their range of PFDs.

We focused on materials, hardware, and construction techniques to give their products both an aesthetic and functional face-lift. Taking everything the pack industry has to offer and applying it to new products is my kind of challenge!

Featured Product Concept: KRU SPORT PRO - NEW

The off-the-wall crew at Storyteller Overland are mad geniuses when it comes to off-road vehicle conversions… until it comes to soft goods. By their own admission, it just wasn’t their specialty. I gladly stepped in and brought my expertise from the outdoor market to a range of cut-and-sew products to be used in and with their vans - bug screens constructed like lightweight tents, insulated puffy window shades, modular gear organizers and straps, and so on.

This company takes great pride in its made-in-the-US work, and we took the opportunity with the soft goods to source and sample domestically - a great experience and one I will replicate in the future!