The world of cutting edge design is calling so we couldn't help but take a day and drive up to what is arguably the center of West Coast fashion.  Yelena from Stylish Soiree showed us around and as we explored the expansive 90 blocks of fabric stores, wholesale shops, retail stores, designers, manufacturing and back-alley knock-offs.  Riley had a blast from the start by chasing two chickens around our rooftop parking spot (what country are we in anyways?).  Here are some of the highlights.

We are proud to announce we have discovered a great new grommet that we will be using on all our straps.  The silver grommets are now Nickel plated and tarnish free.  Additionally, we now have a black grommet that will be used on all of our Speed Racer straps.  Black on black baby!  We are finally growing up and will be sewing our labels onto the back of each strap.  Many of the photogs sporting these straps have their own branding, so we want to be sure to be discreet, but present.  Lastly, it might be old news by now;  we have moved to a 100% pig suede for the backing of every camera strap.  It is a little pricey, but this is the softest leather we could find.  It also provides plenty of grip for those who prefer to wear their strap hanging off one shoulder.  If anyone has any thoughts about all these changes, please don't hesitate to drop us a line.  These straps are made for you, so speak up!

Kelly of Mountain Dog Photography emailed over a few fabulous shots of her new camera straps. We put together a special connector for her Hassy and she seems very happy with solution we came up with. I'll let Kelly tell you in her own words:

"I received your message tonight and wanted to write a quick note of thanks and send along a couple of pictures. I also left a glowing comment on your Facebook group. The straps arrived late last week while I was out of town so they were a very nice surprise when I got back.  These straps are really amazing. They're exceptionally well crafted, comfortable, and the look is unbeatable. Having a strap made from an '80's Mercedes on an '80's Hassy is just too cool! And the retro Rockets suits my ol' Rapid Omega perfectly!  I really appreciate your excellent communication and obvious dedication to your customers."

We have been getting lots of interest in our new line of hand straps, so here is a sneak peak at one of our first prototypes. Our goal is to build a style foreword hand strap that is super comfy and easy to use. To accomplish this, we are integrating two key design aspects. First we are placing the plastic buckle at the bottom of the strap, away from all the action. For some reason, most hand straps have the adjustment at the top near the thumb and forefinger.... why? Also, we are routing the 3/8" webbing along two different paths along the back of the hand, distributing the weight of the camera over a wider area which will be the perfect comfy factor in hand with genuine lamb leather and a thin layer of foam. If you use hand straps, be sure to let us know what's on your wish list.  Thoughts?

Well, the digital press, which can be just as good these days!  I had the pleasure of meeting Don Chick at WPPI 2009 and ended up showing him a few of our newly-born camera straps.  Don traveles the globe teaching lighting and writes for PPA.  I sent a few straps his way and he ended up writing a little article about us in the online PPA magazine.  Thanks Don!

I've finally had a chance to catch up on stitching together some new materials we picked up last week including a super-sweet red Porche seat and a textured crimson velvet.  We have been getting orders in slowly, which is a good thing.  We will be meeting up with a few local sewing contractors about getting a little help.  I'll keep you posted.  Meanwhile, here's a preview of the new additions as well as a few shots of Riley... enforcing some quality control.

So up to this point, finding the right resources locally, has been pretty simple.  Now that our volume has begun to creep up, I'm finding myself looking for a little help.  I will probably always make the one-up and limited edition straps right here in the garage, however, I just don't have time to make all of them.  So, what to do?  After making a few calls, it looks painfully obvious why EVERYTHING is made in the Orient.  The funny thing is, how do I know where that plastic clip came from?  I bought it down at the local store, but I have a feeling, it didn't come from Encinitas, California!  I don't want to start making excuses just yet, so I'm going to keep looking around and calling US based sewing contractors, see if there is a solution that will work for us.  Meanwhile, here is a shot of Riley on an old chair we found outside Tony's  shop.  Riley and I both agree, this swanky, velvety, years-of-butt-sanding-soft material belongs on a RileyG camera strap... not in the dumpster!

It was a bit of a push, but somehow we got everything together just in time for WPPI in Las Vegas.  Unfortunately, Riley himself couldn't make it, so I had to represent:  I flew in Monday morning and stayed a quick 36 hours, just enough time to catch up with all my photog peeps, pass out 1,000 RileyG post cards, two rides on that crazy N.Y. N.Y. roller coaster (Kat you ROCK!) and squeeze in one night of tearing up the dance floor. I met a TON of fabulous photogs and made some great connections.  We gave away a "Bronica Lovin'" strap at Doug Gordon's seminar along with a ton of promo-cards to a sea of eager photogs (visual below).  I'm thrilled at the feedback we got and charged up for the next round of challenges.

I've got to give all the props to Mr. Melvin Campbell with Six17 Design for pulling out all the stops to finish up the logo, polish the website banner AND kick out a killer set of business cards plus the WPPI promo cards in a few short days.  All, just in time for the WPPI convention starting... wow, this Sunday!  On top of that, we are proud to announce we will be sponsoring a few platform speakers (stay posted)!  To kick off the debut of the camera world's coolest straps, we are offering a rare %15 off discount for the month of February.  Just head over to RileyG's rockin' new website and upon checkout enter the discount code: SALE15FEB

Okay, so I'm finally putting all the pieces together (literally) and that includes some seriously important leather tabs that will be at the end of each strap. I'm super excited about finding a great little store about 10 minutes from Mexico where Riley and I met Susanna. She has this crazy little shop just stuffed with every kind of leather you can imagine. We bought up a full hide piece and will be taking it to Bruce (die-cutter-maker-extraordinaire) who will create a die (think massive cookie cutter) so every tab will be perrrrrfectly cut AND embossed with our spit polished up, spankin' new logo (debuting in the next post). I should really get myself in a few shots here, but this is the man of show, picking out some prime, full grain leather and chatting up a storm with Susanna (oh and nope, that's not a real Zebra skin)...

Since Riley and I have most of our morning together, it works out wonderfully to scope out some good parks and pay a visit to anyone on our list of to-do's.  Today, we needed to stop by a silk screener to see what it would take to create out "Artist Series" straps.  The idea is to silk screen vinyl inks onto the straps, cool designs from fun artists.  Anyway, here's Riley being completely patient at Factory 101 Graphics here in Encinitas.

The e-commerce site is almost live so it's time to get some good product photos... hey, I'm a photographer, I can do this!  One less hurtle.  Okay, so I grabbed a few old flashes and set one up to shoot through an umbrella for the super-soft lighting.  I need SOME texture so I stuck the other flash a ways away and bare bulbed it.  You can see in the photos how that extra flash adds just a bit of contrast to show off the texture a bit.

After hours of endless internet searching, I finally settled on using Mel Campbell, owner of Six17 Design and a San Diego local to design the logo for RileyG Strapworks.  We met down the street at the Tio Leos and drafted up a few ideas.  About ten days later, Mel sent over four concepts that totally rocked, but one really stood out.  We are going to move ahead with the orange one, second down from the top, maybe modify the "G" so it's a little more legible.  There are just too many decisions to be made to really spend more than a few days on the details.  I'm really excited as the branding really seems to be coming together.

Riley and I were tooling around the local photography shop yesterday and right next door... was a tailor.  Cool.  We walked right in to find an older, refined looking gentleman dressed in perfectly tailored clothes, operating a humming sewing machine.  Now this machine looked ancient, but sounded pefectly tuned;  geers, oil and thread chugging along.  We introduced ourselves to Joseph.  Finally we asked him where he got his equipment.  He scribbled the name Fred and phone number on a piece of paper. 

Today, we visited Fred up in Oceanside.  Riley played with an empty bobin as we explored the wooden shelves of the back room of his "storefront".  "What you need is a walking-foot", Fred explained.  We zeroed in on a well used green, belt driven sewing machine.  This thing looked like it had sewn every flag on earth, but sounded just as good as Joseph's.  By the time Riley was up from his nap, Fred had deliverd the machine to the garage.  I'm renting it for three months.  Let's see what this baby can do!

Now what.... I've already broken about 8 leather needles on 6 straps... no good. At least I have some decent straps to show.  I had met Joel Serrato at a workshop by Jose Villa a few months back. I had mentioned by strap idea, he said just do it!  So, now that I was hitting a major machine issue, I emailed a few photos of the straps over to Joel, see what he thought. "Cabron!!! these are beautiful!!!!"  That is all the encouragement I need, keep trucking...

My camera strap idea came to me as most of my hair-brained ideas arrive:  uneventful.  I was walking around a Guitar Center with my wife and son and discovered their collection of guitar straps.  Wow, what a variety, furry straps, leather covered in spikes, simple patterns and whaky materials.  How fun!  Camera in hand, I looked down at my boring little black camera strap.  "And I call myself a 'creative professional'", I said to myself.  Riley (my 18 month old son) went for a grab into the forest of hanging straps. 

The idea simmered in my brain for a few months, bounced the idea of starting my own line off a few friends and collegues.  Most of the feedback was positive, as most feedback from friends are.  So I did more research on what is out there, who is making straps, what they look like, how they are made.  I wasn't very impressed.  Until I came back to those cool guitar straps, and not just those Levy straps from Guitar Center.  Cool, custom straps from all over: leather,  cloth, vinyl, even found guitar straps from recyled materials.  Even more cool. 

Since Riley and I have plenty of time during the day to drive around, we did some exploring.  Visiting local upholstry shops, scoping out materials, thread, needles.  At one of the shops, we met Leo.  He owns his own auto-upholstry business.  We looked at some of his cool leather and vinyl materials and it all came together.  There on the floor, on old bench seat off a 1980's Ford pickup, ready to be re-upholstered.  Wow, distressed leather.  Leo hooked me up.  And so did several other upholstry guys.  Old stuff, 10, 20, even 30 year old materials.  I found my self in my garage with my mom's old Bernina, sewing up some prototypes. 

After several tries at different designs, I have a few working straps to try out.  WPPI is a few months away... maybe I can sponsor a few photogs...