Trk Str

The Yah Mos Def's Bryan Poerner's got a brand-new bag (line).

by Brian Howard

Make no mistake, Bryan Poerner likes what he does. By night, he's one of the two front-guys for brash local hip-hop duo The Yah Mos Def (who, it should be noted, perform the theme song for City Paper's biweekly podcast, "Local Support"). By day, he's a sales rep for über-hip sneaker company Puma. He likes their product. Likes selling it to local boutiques. But like it as he may, Poerner, 30, who graduated as a business major from Stockton College, is pushing someone else's stuff. He's sought involvement with something that would give him more, even total, control. Something where the "PLM," or product lifecycle management, was all on him.

CLUTH CARGO: "It's just that most [bags] seem boring," says TRKFLD's Bryan Poerner, showing off some of his creations. Photo By: Michael T. Regan (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Two years ago, Poerner started making that idea — TRKFLD bags, his line of brightly colored, innovatively constructed portage accessories that launched last week — a reality. He'd decided he wanted to make a line of bags for, as his nascent Web site puts it, "[P]eople bored of boring. People tired of tired."

"It's just that most [bags] seem boring," says Poerner, bluntly, when asked why he chose bags. "I don't have a background in it. But in Asia, there seemed to be a ton of cool options."

Though Poerner is also an avid runner, he insists that TRKFLD is not running-inspired. He once ran a record label with the same name.

Poerner's first step in this process was a trip to Asia (the first of about a dozen), visiting countries like Thailand and China (where his then-girlfriend/now-wife Thi was teaching in Shenzhen) in search of factories. It was on one of his trips that he met a guy he'll refer to only by first name: Willy. ("It's hard to find someone you can trust.") Willy is "a kid who had worked as an engineer on the [Hong Kong] airport," says Poerner from his office upstairs from Old City's Deep Sleep. When they met, Willy was selling bags of his own design, made of unconventional fabrics, in his small boutique in Hong Kong. Poerner and Willy decided to form a partnership, and Poerner set out in search of his own unique fabrics.

As a rep for Puma, Poerner finds himself at all kinds of industry events, including fabric trade shows. And this is how he found Sunbrella, a Glen Raven, N.C., company that makes materials for awnings and outdoor furniture. The fabric, resistant to water, stains and color fade from the sun, seemed almost too perfect for a rugged, durable city tote. The bright, striped patterns and unique feel appealed instantly to Poerner's sense of style. Though this is not a women's line, many of the bags pop with bright pastels.

"I like pink," says Poerner. "Women are going to buy some of them, but in general, I like colorful, bright patterns."

The 13 styles — every detail of which, from zipper color to closure style, was dictated by Poerner — come in multiple colors, totaling 33 TRKFLD bags in all. Each style is named for a friend; there's the Pelly flight bag named for Jeff Pelly, and the Roxas messenger bag named for Hail Social's Richie.

Poerner figures bags are a good thing to have in the city, so why not have more options? "It's a lot easier to base a company [like this] around a city," he figures. "People don't walk around with bags in Cheyenne, Wyoming."

But is Philly — already home to custom-courier-bag king R.E.Load — becoming a bag mecca? And a crowded one at that?

"It's more of a city thing than a Philly[-specific] thing," figures Poerner. "And we're definitely not marketing toward bike couriers; [ours] is a smaller style of bag."

To start, Poerner hopes to have TRKFLD bags in a few small boutiques in a handful of cities, including New York, San Diego, London, Berlin, Hong Kong and, of course, Philly (where Deep Sleep and Ubiq will carry them).

Poerner's got future fabric plans that include Harris Tweed (a fabric made only in a few Scottish island villages), Ripstop (tear-proof material used in hot air balloons, kites and bubble jackets), and a reflective material made by 3M. But for now, he seems pleased that phase one seems to have gone off.

"The site launched today," said Poerner last week. "The bags came in on Friday. I've been working on this for two years. It's just been real fun to do."

(bhoward@citypaper.net)

Peruse TRKFLD bags at www.trkfld.com or on MySpace at www.myspace.com/trkfld.