Henry Lefens and Preston Tyler are the two halves of Pioneer Carry—a daily carry brand whose products are the epitome of thoughtful, durable, and timeless design. They have both been working hard over the past couple years at launching their iconic new travel bags.
I had a chance to connect with them recently and talk about all things design and philosophy—getting into the nitty gritty details of iterating, exploring new products, and what really happens during the long process of bringing something to life.
I hope you enjoy the journey and find it as insightful as I have.
Interview is from Henry's POV, unless designated.
Pioneer has been making innovative daily carry items in 2016, starting with wallets and pouches. Now you are prepping a new line of backpacks. Your gear is infused with a minimal ethos along with utilizing unique and durable fabrics. I’d love to hear about how you got started on this journey and what has captured your imagination about the items you’ve designed and built.
Very early in my career, I think it was when I was doing industrial design at Black Diamond Equipment, we were making climbing harnesses and different tools for professional climbers, people who were climbing Everest, etc. At Black Diamond we had a workshop where I was first exposed to really high-end fabrics and high-end ways of making stuff with heat presses and other modern tools for making technical gear. This was before strong technical fabrics were even known by most of the public. I remember seeing some of this stuff and my first thought was “Wow! This is absolutely going to be the future." I wanted to bring this concept of technical fabrics and technique to more people so I started tinkering around making some wallets.
We began to see brands adopt more technical stories (Lululemon leggings, Nike Flyknit) and I started to get a vision for taking an essential product like a wallet—normally made of premium leather—and refine and elevate it using technical materials and process.
So we bootstrapped Pioneer and just went for it. A few blogs picked it up and we had a unique audience on Instagram before they pivoted to video and it started to take off. The blogs that featured us really helped us to get Pioneer off the ground.
Also we really put lots of invisible care into how our products are built. The process is very intentional for us. Our wallets are not just pieces of fabric that are sewn together. We have this FutureForm core which gives it a thicker, more tangible feeling. When we add the technical fabrics to the outside of the core you end up with this object that is entirely novel from end-to-end.
This is a great example of how we try to leverage technology to elevate the products that we design.
As you expanded your carry line over time what got you excited about producing a line of backpacks? Also as you scale up the size (backpacks are a lot bigger than wallets and pouches) what have the design challenges been and how have you tackled them?
At the core our products are about distilling forms. We achieved this with wallets and small carry pouches and we took this same philosophical approach with our bags (which I had previous experience designing). One way to approach designing a bag would be to scale up what we were doing with our wallets and the global pouch by creating a bigger version of those products. But we really wanted to approach the problem from first principles—in a truly novel way.
This involved lots of research into fashion brands and high-end leather backpacks—studying classic lines and approaches to larger bags. We wanted to take these classic forms and elevate them with our premium materials—the same as we did with our wallets and pouches.
We also wanted to infuse some of the culture of fashion into our products. When I was a designer at Levi's it threw me into the fashion world. Fashion moves on a more cyclical, faster timescale than we do at Pioneer—where we aim for objects with forms that feel more timeless. While fashion serves the broader culture, our focus is on serving the evolution of products by combining timeless elements with the kind of fabrics technology that are being leveraged in technical outdoor equipment.
Lots of the iterative process is about smoothing out the lines: taking clean silhouettes that could be made out of leather and putting our really high-end fabrics, custom hardware, and the custom feel that we're known for into every piece of the bag. For example, with our global pouch or our wallets, when you pick them up for the first time or grab the handle—you instantly feel that something is different. That distinct feeling of something unique and high-end is something we worked hard to bring to these new bags.
Let’s dig into the creative process more. How do you approach creating new products? Do you talk to your customers? Are the ideas driven more by your internal curiosity or what customers are asking for or both? As you approach a new product line how collaborative is the process of bringing something new to life?
In terms of the mindset that we design with, we touched on this a bit earlier, but we start with the assumption that this product will be around for 10 years. That forces some very intentional decisions when it comes to how we design and construct our products.
Another constraint is our size. As a small distributed team we have to be really confident in the longevity of something when we decide to pursue it. This means our product process can be rather long. It takes us about 2 years to develop something new and bring it to market.
In terms of the external and internal inputs on creating new things, our process has a mix of both. We love to experiment and play with some really wild ideas. We also pair this with diverse field testing. This helps ensure that a product we are pursuing hits on a range of consumer interest. But we also will validate demand for an idea based on what our customers are saying to us. It’s surprising to me how often the customer is on the exact same wavelength as us.
Zooming in even more, I place my email address on the inside of every box sent to our customers. Our website features an unfiltered review section. All of these inputs contribute to the depth and range of what we build. In the end it feels feels really good to have customer demands validated when we get the point of actually launching something new.
What is the inspiration behind Pioneer Carry?
I would say we are very rationalist and very modernist. Let me explain that a bit. We start philosophically by asking the question: “What makes something timeless?” This goes against the grain of postmodernism, which is driven more about emotion, hype, and design decisions that might be described as irrational.
By immersing ourselves in streams of creativity that are more classical or timeless, we begin to see for instant there are silhouettes in products that re-emerge time after time. If you think about brands like L.L. Bean, Nike, or Barbour there are certain iconic products that they are known for: the L.L. Bean tote, Nike Air Force One, and the Barbour Waxed Jacket. Each of those brands does lots of things, but at the core there is usually one or two things that are essential for them. For us, we haven’t found that “essential” thing yet, but we are on that path of trying to uncover this with each product that we bring to life.
Another way to look at this is to ask the question: “What is in there already that we can bring out in a new way?” This is about finding the essence of the thing and letting that shine through. You might say we are “essentialist” in our approach in that we aim to find what is essential and elevate it through design, iteration, and technology.
Looking into 2024 and beyond what excites you the most about Pioneer? What gets you excited when you get up and go to work every day?
Honestly it’s hard for us to think much beyond our bag launch. We’ve invested so much into this launch and we are really focused on bringing them into the world for everyone to experience.
In terms of what gets us excited to go to work, I would say first that neither of us are businessmen. For us it’s really about getting to contribute meaningfully to something and watching it grow and change every day.
I've had a chance to use the Pioneer Duration Pack for the past couple months and I must say I was surprised by every little detail of this bag. I've used and tested a lot of different backpacks but here are the highlights that stood out to me:
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the material and finish on the inside of the bag is every bit as high-quality as the outer fabric (not the case with most backpacks)
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the main zipper openings open flawlessly every time
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the backpack stands up on the ground when it is empty (due to how the bottom compartment was designed)
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every single detail was executed flawlessly and the highest attention to detail I've seen in a backpack
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the form factor is slim and minimal but it fits everything I need and more—the perfect travel companion
I encourage you to explore these new bags for yourself and improve the way you carry and travel: Pioneer Carry Travel Backpacks. ※