Eco Focus: Laga Designs
It takes about a day for an artisan in Indonesia to embroider a medium-size Laga Designs bag using a single-needle treadle machine powered solely by foot pedal. There may be more-efficient and technologically advanced ways to make an embroidered handbag, but Laga Designs founders Roy and Louise van Broekhuizen aren’t interested. The husband-and-wife team’s purpose for starting Laga Designs was to continue helping the local tsunami survivors in the Aceh province on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia, where nearly 170,000 people were killed in 2004. Roy van Broekhuizen traveled to the Aceh province in January 2005 as a coordinator for Saddleback Church. Roy and volunteer teams distributed disaster-relief funds collected by the church after the tsunami hit in December 2004.
“My contract ended with the church [14 months later]. We said, ’We can’t leave here.’ We have to find something to continue,” said Roy, who is of Indonesian and Dutch descent and was born in Jakarta, Indonesia. Roy and Louise discovered the embroidered handbags in a local shop. His wife brought samples of the bags back to the states and sold them through home parties. Two boxes filled with handbags turned into five and then eleven, Roy said. “I said, ’That’s it. I’m not going through customs anymore, hassling with those guys.’ So we brought in a 40-foot container with about 7,000 handbags, and we’re bringing in a container every other month.”
The operation started employing 12 workers. Now it employs more than 150. Louise, who is also of Indonesian and Dutch descent, tweaks the original designs with a contemporary touch while utilizing and preserving the traditional Acehenese embroidery techniques. The handbags are popular among quilters who also use the treadle sewing machine and museums such as the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Louise’s original home-sales party continues to have legs, with 65 consultants who sell the Laga Design handbags through home parties and local events. The couple started showing Irvine, Calif.–based Laga Handbags on the trade show circuit just last year and currently sells to more than 275 retailers nationwide and in Japan.
“I think people that have specific boutiques love the way it looks because it’s different. No one has it, and adding the story to it triples the value and we’ve been able to sell the product a lot faster. Women tend to feel good about buying something and actually helping someone else,” Roy said.
Wholesale price points range from $15 for a wallet to $160 for a large travel bag. For more information, call (949) 654-8360. —Rhea Cortado
