Unique design ahead of the 'PAC': Mindemoya bag shop exports to world.

• Author: Kelly, Lindsay
• Position: MANUFACTURING

For Pat. McGibbon, the manufacture of messenger bags all began when a friend fished an old sewing ma chine out of a dumpster.

On leave from work as a bicycle courier because of a back injury incurred while navigating the busy streets of Toronto, McGibbon started stitching together the bags as Christmas gifts for friends and coworkers. Before long, others in the industry were clamouring for her bags, and PAC Designs was created.

"I always thought sewing was kind of boring," McGibbon laughed while guiding a tour of her Minde-moya shop. "My whole sewing experience was in Grade 9 home ec: I made a pencil case and a bean bag chair. But I'm creative, so I just kind of figured it out."

Fifteen years later, the Manitoulin Island-based entrepreneur is renowned amongst bike couriers for her practical, durable, and intuitive bags, which are shipped across the globe.

Signature amongst her designs are three layers of abrasion-and puncture-resistant Cordura nylon fabric, double track stitching, and bar tacking to reinforce areas of stress.

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And McGibbon is constantly innovating. She was the first to introduce padded backs, anti-sway straps to keep the packs in place, and the use of military-grade Ballistic Cordura nylon for the pack bottoms. She found that adding two-inch, plastic D rings to her designs allowed for easier adjusting, and a removable 'X'shoulder strap offered riders additional support.

All this is done from her home-based shop on the shores of Lake Mindemoya, where she and three employees take orders, field custom requests, and stitch together small batches of the bags at a time.

McGibbon estimates five per cent of her orders come from Canada, while the rest hail from the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, and Europe.

"I'm certainly not the biggest, but I'm still the most respected, because we come up with these ideas that nobody has ever thought of," McGibbon said. "I think that's perhaps because I'm untrained and I come and look at things from a different direction. So in a sense I don't really know what I'm doing; I just go and do it and it ends up working out." '

Raised in British Columbia, McGibbon came to Ontario on scholarship to attend the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD), but dropped out after "I fell in love with the bicycle and I had to ride my bike all day."

Six years ago, she was lured to Manitoulin by inexpensive real estate, and she settled into family life. Now, as a single mother of two...