Story

Hi everyone!

My name is Mike.  I started Thief with my friend Doug back in January 2017.  It was a humble beginning in the small Ottawa Valley town of Foresters Falls (although not really that humble, our house had a dedicated sewing room).  Following my failed attempt to bikepack the Baja Divide - which saw me running down a dusty Mexican side road in pursuit of the jerk who stole my bike - I returned home and Doug and I set our sights to learning how to sew, and Thief was born (Thief...get it?)  

Our goal was simple: get rich selling bike bags, go on a bikepacking adventure in Kyrgyzstan and meet our hero, Kyrgyz pop sensation Mirbek Atabekov.  Well, here we are three years later.  I've been to Kyrgyzstan, I didn't meet Mirbek, neither of us got rich and Thief was just a hobby.  Until now.  

I live in Jasper now.  Doug supports the business with timely Simpsons and Home Improvement references and memes.  Bag making no longer leads to a drunken night of freestyle rapping and crooked stitching.  I'm serious now, despite how everything you have read so far has come off.  I like making bike bags.  I'm proud that Thief bags have been used all over the world.  They have held up to abuse, overstuffage, airline baggage handlers and all types of inclement weather, not to mention having been to some pretty spectacular places.  Torrential rains on the Japanese Odyssey; blistering heat in the deserts of Turkmenistan and Iran; the soaring peaks of the Pamir Mountains of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan; the Mongolian steppe; chaotic city streets in Beijing, Tokyo, Tehran, Istanbul, Bogota and Quito; the Baja Divide, the Andes, the Rocky Mountains and the humble and amazing Ottawa Valley.  It's pretty impressive, really.  I like to make bags that are functional and durable, reliable and simple, clean and colourful.  And I do it all.  I choose the fabric, create the designs and sew the bags.  It's all handmade, by me, in Jasper, Alberta.

I hope you find something you like.  Thanks for all the support.

 

Mike