______ STRAPWORKS

Riley G: In Camera Stores

2010-05-19T21:42:00Z

It has been a long and complicated journey to the retail market and we have finally arrived. For those of you who prefer to feel the quality and craftsmanship of our straps in person, be sure to head over to your local camera store. If they don't yet carry our straps, be sure to let them know you want them! We will have an full updated list on our website.

Since a post without photos is no fun at all. Here are a few shots from today's visit to the metal fabricator. Jeff Captain over at Accuweld is doing an amazing job with our new retail racks. They are heading to powder-coat today!

The Riley G hand strap is here!

2010-04-06T00:08:07Z

Goodbye lousy hand straps! After numerous protos and a ton of great feedback, we are thrilled to announce a new line for Riley G; gorgeous, all leather, made with love, hand straps. Unlike most hand straps on the market, ours features two separate channels of webbing to distribute that 20lb camera across the back of your hand. These bad boys are perfect for those looking for some amazing comfort and of course... some Riley G style. We will be filling out the line with a few more color options as well as a few racers throughout the spring. Meanwhile, you can find the oil leather pictured below live on our storefront today.

Three new designs to fill out the Signature Series.

2010-03-14T05:13:19Z

WPPI offer from Jolie Wraps

2010-03-10T03:02:33Z

We want to give a shout out to our friends over at Jolie Wraps. They are hooking you up with a sweet credit towards their awesome boxes and packaging products. All you need to do is Tweet:

@Riley_G_straps loves @myjoliewraps

One lucky Tweet will receive a $100 credit: http://twitter.com/myjoliewraps.

Hot off the sewing machine: a few custom straps

2010-03-07T01:55:30Z

We are always excited when someone comes along with a custom request. We are a very small company and pride ourselves on the fact that we can accommodate custom requests. Regina Holder wanted us to make two straps that match her logo and we think we got pretty close. We also did a custom racer for June Adcox, a killer teal racer with a silver sparkle stripe. Lastly, we decided to have some fun with some green sparkle. We have three more colors with the Paisley design. Check them our at our store this week. Thanks again Regina and June.

That booth in the corner... PMA Show 2010

2010-02-25T05:00:31Z

Our first step into the retail world took place at the PMA 2010 show in Anaheim this past weekend. Over three days, I collected close to 100 business cards and shook twice as many hands. It was a great start for us and we were thrilled by the feedback we received. Photographers, press, independant sales reps, national distributors, camera store owners and even PMA speakers offered plenty of love and we were honored to accept a PMA 2010 HOT PICK award. Riley even showed up for a few hours to show his support; pulling all the straps down and running around like a crazy man.

Building the PMA booth... IT'S ALIVE!

2010-02-19T05:17:22Z

This is not a machine... and that is just the beginning

2010-02-14T04:51:15Z

The images below show one of our artisans hand punching the holes through which each grommet is placed and yes, that is a piece of chalk. I'm guessing you already know that our straps are made by hand right here in the Southern California, however, I would like to use this as an illustration to support our reasoning for raising our pricing. After our first year in business, I have finally tallied all of our ongoing costs vs. our sales and realized, RileyG won't be in business much longer unless we make some changes. Taking our manufacturing out of the US is out of the question. We believe our customers will recognize the level of quality we offer and are willing to pay a premium for it. So, we are giving everyone a heads up; as of March 1st, we will be raising the sale price of all of our camera straps. We are taking the path less traveled and we are confident most of you will follow us. As always, we are open to hearing your questions, thoughts and complaints.

STAND OUT IN THE CROWD (especially if your naked)

2010-02-14T02:10:20Z

Bag-N-Tag

2010-02-11T19:29:15Z

With the world of retail looming over RileyG, we decided to look into hang tags and packaging for our straps. We looked at custom tags, custom labels, designer packaging and gorgeous letterpress products. The only problem, these shiny things cost big $$$$! I realized, this was going to add several dollars per strap to our cost basis. I found a generic shipping catalogue on my desk and began sifting through their products and found the perfect solution: drawstring burlap bags for $.30 each and generic manila shipping tags for pennies. We have amazing, designer camera straps and I believe our customers will be happy to save a few dollars on their purchase and skip the high-gloss packaging. We are all about value here and we would rather invest those dollars back into the craftsmen of our community. That's where Sean and his team at FWD Screen Printing came into play. He took the time to print our small batch of 200 bags and did an amazing job. I had called him Friday of last week and he had these babies finished in one day. When you purchase a RileyG camera strap, you are supporting small American businesses and people like Sean. Below, a few shots of our burlap bags, hang tags and our new friends at FWD Screen Printing.