Where did the name Building Block come from?
The name Building Block embodies our goal of reimagining everyday accessories through the playful use of elemental materials and forms. Our collection offers an index of items that are meant to be endlessly built upon or pieced together.
I love the ____ bag you used to make! Why don’t you make it anymore?
We love all of our designs from past to present and if it were up to us we'd keep them all! Unfortunately we are not able to keep every one of our products actively available due to one of these reasons: limited material, no longer cost efficient, it was a one time exclusive, just not relevant anymore. Sometimes if an archived style is requested enough times, we do consider bringing it back, so let us know what you’ve been missing!
Why don’t the bags come in more colors?
Black and Natural Vegetable Tanned are our best selling and perennial colors. Occasionally we will launch a new color, but have scaled back on offering too many at once, as this leads to a lot of supply chain waste and ultimately perpetuates a system of fast fashion. We strive to produce pieces that can be interpreted as perennial, meaning you don’t have to think twice about whether or not this color is “in season”. For us, Black and Natural Veg Tan fit any occasion, year round.
Do you have any vegan products?
Yes! In 2020 we introduced two entirely leather-free styles called the Garment Bag and Scrunch Bag. Both styles utilized our Crinkle Textile, which is a nylon woven sourced from an eco-conscious, family-owned textile mill in Italy. These styles have since sold out, but we have just launched four new leather-free styles using this material in three colors. Find the Crinkle Cubes here!
Where are your bags made?
Our products are all handmade in a workshop in Taipei, Taiwan that is run by two generations of brothers. The family-owned business is made up of 7 craftsmen and women who have collectively been working with leather handbags for over 30 years. Working with a small operation has allowed us to develop smaller, more thoughtful collections while being able to control the quality of our products. Our founders visit Taiwan often, where their own extended family is also from, and where they actively travel to develop new designs every year.
What sets the price of your products?
To be completely transparent, price isn’t the first thing we think about when we set out to design a new product. Our priority is always to make something that fills a functional need, that has smart construction, and elicits a sense of surprise.
One design detail you will notice with our higher priced products is that they are constructed from large, uninterrupted pieces of leather. Those large pieces of leather are what give our products that clean "minimalist" look. Using a larger piece of leather means that each hide must be of a higher quality and inspected for overt surface imperfections before we use it, which takes time and expense. While a solution for most designers would be to use lower grade leather and cut patterns into smaller pieces for cost efficiency, we think this often takes away from the beauty of leather's natural surface, which we try to celebrate.
We’re also committed to working with the same family-owned workshop that has been with us since day one. Paying fair wages to this type of boutique operation comes with a higher price for production that ultimately affects our retail pricing. It's important to us that we don’t use mass production techniques like automated assembly lines and are proud to say that everything really is made by hand with care.
Lastly, besides material and labor costs, there are various other factors that go into determining each product's price that include transport, paying our staff fair wages including healthcare, studio rent, and a reasonable profit margin to keep us going year after year.
Have more questions we didn't cover?
Email us at info@building--block.com