Sea Bags: Musings from Maine

Image via: SailMaine.

We’re excited to announce that we’ve partnered with SailMaine to create a scholarship fund to introduce and encourage students ages 8-18 to learn the sport of sailing.

Individuals who drop off a sail to Sea Bags will receive a complimentary Sea Bags accessory, or, they can donate their sail to the “Sea Bags Scholarship Fund.” We will then donate to SailMaine, made as a quarterly donation. The program started in 2007 and has just been enhanced by this commitment to work together. 

SailMaine is a non-profit organization formed to support sailing in Maine at the grass-roots, community level. SailMaine connects people of all ages and abilities to the coast of Maine through fun and affordable sailing education, recreation, and competition, stimulating individual growth and creating community.

“We know that all children should have the opportunity to sail and we’re thrilled to be a part of these efforts,” said Hannah Kubiak and Beth Shissler, co-owners of Sea Bags. “Partnering with SailMaine is a perfect match for our business and we’re extremely proud to support our local community.”

Sails can be dropped off at Sea Bags located at 25 Custom House Wharf in Portland, ME. For further information about the program, call Sea Bags at 1.888.210.0744.

For mine, I played hooky from my normal responsibilities at work and played all afternoon. Hannah and I went back to the “old days” and played on the design floor. Looking at the old funky colored sails with their beautiful colors was like opening a bunch of great presents. The colors reminded me of ice cream and sprinkles on a cake–the end result was delicious! See them in our Freeport Store while they last. Like birthdays, they won’t last long!

If you received your issue of Better Homes & Gardens last week, check us out on page 40! The article explains that blue is the ultimate crowd-pleaser. “Nautical blues express simple truths: honor, strength, purity – what we’re all looking for this year.”

The magazine features our Custom House Gull tote - a new addition to our website. It can be purchased for $145.

Alaina in her screen printed shirt with her pink anchor bag!

Meet Alaina Harris, one of our amazing kitters and designers of our tote bags made of recycled sail. “Lane” is currently finishing an art and entrepreneurship degree at the University of Southern Maine and designs and screen prints her own T-shirts. Alaina’s most memorable experience was her high school adventure living in Thailand for one semester. When asked what she’d like to be stranded on a remote island with, she answered her journal, bible, sketchbook, and most importantly, her best friends. We are lucky to have Alaina as part of our Sea Bags team!

Kate from Black Dinah Chocolatiers living her dream job!

Oprah recently did a show on dream jobs. We want to know what your dream job is?  I was lucky to spend the day with a French film crew doing a documentary on Maine. They clearly were doing their dream jobs–the quite famous host, Girard Klein was full of personality showing their viewers in France cool things about Our State. Every angle and shot was thought provoking. We shot my friend Kate, who owns Black Dinah Chocolatiers. Kate and her husband, Steve have built a great gourmet chocolate business living on the island they love to call home.  We shot the Inn at Isle au Haut where Diana has used her amazing decorating and culinary talent to create a quaint Inn.  I left a great Corporate Career to do Sea Bags with my business partner, Hannah. I was inspired by my sister, Linda whose dream job is to swordfish. I’m lucky to get to create a company where we work with amazing talent and we recycle beautiful sails into great, functional and sometimes funky totes. We give back to causes we believe in. I live in a gorgeous place, get to travel to great places, and love the people I work with from our team, to our customers and our vendors.  Yep, its a dream job. What’s yours?

Beth Shissler, co-owner, Sea Bags, Inc.

This brave U.S. Naval Pilot is a New Englander now stationed in Jacksonville, FL. She was stationed in Brunswick for many years before the base closure slated for next year took place. She flies the P3’s we were all so used to seeing flying overhead and protecting our country. She is home for a  well-earned and much deserved vacation and had to have the Red Anchor tote to bring back to Jacksonville to carry all of her gear.

Thank you Ms. Pilot for all you do to serve and protect our country. Enjoy your Sea Bag!

We’re celebrating the launch of SeaWorthy, Linda Greenlaw’s new book that just hit the stores last week. And with Father’s Day quickly approaching, Sea Bags is offering a one-of-a-kind gift for Dad that he’ll love!

Available through the Sea Bags website, you can pick up a signed copy of SeaWorthy and our brand new large custom Sword Bag for an awesome price of $150. It’s made from recycled kevlar sails and hemp rope handles, perfect for Dad to stuff his beach, boat, or workout gear into.

Don’t forget to catch Linda in the show SWORDS on the Discovery Channel!

Lynn, also known as Spotty, has come a long way since her first job as butter girl at Nunans Lobster Hut in Kennebunkport. She’s now the Wholesale Manager here at Sea Bags. Lynn’s married, most of the time that is, and is lucky to have her little three-month-old son Christopher. Christopher loves to visit the ladies at Sea Bags and playfully stick his tongue out at all of us as he’s passed from one woman’s arms to another’s.  

Of her many embarrassing experiences, well one of the worst, was playing beer pong with see-through pants, which she didn’t realize and wasn’t informed of until after the game. “Don’t worry,” Lynn reassures us, “my team won.” 

Come stop in and visit us at Sea Bags, 25 Custom House Wharf in Portland, Maine to hear some more of Lynn’s stories, or better yet, see her in action. As Lynn loves to say, she’s “out of control!”

Here at Sea Bags, we love our walk-in customers. Like our sails, each has an interesting story of their own. This week we met a wonderful gentleman from Ft. Morgan, Alabama who told us about how the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has affected his life and his livelihood in southern Alabama.

Captain Hal runs a 31′ charter boat out of his home port. With a certain degree of sadness in his eyes he spoke of how his home port has become destroyed due to the ever increasing oil leaking into the gulf. His boat, which is now leased out to BP, is being used for clean-up purposes. Unfortunately, Captain Hal realizes that the Gulf will never come back within his lifetime.

We’re happy to have had Captain Hal share his story of his life at sea with us. It causes us all to stop and think about how lucky we are to be living here on the beautiful coast of Maine.

Image via: AP Press.

Have you received your June issue of Body + Soul yet? Flip to page 37 and you’ll find the Angela Adams Bird Tote by Sea Bags!

This medium tote is of course constructed of recycled sails, but it’s designed by our Portland neighbor, Angela Adams. The bird design is made of recycled shoe leather and, unlike our other totes, it features a secure metal clasp closure so you can insure that your goodies stay inside. The tote can be purchased on the Angela Adams website.