Thanks to Andy at Reference Library for reminding me the Steele Canvas Co. as a modern source for canvas totes and related products. I first read about the Steele Canvas Co in Hi Tech, a eighties-era industrial design book featuring several canvas based laundry and storage units. Given the date of publication, I had assumed that most of the companies in the book had either gone of out of business or moved their production overseas (refining product line to something that might hang from a hook in the check-out line at the supermarket). However, several months ago, I saw Reference Library’s Kiosk project featuring a special edition of a Steele Canvas tote (in heavy duty black canvas).

I emailed SCBC to find out about their product offerings and received a number ofvintage images of special edition totes being created for Japanese customers. X also sent along images from vintage SBCS which I’ll post in the next few days.

Vintage catalog images