About

history • process


 

We’ve been at it since the beginning!

Revelate Designs was founded in Anchorage Alaska in 2007, we’re dedicated to bikepacking gear and have been doing it longer than any other manufacturer.

Eric Parsons founded Revelate Designs (originally Epic Designs) out of a passion for adventuring on two wheels. After a decade of adventuring with different setups, it was clear that some out of the box thinking using lightweight systems could be applied to the world of bike travel whether it be mountain, road, or with fat tires.

Armed with an industrial sewing machine in a basement and cutting fabric on the floor, Eric began sewing frame bags for fat-tire snow bike races, chiefly the Iditarod Trail Invitational. Demand grew quickly and after a few months the engineering job was left behind and he dove in head first designing and sewing bags for others who shared his adventure biking drive and needed functional, lightweight gear.

Revelate is still based in Anchorage Alaska, where the expansive wilderness offers endless adventuring and pushes a high design standard which we build our gear to excel in.

As a pioneer and forerunner, Revelate has innovated many of the systems and bag concepts found in the market today, namely handlebar harness systems with modular drybags and front pouches, stem-mounted feedbags are also a Revelate first along with modular drybag saddle bags. We later pioneered the use of airpurge valves in our saddle bags and were the first to manufacture high quality production scale frame bags.  Way back in 2013 we were also the first to offer fully waterproof handlebar and seat bag systems. 

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Manufacturing Statement

We strive to produce the best possible products that we can. period. We started off building everything ourselves in Alaska but that quickly became impractical due to trying to scale in a state separated from suppliers by thousands of miles – only to ship the finished product back out of state. From 2010 until spring 2022 our main production sewing facility was located in Springfield Oregon where all of our sewn products were made to our exacting standards. Currently we use several different contract sewing partners in the Pacific Northwest and a network of domestic material suppliers. We have gone through great pains and expense to keep as much production based in the US as possible. 

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Starting in 2016 our waterproof products made with RF welding processes are being built by a trusted manufacturer in China.  Our roots are in building things ourselves and keeping production in the USA, so this was not a decision taken lightly.  Asia simply is where the state of the art technology exists for building 3 dimensional bags with these processes.

Trust us – We took a 5 year quest to find a domestic partner that would work with us and do what we envisioned. We came up empty handed and frustrated. The only domestic manufacturers available for contract / OEM work using RF welding serve the medical, military, and industrial markets and are not up to speed on the tooling and 3D molding techniques that you see in the modern outdoor industry. Unlike sewn goods, fabric welded construction is a different beast entirely with extensive elements of  tooling, a vertical integration of coated fabrics and knowledge base to make it all come together.

This is not an undertaking we could have done in-house with the resources we have. We got by for a few years by sewing and heat taping seams to create waterproof gear, however this was not feasible long term as it has geometry limitations and additional steps as compared to RF welding. With this explanation aside, we are very excited to be able to bring new lines of waterproof bags to the bikepacking world. We hope you agree.

Lastly, the production of some of our Cockpit bags (Gas Tank, Mag Tank) moved to an Asia sewing partner in 2022. This was a direct impact of Covid, loss of skilled workforce and exponential cost increases that impacted the US Cut and Sew industry. We had to face the decision to move them overseas or not have the products at all.

So as you can see, we have a diverse, transparent and practical stance on the building of our products. We strive to build the best products we can and actually have them available. We take great pride that a large portion of Revelate bags are made in USA.

Revelate, Jerrycan and Revelate Designs are Registered Trademarks of Revelate Designs LLC.