We have this thing about antlers.. If you ever come over for a drink (it's an open invitation) you'll understand- Coleman had spent a couple of years in Germany (Bavaria) and there were mounted roe-buck antlers everywhere.. you just kind of become accustomed to them. They offer a history and a gothic feel to a space, and the wings on the stag. Well, they're made of wax.

Timing is everything.. and this question arrives as I just move into my first place in 1 year and 8 months.. I know it sounds like some NPR radio thing where a guy lives without a place for some humanitarian effort.. (later to write a droll book about the experience; I assure you, it has not been so glamorous for me..) I had placed my stuff in storage and put all my bills on auto-pay with paperless billing- I left my old apartment in Santa Barbara.. I then drove around, ( I got back east and chilled with my parents; fortunately we have a very good relationship-) I designed the first VAEL collection at their house in Maine, overlooking a craggy coast. I spent the next few months living in an dodgy hotel in Dongguan, China. I had a small coffee maker in the room; I mastered that piece of shit.. during the evenings, I partied a lot with the local Mafia. I spent days at the factory and nights trying to find anything to eat other then the oily chinese food..

I spent Christmas there- from China, after the trade shows and some trips to Tokyo, I had couch surfed with my girlfriend and sometimes with business partner, Rittmeyer, while working on the brand. I really started to miss my tools and my car needed a oil change, so I found an apartment in Santa Monica and had my stuff derived from storage.. I finally changed my oil.. My clothes currently smell like cardboard boxes..

I love this question.. I'm a total music-head... When I meet new people and I see their iPod, I grab it, flip through the artists, and immediately pass judgments.. I have 1TB of music on my new drive and I know most of it intimately. I dont think this brand could exist without a healthy dose of Saul Williams, Scroobius Pip or M83. There are music and film references throughout the brand. It's impossible to create anything in a vacuum. I think that all the things we expose ourselves to influence us in profound ways. We're influenced by everything we absorb. I have this kinda silly theory called the "sponge theory" which states that you just naturally imbibe all of your surroundings constantly. All of your current resolves, ideas, passions, have been formed or influenced by your past. It's not a simple regurgitative action though; we absorb, then modify, then disseminate or transmit. This is a constant cycle. There could be an analog with eating as well.

We consume (food) and then it's (converted) into energy which is stored or (used). Same process, but we also do it with information. So for influences for VAEL, I make sure I feed myself and my team with a very healthy diet of information. This comes from the blogs, mags, and industry tradeshows and images; from travel, form observing myself and others in different environs. From communicating with diverse people and co-oping some of their ideas. All of these ultimately find their way into what shapes the products which VAEL will market. When you are aware of this process, you become rather meticulous about what info and surroundings you are exposed to. You avoid restaurants with bad lighting. You stop watching negative TV, only drink decent liquor and avoid sullen friends..Currently in heavy-rotation on the iPod:

• Twilight Singers: Powder Burns
• Gutter Twins: Saturnalia
• Atmosphere: Seven's Travels
• Anders Ilar: Sworn
• Kraak & Smaak: Plastic people
• Bitcrush: Epilogue in Waves
• Coltrane: A love Supreme
• Dr. Octagon: Instrumentalyst
• Brian Blade Fellowship
• Cinematic Orchestra
• Dexter Gordon
• Andre 3000
• MF Doom: Is Viktor Vaughn Vaudeville Vi
• Bohren & Der Club of Gore

This project has been a continuation of many shared experiences and ideas that Coleman finally pushed to critical mass. We've been collaborating in life for quite some time and I think we ultimately share different perspectives of similar observations. We are very different people, and these mutual inputs allow us to expand a common idea no matter the differences. This whole thing exists through both the individual and common experiences of those involved and the interactions they afford. We just have so many common exposures to pull from. It's the fact that many of these exposures occurred prior to us meeting as friends, and only later working together, that provides the unique results. Actually, we met first as adversaries in Maine 20+ years ago, and later became friends professionally, developing gear and traveling around. One of my first memories is playing an absurd squash match in icy New England with Horn, who showed up inexplicably wearing size 12 football cleats, caked in dried mud, that he had found somewhere on the way to the game. That was a turning point in our early relationship. I knew I had met a solid personality that I could relate to.

I see my contribution with luggage, bags, and accessories as a feedback loop informing the project, which is a reflection of the life many of us now choose to live; traveling, working, and pleasure all blending together to the point where there are no clear boundaries. As a result, the personal boundaries within this class of people also begin to disappear. As I see it, Vael explores limits of what is right and wrong, often coming dangerously close to disaster. Occasional failure seems to be part of the DNA.

I spend a lot of time in Vietnam, and rather than live in the safe haven of a hotel I've become accustomed to staying with friends, at our design center, or renting an apartment. The neighbors idle by sipping black iced coffee wondering what the hell I'm up to because during my infrequent downtime I'm taking apart pre-war Honda's or re-covering bits of furniture, just randomness. When I need a hotel, I just check in. It's just a better way to work and not be so sterile.

The bags are also a reflection of these limits explored, however always grounded with the functionality and quality. Travel, work, and pleasure traditionally require a different kit. Our paradigm tends to be multifunctional and through necessity tries to remove those boundaries. Coleman and I both pay a lot of attention to materials. If you use something day in and day out it needs to feel solid and have some perpetual attraction.

The only way to get truly intimate with these things is to live and create them up close, stitch by stitch, with intimate knowledge of the process and materials. That's what we do.