A Sea Bags store in Vero Beach, Fla. The company will open a shop in downtown Boothbay Harbor in April. (Photo courtesy Sea Bags)
The Portland-based company Sea Bags, a designer and manufacturer of handmade bags and other items made from recycled sails, will open a shop in Boothbay Harbor on April 12.
The shop will be at 8 Wharf St., in a space formerly home to Seawicks Candle Co., which closed in November.
A wall of tote bags at a Sea Bags shop in Rehoboth Beach, Del. All Sea Bags shops have similar displays. (Photo courtesy Sea Bags)
Founded in 1999 and incorporated in 2006, Sea Bags LLC now has 20 locations along the East Coast, with seven in Maine, and employs over 140 people. According to its website, the company has reused over 600 tons of material that would have gone into landfills.
The bags and other nautically inspired accessories are designed and sewn at the company’s headquarters, on Custom House Wharf, from used sails that have been cleaned.
“With our founding and heritage tied to the working waterfront in Portland, we set our sights on expanding into similar coastal communities, so Boothbay Harbor was a perfect fit for us,” Vice President of Retail Operations Paul Gori said in an email.
The interior of a Sea Bags store in Rockland. (Photo courtesy Sea Bags)
Original details in the sails, like the stitching and grommet holes, make each item unique. Rope handles on the bags are hand-spliced.
Most of the sails and other materials used for the products come from Maine, some from other New England states, and all from the U.S.
The Boothbay Harbor shop will be open through the holiday season.
“Boothbay’s other attraction that appealed to us was the opportunity for an extended season beyond summer and fall,” Gori said. He mentioned the draw of the Gardens Aglow light show at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, which runs through Dec. 31.
The street level of 8 Wharf St. in Boothbay Harbor will soon become home to a Sea Bags shop. (Suzi Thayer photo)
“Boothbay Harbor is a charming coastal community and we’re very excited to be setting up shop at 8 Wharf St.,” Gori said.
Other new Maine locations for Sea Bags will be Bar Harbor and Ogunquit, with April and May openings planned.
For more information about Sea Bags, go to seabags.com.
