Got felt?

MANILA, Philippines – Mad Rabbit Kicking Tiger — or M.R.K.T. — makes a strong case for felt. The sleek bag label delivers an engineered line of messenger bags, briefcases, totes and backpacks all designed with the city life in mind. The brand also features a useful range for travel and a small accessories line.

M.R.K.T. was started in 2010 by Harvard-trained architect Tom Pen as he set out to challenge conventional fashion trends by creating bags and accessories inspired by clean lines and pure form. Structure, function and geometry are the inherent design tenets of the label as they try to push the boundaries of design with unconventional materials.

M.R.K.T. delivers a deliberately designed line of vibrant colored bags, all manufactured in the most unconventional of materials; felt figures as the hero textile for the label. Burnished into different textures, woven into distinctive patterns for a strong waft and weave; the label highlights innovative construction techniques and brings a modern finish to their products.

The brand features a bright and colorful line of backpacks, shoulder bags and briefcases. Mostly manufactured in felt as their fabric of choice, M.R.K.T. makes a creative play on the different ways the material can be manipulated. Perforated, laser cut or crafted solidly into a sturdy briefcase fit for work or commuting within the city, the collection features a light but versatile line of products.

The label codifies its design DNA with the clean lines and vibrant color found in most contemporary architecture: “Our products are designed very similarly to how I would approach designing a building,” says Tom Pen, head designer and founder of M.R.K.T.  “Our bags are conceptual, practical, flexible, and very clean. The inspiration comes mainly from architectural practices mixed with classic bag design.”

For this Supreme exclusive, we sit down with Tom Pen and Shaun Nath — founders, head designer and marketing director respectively — for a short history on the label, what inspires their products and what drives them to design.

SUPREME: For someone uninitiated to M.R.K.T., which bag would you recommend first?

SHAUN NATH: I would probably recommend the Kel briefcase. This is our standard introduction briefcase messenger bag that we make. Our Kel bag is a timeless classic in our range; these are our baseline bags. The entirety of our collection and product line build up from our classic shapes.

What goes behind your love of color for your bags?

TOM PEN: The only drawback to felt is that it’s typically conceived as a winter material; our immediate solution was to use very vibrant, bright colors. Colors you’d typically assume for summer.

SN: Personally, I love color. But then again, my roots have always been in architecture and I’ve found that in most recent times, contemporary architecture deals with a lot of vibrant colors, especially in European architecture. I get inspired by Northern European vernacular — they’re bold with colors and I’ve always found that very fascinating.

Could you walk us through the materials you use for M.R.K.T.?

Our most popular material would definitely be our felt. I feel strongly about the material because felt has always been the most prime for experimentation in our eyes — especially in the early days when felt was one of the few soft materials we could manipulate on our own with just a laser cutter.

But it turned out, everything we made with felt turned out to have real structure. In a lot of ways, it fed into our whole architectural aesthetic.

We source our felt from Germany; it’s not your typical wool or synthetic felt. Our felt is recyclable, it’s anti-static, it doesn’t mold and is highly water resistant.

Apart from your architectural background, what else informs your aesthetic when it comes to M.R.K.T.?

Most of the key elements found in our products are derived from architecture: there’s this inherent structure, there’s patterns, there’s textures and also our love for pop of color. Those are all things you would see in a city, things that would inspire you. They’re incorporated into the product so the product themselves fit well into city life, the inspiration of city living.

How has your use of felt evolved throughout the growth of the label since 2010?

In line with our German supplier, we co-developed this technology of melting the surface of our regular dense felt into something we call “Supr Felt.” it’s something that no other company has done before.

You won’t see this material anywhere else; it’s almost like leather. It’s a material we developed with for the tropics in mind; the felt develops this coating that’s almost waterproof with our treatment.

Will we see different shapes from season to season?

TP: Our customers will find that quite a few of our silhouettes figure more into our classic shapes. I would say, a good 60 or 70 percent of our shapes stay the same from season to season. What we do play around with are the different colors and the different materials. For the rest of the collection; we introduce new shapes as to what we feel fits the season.

In the summer we have lighter bags, more totes — we tend to make our bags brighter. For the fall/winter season, we definitely try to be more laid-back and conservative.

What’s next for M.R.K.T.?

We’re looking into exploring different shapes with our materials through different collaborations. We have a couple coming out soon.

SN: At the moment, our core line is focused on bags. We’re looking to explore and access different kind of customers, ultimately, we feel that’s a good way of finding out where we want to take our line in terms of brand extensions.

But for the most part, if there’s going to be any sort of extension in the near future, it’s in the home goods and accessories because that’s a big part of our history as a label.

What about a lifestyle brand?

TP: We’d love to build up to a lifestyle brand in the future, but bags are a good place to start. It’s unisex and kind of universal. I’ve always felt like M.R.K.T. as a brand is like a platform where we’re really looking to explore a lot of different design ideas. Either with our signature materials or our shapes, I think it’s really exciting to be able to introduce new things every season.

SN: Our label is all about being creative, to see what we’ve done, to see what can be done, coming together to create something totally new.

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M.R.K.T. is exclusively available at all seven branches of Bratpack stores: Bratpack Greenbelt 5, Bratpack Alabang Town Center, Bratpack Shangri-La, Bratpack UP Town Center, Bratpack One Archers, Bratpack Greenhills and Bratpack Cebu.