By Lisa Phillips

Until recently, options for carrying personal effects by bike have been mostly limited to large, boxy, utilitarian and/or style-challenged gear, plus whatever bicyclists could come up with themselves through a combination of thrift store “scores,” sewing skills and luck. Women looking for stylish accessories with enough pizzazz to go from the bike to the workplace or a social event were usually out of luck.

Enter Maria Boustead and Emily Siegler, cyclists and co-owners of Chicago’s Po Campo cycling bag company. Hailing from the suburbs, they met as students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the late 90s. Both relocated to Chicago after college, once worked for the same design firm and have been designing together since 2000.

Boustead lived briefly in Germany before settling in Chicago. “I loved the bike culture there,” she explained. “When I moved back to Chicago I naturally wanted to keep biking.”

The two began informal research with cycling friends and realized there was a market for stylish bike bags. They decided to fill the niche, creating the first prototype of a Po Campo bag about seven years ago. But the bags didn’t hit bike shop shelves until 2009 because it took longer than anticipated to find a way to manufacture them in Chicago.

Since China dominates consumer goods manufacturing, Po Campo could have gone the cheap and easy route by sending some specs to a Chinese company. And after months of researching Chicago’s meager manufacturing options, the pair began to think that’s what they would have to do. But they persevered.

“Because we started out of our love for biking, we wanted to include people in the [local biking] community,” she said. “But we also wanted to improve diversity in the local economy by supporting local talent.” Also, in order to establish a brand and make larger quantities, they needed to foster long-term relationships.

Friends referred Po Campo to an established luggage-making outfit on Chicago’s West Side, which Boustead said has been a good fit. The materials used are primarily treated acrylic, cotton and leather accents.

The line includes two different sizes of bags. “Say you’re going to work so you want an attractive handbag but it has to be large enough to hold your lunch, maybe extra shoes – that’s our larger tote,” explained Boustead. “Then if you’re out at night and just need to a hold a few small things, that’s the handlebar bag.”

This winter the Po Campo ladies teamed up with the Urban Bike Project from Columbia College Chicago to create new wares together. Part of a product design class, the annual student project explores design solutions to improve urban cycling.

The Columbia students came up with many innovative ideas, including fashionable LED rings and bracelets that double as bike lights; an innovative lunch pack and shoe holder; a practical wallet/repair kit; stylish gloves and duster coat; and reflective, bike-oriented spats.

Po Campo hopes to incorporate some of the students’ fresh ideas for next year, including some apparel and jewelry items.

Po Campo: pocampo.com