Gainesville is a place where odd niches can proliferate. Take Arena Baggage, a home business run by UF senior Mike Arena. He supplies the local market's need for custom messenger bags.
The creations are embroidered with everything from angler fish to zombies and outfitted with features like lights, reflector material and secret pockets.
His shoulder-strap accessories have gained a small online following based on their unique, custom-tailored designs and sturdy craftsmanship. They might be considered the Vera Bradley bags of the bicycle community.
Arena, 22, is tall with a skinny frame that matches the bicycles that hang in his living room. He is wearing a simple outfit of clam diggers and a T-shirt when he greets me. A tattoo on his right calf reads "Bike Lane" and is accompanied by the street-sign outline of a bicycle.
His workspace sits in a corner and is covered in scraps of material and half-finished messenger bags. The scraps pour out onto the floor and across a foosball table. Five sewing machines are in sight, including two industrial-strength Singer machines.
Arena started making messenger bags after shopping around and finding them too expensive. He has been making the bags for about three years.
"In home ec class we made a pillow. That was about the extent of my knowledge before this," he said.
Arena's messenger bags aren't exactly the same as those abundant unisex purses found on campus. His creations are specifically made to be functional for the cyclist.
"There's definitely a difference between something specifically made for cycling and a regular shoulder bag," he said, although there is still "a great deal of fashion" in his creations.
He said that a messenger bag is more comfortable to wear when riding a bicycle than an ordinary backpack because it sits higher on the lower back and it is tighter across the chest. It is also more accessible while riding.
The artwork is one of the most eye-catching aspects of Arena's bags. Arena meticulously stitches custom graphics onto his products.
To make a design, he first sketches the idea on the material and then "free hands" the rest with a sewing machine, filling in gaps or outlining designs.
One of his in-progress, charming designs is Big Foot riding a bicycle. He plans to donate the finished bag to a race in Boston called Bold Sprints. The race was created as a solution to the snow and sleet up north, which hinders cyclists from racing outside. They instead race on rollers, which are "basically treadmills for bikes," he said.
Aside from Bold Sprints, Arena has also sponsored Talloween in Tallahassee, the Broken Hearts and Bicycle Parts Race in Atlanta and the photo scavenger race in Gainesville. He also sells bags at the local bike shop Bikes & More.
He estimated that about 75 percent of his sales come from outside of Gainesville. He said advertising consisted of "basically the blog and people stumbling across it."
Displayed on Arena's blog are about half of the bags he has made. He posts pictures of a variety of bags, whether they were gifts, disasters or masterpieces.
The main material he uses for his bags is called Cordura, a certified fabric that is like heavy nylon. He has experimented with other materials like tarp, only to find that it frayed and ripped. When using new techniques and materials, he usually tries them on a test bag for himself.
His messenger bags start at about $80, and he said the most expensive messenger bag he ever made was around $300. Intricate designs on the flap, extra pockets and custom materials add to the price. Unfortunately, Arena has not made a bag in about three months because he's been busy with school, he said. He has eight bags in various forms of construction that he hopes to finish within the next four weeks.
When asked if he had any other hobbies, he said sleeping.
"I'm a two-trick pony," he said, referring to sewing and bicycling.
For now, two seems to be enough.
