As Timbuk2 Turns 30, Its Female Executives Are Building A Lifestyle Powerhouse – Forbes

When her daughter up and joined the boy’s wrestling team in her senior year of high school, Timbuk2 CEO Patti Cazzato realized how different things were when she was coming of age. 

She didn’t join the team as a stunt to appear more attractive to college administrators—she was already accepted to a school. She just wanted to wrestle and believed she could succeed. And succeed she did—she won the coach’s award that season.

“She wore a singlet,” Cazzato said. “I could only go to one meet because I was like, ‘your face is in that sweaty armpit! But for me that was just like, wow, she really sees no barrier.”

Cazzato’s own path to breaking down the well-documented barriers women face as business leaders was longer and (maybe?) harder, and probably also included some sweaty armpits.

“I learned everything not to do in my career, trust me—throwing things at people, etc.”

That’s not to say she wasn’t successful along the way—she flourished at companies including Esprit, Gap, and Levi’s, and founded her own yoga clothing brand, Clary Sage Organics, which she shuttered after a bout with the recession. Now, after five years as the first female CEO of the original messenger bag company Timbuk2, she has hit her stride as a female leader at a historically male brand. And the team of women she’s assembled to lead the company is poised to make the company a major global lifestyle force.

Timbuk2 was founded in 1989 by bike messenger and inventor Rob Honeycutt. His first bag, which he dubbed “Scumbag,” evolved into the brand’s iconic and customizable three-panel classic messenger. It was quickly adopted by bike messengers who loved how quickly they could shift the bag from the back of their bodies (for riding) to the front (for deliveries). He soon added customization, which is still a popular offering: Timbuk2 makes approximately 70,000 customized bags per year at its 23,000 square foot manufacturing facility in the Mission, which also serves as its corporate headquarters. The brand has 24 stores around the world, 130 employees, and it counts Facebook, Google and Tesla as corporate customers.

By the time Cazzato took the helm, she had traded lobbing objects for a collaborative approach to management. At Timbuk2, every hire needs to be on board with building relationships, sharing control, and resolving conflicts constructively. And although Cazzato said she always chooses the best candidate for the job regardless of gender, the management team she has assembled is mostly women. Since many reports suggest that women collaborate more at work, it’s no surprise.

“It’s something that we’re really proud of because there are a lot of young women who work here, and we believe we have been strong mentors to people throughout the industry,” Cazzato said. “That wasn’t something that was a gift that was given to me in my career, but we’re able to do it for others.”

As a result, a male men’s messenger bag company, where 70% of the products are still designed for men (it was 90% when Cazzato joined), is now run by mostly women. It shouldn’t be remarkable. After all, most women’s fashion houses are run by men. But most of everything is run by men, including and perhaps especially companies that make products for men. So the management structure at Timbuk2 is a refreshing anomaly.

The team is pushing the edges of the brand’s identity with experimental products and programs (like the Lifecycle Program, which aims for zero bags in landfills) while staying true to its fundamental character. “For women, it just screams opportunity,” Cazzato said. “We haven’t even scratched the surface.”

One of Cazzato’s first hires was Andrea Chynoweth, a sinewy, energetic yoga devotee who started as a freelance designer and is now Timbuk2’s global creative director. Early in her career she had a stint as a fit model and designer for Vivienne Westwood. The two met at Levi’s, bonded over yoga, and also worked together on Clary Sage. Cazzato called soon after signing on as CEO.

“Patti said ‘let’s do something really cool and crazy for women,'” Chynoweth remembers. “I was so excited because there was so much open space for females to connect with this brand. We can do great stuff for men, but then there’s this whole other possibility to me including bringing females into the brand, and a world beyond bags.”

Drawing from her experience running the women’s line at Levi’s and her intimate knowledge of how garments interact with the body, Chynoweth is helping Timbuk2 make headway in women’s bags. Last year’s collaboration with designer and activist Phoebe Dahl resulted in the Jet Set Convertible Backpack. It was one of the company’s most aggressive forays into feminine silhouettes and lifestyle vibes, and they needed to strike the right balance with an influencer who felt like a natural fit for a men’s bag company releasing a female product. Dahl, with her affinity for travel and eco-consciousness, plus her designer chops, turned out to be a perfect match.

“We don’t go out and do the heavy handed pay for play,” Chynoweth said.

In 2015, Chynoweth spearheaded the Femme collection. The styles were reminiscent of the original messenger bag, but incorporated fashion-forward colorways and designs edited to appeal to women. And the 2049 The 30th anniversary bag, dubbed 2049 (30 years in the future), was not designed specifically for women, but is stylish enough to please one.

This summer, look for Timbuk2 to release a currently top-secret product they expect will disrupt travel the way the Timbuk2’s three-panel messenger disrupted the briefcase 30 years ago by incorporating personalization in both fashion and function.

The most recent addition to the executive team is COO and CFO, Cal Bouchard, a former Olympic basketball player for the Canadian team, who is not as tall as you might imagine but exudes the relaxed confidence of an elite athlete. She hails most recently from The North Face where she was in charge of digital commerce. She also spent a decade at VF Corp, one of the world’s largest apparel and footwear companies, where she earned her finance chops.

Ami Takahashi, Timbuk2’s international general manager, is another Cazzato hire. She’s responsible for the 24 countries where Timbuk2 is sold, and if you’ve recently seen the brand at Urban Outfitters or Nordstrom, that’s the result Takahashi’s hard work. She hails from 18 years at Nike in Japan where she headed up the women’s category. She had traveled to San Francisco with the goal of buying her son a Timbuk2 bag as he prepared for college in the Bay Area (she was also scoping out the city with hopes of moving here withe her son). She stayed with a friend who knew Cazzato from yoga class. The rest is another addition to the brand’s rich history.

As the team members take turns telling bits of the brand’s origin story, their reverence for founder Rob Honeycutt is clear. They communicate with him regularly, and he was an honored guest at a recent 30th anniversary celebration, which featured a bike-powered cocktail blender. He recently sold the company his old messenger bike for display at the Mission District headquarters.

“You should always pay homage to founders,” Chynoweth said. “We have a very high consumer loyalty. We’re not faux, we didn’t make up our story.”

On its 30th anniversary, Timbuk2 is a very different company than it was when Honeycutt started making Scumbags. But as it grows and changes, its leaders know how important it is to keep that entrepreneurial, irreverent spirit to attract both customers as well as top talent in a world where workers and shoppers increasingly demand authenticity. 

“We act much more like a startup than a 30 year old company,” Cazzato said. “I don’t think I could have gone from my own business to anything that didn’t feel like it had a startup vibe to it.”

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