The Brand That Paid Itself In Beer

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]So, how three blokes in Melbourne build a global bag brand with zero budget and a few slabs of beer? 1993, cue. Stuart Crumpler is a bike courier who knows his way around a sewing machine. And his mate Dave runs a courier company, and these riders keep breaking through all their [music] backpacks. So, Dave asked him to whip up 20 bags for his team. Stu goes home and stitches up a shoulder bag in his grandmother's old sewing machine made out of a truck tarp, one strap, seatbelt webbing, and the couriers love it. Everyone's asking where to cop one.

[00:00:28]And there, Crumpler was born. So, co-founders Stuart, David, and their mate Will spent all their money in a warehouse in the city. No money left for marketing. So, they ride around Melbourne at night stenciling their logo all over city streets. And they get fined, but people start noticing. They run illegal street races for couriers and call it the alley cat. But by '06, it's working. Crumpler goes global.

[00:00:50]Sales doing over six mill a year. So, they decide to run a sale in Melbourne where the only currency is beer. Word gets out, and there's lines running out the door. New York, same result. Then Toronto. Then in Ontario, the authorities get wind of it, rock up, and try and give them a 250k fine. But they run it anyway, and it goes viral. So, in 2015, Crumpler sold the company to private equity. And six years later, it collapsed into administration. But then Dave Roper, the original co-founder, bought it back [music] from the wreckage. And in one of those rare founder stories, he owns the company again, running it with his daughter.