Inside Restrap: From Seatbelts to Seatpacks

“If you’ll notice, it can’t really be overstuffed.”

Danny Lane of Restrap excitedly showed me a slew of new products in their prototype “dungeon.” This one, a new addition to their race-focused line of bags.

“I had the prior iteration a few years ago and actually quite like that aspect. It makes you focus on ensuring your pack list is as efficient as possible.”

“Yes, exactly. Curious, though, did you experience any difficulties with the bag?”

I cautiously retorted as they leaned in.

“Well, I suppose the one thing was that the bag slid around a lot when I took it on bumpier, more technical terrain. That’s my one critique.”

Danny smiled, ripping away some velcro strapping.

“That’s where this comes in.”

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Walking into their warehouse facility was a shock. When you buy something from bag companies nowadays, the product can come from almost anywhere. Fulfillment facilities that operate as a go-between, East Asia, a garage. It’s a wide-ranging industry, depending on what and how you buy. But this is Restrap. Founded and produced in Leeds, located in West Yorkshire. Alex Dyson, their marketing manager, had excitedly greeted me here the day before as he twisted my arm to hit some classically English gravel that sunny afternoon. It was mostly grass, but a fun preview of the kinds of conditions that inspire the English off-road riding scene.

As Alex and Carl, another long-time Restrap employee and a brilliant rider in his own right, talked to me about what it’s like to work at the company, I tried to get an idea of what this well-known but somewhat mysterious outfit was about. Standing in front of the walls of fabric and the people who tended to them, I was surprised to learn of their humble beginnings. Per my late afternoon tour guides, Restrap’s name and origins are derived from their first product, toe straps. When fixie culture blew up in the aughts, Americans may have had plenty of access to track gear and the like, but the UK was left out of the conversation. Founder Nathan Hughes was psyched to enter the scene, so he went to old junkyards and ripped the seat belts out of demolished vehicles to make his own toe straps. Eventually, he started selling them, and the meager business of Restrap was born.

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Like many fixie kids, longer, geared distances eventually piqued his interest, so he asked Alex, “Mate, do you want to ride to Barcelona?” Alex was studying graphic design at the local university and wanted to be involved in any way he could. Being close to Nathan in the company’s early days, he made himself useful as a jack of all trades for whatever off-the-wall events and ideas Nathan had for Restrap, a vibe that has remained as Alex grew with the company. Though his role is a lot more formal now, it’s not too dissimilar to what the smiley Brit does for the company to this day. As a customer, I’ve always enjoyed the almost alley-cat-style nature of their global events, and, as a Floridian, look forward to doing their Winter Solstice Century pretty much every year.

Chatting in their warehouse’s entrance made it impossible to ignore the scope Restrap now commands. A far cry from making toe straps, wallets, and other minor accessories from things they could recycle into products, Restrap looked closer to some form of world domination in 2025. To my left, there had to be at least 40 people quietly, dutifully working at textile machines. As we walked along the rows of mechanisms, I learned about how they had things divvied up.

“This entire section deals with a specific part of certain bags, this one another… the efficiency of our work floor allows us to manufacture in the UK and maintain a healthy balance sheet,” Chris, their production manager, told me.

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The financial balance is something Nathan and company alluded to several times during my visit. “Manufacturing here is expensive, man. I’m telling you.” He said as he went about his day. It’s the elephant in the room concerning any business that manufactures outside of places where labor is cheaper. Industrialized history is rife with examples of whole industries picking up and moving their production for the sake of cheaper labor costs. Because it’s one of the more fungible elements of the oversimplified equation that amounts to a business, labor doesn’t just rely on fixed costs. It changes with opinions, political leanings, and myriad different factors that affect the people who make up a company. Despite the financial realities, I could tell Restrap’s presence in the region mattered. Be it through local events or the creation of 40+ jobs, they were much more than just a bag making company in Leeds.

“Irrespective of the costs, though, the reality is that all these people have a job because of this company. We love making that a reality,” Nathan said.

However, their dedication to making things in the UK isn’t solely based on a sense of romantic localism. Walking around their facility, I noticed that everything is optimized for efficiency. But not in the soulless, AI bro sort of fashion some seem to wear as an aesthetic quality, but because it simply has to be. Heading into Danny Lane’s office just off the production floor, I could feel a sense of importance. Graduating from the shop floor, Danny heads up product design at Restrap. Rifling through boxes of prototypes and working models, he dug into the realities of producing a worthwhile idea.

“I used to work the line, so I have some concept as to how their workflows operate, but even then, it’s crucial that we communicate with the team so we can make things better from all sides. When you aren’t responsible for manufacturing your own products, things can get lost in the mix. Here, I sit at a station out on the floor, make a sample, and test it. It’s immediate, but I can also talk to people like Hollie, someone who is on the production floor every day, and she might point out something that I didn’t see. A small change to how something is made that might save two minutes for one person, but ultimately adds up to several hours in production time,” he explained.

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It was a cool firsthand insight into how this all actually works. Behind the marketing and media rationale as to why you should be interested in a product, I found this to be a far more compelling case for buying their wares. Though I’ve always had good experiences with their gear, before my time in media and since, I had no idea how involved the entire team is with each design. Looking at the long list of iterations and tweaks Danny and his support team put into a product to make it better for both the customer and a feasible production design was fascinating, and it was a practice that seemed to align with the core ethos of Restrap.

As stated, Restrap was born of DIY means. An exigent need for a place that simply didn’t have access to what Nathan and his friends wanted. The story is the same with their technical equipment, but the soul of why they started making things never died. From the bikepacking-oriented coffee dripper made from leftover plastic from another part of the production process to the straps and fixtures that adorn many of Restrap’s most successful bags, all of it is made by reusing and iterating upon existing designs and pieces of material. Anything that can be put back into their product ecosystem is. And the company is better for it. Started from a simple desire to make it themselves, Restrap proudly boasts a culture of in-house manufacturing. Not because it provides a convenient tagline, but because it’s genuinely imperative to who they are.

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Makers through and through, though not everyone at Restrap is a cyclist, looking at some of the personal rigs told a story consistent with many of the people you tend to meet in bikes. Passionate, caring, and kind individuals who just want to be outside and believe in the product they take part in making a reality. From Chris’ Fairlight to Hollie’s cycle-scheme bike, this group of people puts a lot of themselves into the things they make and are proud to do so.

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Walking out of the Restrap facility in Leeds that afternoon, I came away with a newfound appreciation for their bags. And not just because I’d shaken hands with the folks responsible for creating them, but because they haven’t let anything get in the way of remaining who they are. From start to finish, from stitch to seam, this is Restrap—proudly handmade in Yorkshire.

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