Freitag F13 Top Cat, since 1993

The F13 Top Cat is a large messenger bag cut from a used lorry tarpaulin, a polyester cloth coated in PVC. A deep flap falls over the whole front, edged in black, and carries a small black FREITAG label. Behind it is one main compartment of 22 litres, with a sleeve for a laptop and a further flap of tarpaulin that lets the bag expand. A broad strap with a quick-release buckle crosses the body, and a second strap fastens round the hips to stop the bag swinging when the wearer rides a bicycle.

Freitag F13 Top Cat: Top Cat Bag (model F13), dated 1993 by the Museum of Modern Art, New York: used truck tarpaulin, seatbelts and inner tubes. Gift of Lars Müller. — Top Cat Bag (model F13), dated 1993 by the Museum of Modern Art, New York: used truck tarpaulin, seatbelts and inner tubes. Gift of Lars Müller. *Photograph, undated.* via MoMA (Wayback Machine snapshot)

No two are alike. Each bag is cut from a different section of a retired truck tarp, so one may carry a fragment of lettering, another a stripe of colour or a stain from the road. Markus and Daniel Freitag, brothers from Davos, made the first in 1993 in their Zurich flat above the Hardbrücke, a bridge carrying heavy traffic. They wanted a waterproof bag for their work and their bicycles, and took the inner tubes and seatbelts for the edging and the strap.

Freitag F13 Top Cat: A current F13 Top Cat in green and white tarpaulin, as shown by Freitag. Each bag is cut from a different used truck tarp. — A current F13 Top Cat in green and white tarpaulin, as shown by Freitag. Each bag is cut from a different used truck tarp. *Maker photograph, current.* via freitag.ch

The bag set off a company. By 1995 Freitag sold five models, and the range of more than forty bags that followed grew out of this one, the first, now numbered F13. In 1998 the retailer Migros sold a copy called Donnerstag, Thursday, and the copy made the original famous. The Museum of Modern Art in New York catalogues an example dated 1993, and the Museum für Gestaltung in Zurich holds the prototype.

The F13 sold today keeps the same flap, the same width and the same material, with pockets and the hip strap added. Freitag buys its tarpaulins from hauliers after years on Europe's roads and washes and cuts them at its factory in Zurich-Oerlikon. It sells the bag through its own shops and website and through partner shops.

Timeline

1993 First made · Disputed Freitag F13 Top Cat enters production in Zurich, Switzerland.

1997 Recognised The Museum für Gestaltung Zürich takes the 1993 prototype into its collection.

1998 Recognised The Swiss retailer Migros sells an imitation under its own label, Donnerstag (Thursday), and Freitag becomes known across Switzerland.

2003 Recognised The F13 Top Cat enters the design collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Milestones as we found them, not as we've checked them.

The date

The sources disagree. The competing years are set out below.

The Museum of Modern Art in New York catalogues its example as 'Top Cat Bag (model F13)', by Markus and Daniel Freitag, dated 1993. The German Wikipedia says the brothers developed their messenger bag from used truck tarpaulins, bicycle inner tubes and seatbelts in 1993, that the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich took the 1993 prototype into its collection in 1997, and that the Fundamentals range grew out of the first messenger, the F13 TOP CAT. Freitag's own history page and product page say the same. The year rests on a museum catalogue as well as the maker. The Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, which holds an early Top Cat, instead records it as designed in spring 1994 and produced from winter 1994; because two museums disagree, and 1993 may date a prototype, the year is marked disputed.

Also claimed

1994

The Museum für Gestaltung Zürich catalogues its Top Cat (object 1996-0163, made by Freitag Retour Gebr., Zürich) as 'Entwurf: Frühjahr 1994; Produktion: ab Winter 1994': designed in spring 1994 and produced from winter 1994. That conflicts with the 1993 given by MoMA and Freitag, which may date a prototype rather than the start of production.

Why it still counts

One product. One named, numbered model, the F13 Top Cat, from the company whose founders made it; other tarpaulin bags are imitations, not this lineage, and the Migros copy of 1998 was sold under another name.

The same object. MoMA's 1993 example is a flap-front messenger of used truck tarpaulin with a seatbelt strap, 42.9 cm wide; the F13 sold today is a flap-front tarpaulin messenger 43 cm wide with a quick-release strap and a hip strap.

A laptop sleeve, a lockable pocket and an expanding flap have been added, but the form and use are unchanged.

The production run. No source records a stop, and Freitag still sells it as its very first bag.

Freitag F13 Top Cat

Timeline

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