Duluth Trading Company: What’s with the Illustrations?

Our friend Bob turned us on to Duluth Trading Company last night, suggesting it as a place to find rugged, inexpensive clothing of vaguely military surplus inspiration (without the increasingly ludicrous military surplus mark-up). I’ve been looking through their online catalog for the last several minutes and I like what I see. I’m especially pumped to find these two bags: The Leather Plumber’s Bag and the “Bashful Billionaire’s Leather Briefcase.” Both meet my bag requirements of brown leather, brass clasps, restrained designed, and relatively inexpensive price. (I’m leaning towards the Plumber’s Bag, despite the fact it has no internal pockets, because it’s just the size of my laptop and no bigger. Then again, when I travel, I carry a lot of junk.)

What’s frustrating about Duluth Trading, however, is that their entire product line is displaying using illustrations of the products, not actual pictures of the products themselves. That’s not a huge deal with the bags, but with things like their trademark “Fire Hose Work Pants”, promoted primarily by the strength and texture of the material, it’s impossible to actually see the pants. Blowing up the product image [right] just gives you a bigger version of the illustration.

I’ve ordered a paper catalog with the hope that it will use real pictures. (Unlikely.) I’ll probably end up taking a risk on the bags even without pictures, but I shouldn’t have to cross my fingers, especially considering that hiring someone to draw all those illustrations took more effort than simply photographing the products would. Still, any company that uses “Dogs Playing Poker” remixed to feature their clothes can’t be all bad.

Catalog Home [DuluthTrading.com]