Luxury Camera Bags by Thorsten von Overgaard

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Sick and obscene on so many levels… the prices, the materials… the whole concept… stupid, too.

No shoulder strap on a camera bag and a brass zip that will scratch your gear to hell and back every time you use the bag.

Genius. Not.
 
noisycheese said:
Thorsten von Overgaard and Matteo Perin join forces to offer us the ultimate in luxury camera bags, made of crocodile hide and elephant skin:

Thoughts?
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Okay, the elephant part has been adequately covered. And I concur: it is surely unethical to use elephant skin for products. Now let's think about the Crocodile skin. Crocs are also an endangered species. It is illegal to import crocodile skin or products made from it into the USA. And crocs are not native to the USA. Therefore, I don't think there is a legal way to make crocodile skin products available in the USA. And besides, it's less durable than alligator skin.
 
Chriscrawfordphoto said:
So you're ok with making bags from the hides of endangered species? Judging someone who is doing something egregiously immoral is not being self-righteous. It is simply being a decent human being.
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Yes if the skins are obtained legally, and especially if the controlled hunting of said animals helps to ensure their survival as a species. My beef is that they're being used for such crappy bags.
 
noisycheese said:
No, $20K is not correct -

So there you have it - $30,000 to $40,000 for the crocodile bags; no word on the cost of the elephant skin bags.

[SARCASM] With regard to the animals, they have no rights to begin with; they are just dumb animals and are here on earth to be used and butchered as we humans see fit.
Killing and skinning crocodiles and elephants is a very small price indeed, as long as the bag "makes you happy every time you use it" and as long as you can take great pride in telling your friends that "Matteo Perin has made bespoke clothing and accessories for celebrities and millionaires for years," right?? [/SARCASM]

IMHO, these bags are baboon butt ugly. As we have seen in the past, Thorsten obviously has a fetish for fugly megadollar bags and has truly outdone himself this time.
As for the end users of these bags, the monumental arrogance and self-entitled narcissism of the idiots who would actually buy and use these abominations cannot be overstated.
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Yes I read the article closed the page in disgust and remembered the wrong figure :bang: roughly converting into pounds.
I also felt the whole thing to be a long boast of look how much I can spend on fancy bags to show off my wealth. The funny thing though is the end buyer also has to buy a cheep Billingham insert to use the thing surely they could have added another few k to the price and made a special silk insert.
 
Why doesn't he offer a service to re-skin my Leica in elephant or crocodile hide to match the bag? It would be the ultimate social gaffe to open one of those bags and take out a camera that didn't have a matching skin. It wouldn't need much skin to do it. Maybe use a baby elephant or croc, from the same mother so the hides match.

This is a marketing fail.
 
Rob-F said:
Now let's think about the Crocodile skin. Crocs are also an endangered species. It is illegal to import crocodile skin or products made from it into the USA. And crocs are not native to the USA. Therefore, I don't think there is a legal way to make crocodile skin products available in the USA. And besides, it's less durable than alligator skin.
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I guess it depends which crocs you're talking about, but in Australia they are commercially farmed.

https://nt.gov.au/industry/agriculture/livestock/crocodile-farming-and-trade
 
The bags look ok but the prices are way out of my league. Since I eat meat of various types and use leather goods for which I have limited knowledge of the source, I’d feel like a hypocrite to criticize his particular choice of leather. If someone asked me justify the treatment of the fish, chicken, cows and pigs that I use I don’t know what I’d say to defend myself.
 
al1966 said:
Did I read correctly 20K for a bag? also are elephants not an endangered species? It all seems wrong on so many levels.
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My currently most used camera bag cost me new $30. It is highly functional and I love using it for my Leica equipment in my travels.
 
Are we really sure that it is Elephant hide?

Looks like embossed suede to me.

It looks tacky and cheap.

Why not gold dye!

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As for the elephants!

Thorsten clearly has not yet seen my Orange IIc...

Orange is the new Elephant! Haven't you heard?
 
Overgaard mentions that they use hides from naturally dying elephants ...
I put yesterday all emails from him as SPAM.
 
Let's not forget that something being legal doesn't mean that is the right/ethical thing to do. It was not illegal to gas people in the nazist Germany...
 
I don’t approve it, but to be fair, it says “The sourcing of elephant skin is from elephants that died of natural causes, from governed reserves where the sale of skin goes into managing the reserve.” Anyway - I would never ever buy this. And if the quality of bags is of the same QC as the spelling on their page... “Thorsten von Overgaard travel to more than 25 countires...’
 
I think it’s ridiculous, but...I did read the site and he specified that the elephant hides used were from animals that died of natural causes. Not hunting legally or otherwise. I still feel it’s irresponsible because it sets a precedent of something to strive for and could motivate others from obtaining the hides illegally. That being said, I remember watching a video where Thorsten talks about too many buttons on a camera being against his philosophy. If it doesn’t impact exposure, it’ shouldn’t be on the camera. Too bad the same philosophy doesn’t permeate his other gear. It’s a bag, to carry your camera. Anything above and beyond that functionality is pointless.

I prefer to shoot my Leica film cameras for 3 reasons
1. Lenses
2. Functionality
3. I think it’s cool that I can shoot the cameras that built 35mm photography. History.
 
It is about "financial status" and nothing else. Thorston discusses his own preference of Louis Vuitton bags for traveling. He must have a very high income to be able to buy such designer stuff and actually view such items as being very practical for use.
 
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