Bryce and Yiva Beal, founders of Lady Alamo
Lady Alamo has been making fun, simple everyday bags and accessories since 2011 – in particular, a wide variety of zipper pouches, backpacks and bags focusing on color and their original printed textiles.
In April 2018, they moved to a larger workshop doubling as a retail store in the heart of the Mission District, at 2121 Mission Street, and they’d love to see you stop by! They are open Tue-Sat from 12-6:30pm.
If online is more your thing, you should check out Lady Alamo’s website and should absolutely follow their Instagram.
We got a chance to interview Lady Alamo’s co-owner, Bryce Beal, in July 2018.
How did Lady Alamo get started?
Yiva and I started Lady Alamo in 2011 out of our tiny apartment near Alamo Square. Yiva has a background in apparel design & I’m from the world of graphic design.
At the time, we were looking for a way out of our 9 to 5 jobs and began collaborating on something of our own.
An apartment in Alamo Square… is that where your company name comes from?
Yes! The name Lady Alamo was inspired by Alamo Square, home of the Painted Ladies.
Painted “Lady” + “Alamo” Square = Lady Alamo.
Where can we find your products?
We have over 40 wholesale accounts in the Bay and across the country. Thanks to a partnership with SFMade, DFS at SFO came across our line and now you can find our exclusive designs in the International Terminal.
We also recently moved into our new production facility in the heart of the Mission District. You can stop by to shop as well as see where the bags are made!
We are hoping to set down roots in the Mission and bring on more people to help us grow.
How do you make a new Lady Alamo bag?
We are a small team of 5, but in a busy month we can produce 600+ bags. The length it takes to create a new design varies, but on average it takes about 5 rounds of prototypes before we settle on the finished product.
Why manufacture locally?
Manufacturing locally allows a maker to have more control over the entire process. You can react more quickly, more easily scale up or down production, turn around new products faster. Perhaps most importantly, being a part of a maker community means always having people to turn to for advice, help, resources & encouragement.
Why did you join SFMade?
We met Mark Dwight in the early years at a local street fair and he told us about SFMade. We jumped on board right away and have never regretted it!
– an interview by Pierre @ SFMade. Thank you Bryce!
