National handbag Day: LeSportsac – 175+ Post Ideas for Beauty

Posted on July 4, 2022 by ftzys

Today is national handbag Day! I had this marked on my calendar just so I can talk about one of my other obsessions: limited edition LeSportsac bags.

It all started with a small carry bag in cute fruit print called big Apple:

(apologies for the crappy photo – I no longer have this bag considering that I re-homed it to my friend. Here’s a clearer picture of the print on another bag style from an eBay listing)

I loved the pleasant print on a very functional bag. Here’s one thing about me – I may wear head to toe black and grey, but I love me some colourful bags!

Before laying eyes on the printed LeSportsac bags, I had only ever encountered the solid coloured ones – which are typically sported by little old ladies (c’mon, it’s true!) LeSportsac started in 1974 with a focus on travel accessories. The appeal of LeSportsac bags are obvious: they’re incredibly lightweight yet long lasting (made of a nylon ripstop material), easy to clean, and reasonably priced. They started to change their image around 2002, to deal with a younger, a lot more fashion-conscious customer. That was the year where they had a Jonathan Adler print, and a collaboration with DVF. In 2014, LeSportsac celebrated their 40th anniversary with a decidedly different image than what they started with.

After acquiring the big Apple print bag, I began to notice all sorts of fun limited edition (my weakness) prints being released, along with artist and designer collaborations! It swiftly spiraled into a full fledged obsession – I pretty much had to get one print every season. here are the prints I’ve owned over the years:

Big Apple Black (2003), small carry bag (style 7133)
Village (2003), small Tribeca tote (style 7830)
“1974” (2004), Reversible tote (style 7133) [reverses to solid black]
Poppy field (2004), small carry bag (style 7133)
Tic-tac-toe (2004), small carry bag (style 7133)
Potion (2005), classic hobo (style 7250)
Carnival (2005), small carry bag (style 7133)
Karma (2006), Diane Overnighter (style 7883)
Caravan (2006), travel cosmetic pouch (style 7315)
Fusion (2008), Anna bag (style 7859)
Beam (2008), 3-Zip cosmetic (style 7158)
California (2008), crucial coin pouch (style 7317)
Denver (2009), Jen bag (style 7875)
Flower Power (2009), Olivia coin purse (style 5827)
Truffle dot (2009), tissue case (style 7149)
Menagerie (2011), Leigh tote (style 7874)
I even had a spreadsheet to track my LeSportsac bags. now you know it’s severe when I bust out the Excel! Many of these have been re-homed considering that my closet was just overflowing with bags.

Funnily, one of my a lot of prized LeSportsac bags wasn’t even a print – it was a Stella McCartney collaboration from 2008 – this quilted tote bag in an amazing mauve-y grey colour:

I had it on my lust list as soon as the collection was released but at $325, I just couldn’t justify it. Then, I received an email for a flash 40% off sale, and it just so happened that I was going to be in NYC. So, I called the LeSportsac store in SoHo (aka heaven!) and they held one for me! Whenever I wear the bag, I get random people coming up to me asking me where I got it from – sorry, you can’t get it anymore…

Source. Shout-out to LeSportsac SoHo!
Other significant collaboration were Gwen Stefani’s L.A.M.B. and Tokidoki:

Fun fact: the L.A.M.B. label was created in 2004 specifically for the LeSportsac collaboration – it then grew from there!

The Tokidoki for LeSportsac collaboration started in 2006 and is still going strong to this day. I was never interested in either of these collaborations but I know there are fanatic collectors (and there are tons of fakes online so beware).

There are quite a few prints that I wished I had gotten my paws on:

DVF “Y Knot” (2002) (LeSportsac even featured a TBT post on this collab!)
Apples by Jonathan Adler (2002)
Tomboy (2004)
Suburbia (2004)
Gondola (2008)
Beauty Bar (2010)
Fifi Lapin (2010)
I’d pretty much take any bag style featuring any of the above prints!

Earlier this year though, I got my hands on this long desired print:

Fair Isle (2002)
It was from eBay but it was absolutely legit – all the codes on the identifies matched up and it even a made in USA label! (LeSportsac moved production overseas in mid- 2000’s).

If you’re ever curious, do scroll through LeSportsac’s print archives. I’ve took pleasure in looking in any way their prints over the years. now that I’m a little a lot more mature (you stop laughing) I’m no longer as obsessed with LeSportsac but I do still get ecstatic about seeing new cute prints (and writing this post got me interested again about going on a hunt for some of the retired prints!) I guess I never really grow out of it! Are you a fan of LeSportsac?

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