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A Kingston man who taught himself to sew by watching YouTube videos has landed a national contract to supply backpacks to Land Search & Rescue.
Southern Lite Packs owner Luke Sergent, 44, has secured a 48% share of the contract after a two-year trial and assessment process.
After providing LandSAR with a sample pack to its specifications, Sergent was asked to make 10 more for field trials and further assessment.
Three packs from three companies were then sent around the country for volunteers to test, and nearly half chose his Southern Lite Packs model.
Now he has to make 780 of them by the end of next June — similar to what he’s made in the previous six years.
“Getting the contract was definitely a surprise,” Sergent says.
“I’m no businessperson whatsoever — I barely finished school.
“So getting a big contract like this is beyond what I ever expected.”
Sergent normally makes bespoke, handmade packs for trampers, mountain guides, hunters, bike packers and adventure racers from a workshop in the garage of his Kingston home.
It all began in Canada, where he decided to cycle across British Columbia.
With no money for new gear, he taught himself to use a sewing machine in order to make bike bags and a lightweight tent for the trip.
Necessity grew into a hobby for the keen hunter, tramper and biker, and he began buying old backpacks from op shops, cutting them up and turning them into new gear.
Friends started using his creations, then friends of friends.
In 2021, he quit his job as an arborist for Queenstown’s council to make packs full-time.
He now has four industrial sewing machines, a laser cutter and a contractor who works for him four days a week.
She’ll soon become full-time, and he’s bringing on two more workers to help meet the LandSAR deadline.
He’s spent the past six months streamlining his production process in preparation, digitising designs and introducing some batch manufacturing.
Sergent says his packs, which typically cost between $750 and $1200, are bespoke items made to the requirements of his customers, whom he describes as “hardcore” outdoor enthusiasts who get a “bit geeked out” about their gear.
Although he’s stopped counting, he reckons he’s made about 800 packs over the past nearly six years, some of which he’s sent to customers as far afield as the US, Canada, Asia, Europe and South America.
A LandSAR volunteer himself for three years, he says the organisation’s contract is an opportunity to grow his business without losing what he enjoys most.
“I want to stay on the tools.”
“Hopefully, with people helping me, I’ll have more time to focus on the high-end custom-designed gear.
“It’s what I enjoy most.”
