Tech Totes for Your Gorgeous Gadgets

A Columbia County resident introduces a stylish way to tote all your tech gear

Let’s face it: Whether it is your laptop or your BlackBerry, your iPod, or your Kindle, we’re all toting around a lot of technical things these days. But now you can schlep in style thanks to fashion industry veterans Detlef Meffert and Leslie Trent. “I’d watch these really chic women at the airport. They’d be beautifully dressed, and over one shoulder would be a Gucci bag and then on the other side they’d be carrying this ugly nylon bag for their computer,” says Meffert. “I saw the need.”

So Meffert (a German native who recently traded his Manhattan digs for a permanent place in Hudson) and Trent spent a year designing the new Techtotes product line, which includes chic cases, most lined with ultrasuede, for laptops, cellphones and even iPads. Currently the bags are available at A.I. Friedman in Manhattan (“and we’re talking with Nordstrom” says Meffert), but they got a “huge reaction” when they launched the Web site about five months ago. The specialized sacks are now being bought up by consumers all across the country.

At present, the products are manufactured in China and stored at a warehouse in Jersey City, but Meffert says he’d like to find a facility closer to home. “I just love it up here, it’s beautiful, it really does look just like the famous Hudson River School paintings. I’m so lucky that I can live here and — because of the Internet — maintain this business.” And has he spotted any of his bags around Hudson? “No, not yet, but I will. I will.”

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