Billingham Bags (M Billingham & Co Ltd) is a British brand of professional bags and vests for carrying cameras, lenses, laptops and photography accessories. The company's headquarters are in

Cradley Heath Cradley Heath is a town in the Rowley Regis area of the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell, West Midlands, England approximately north-west of Halesowen, south of Dudley and west of central Birmingham. Cradley Heath is often confused with the ...

, England.

History

Billingham Bags (M Billingham & Co Ltd) was founded in 1973 by Martin Billingham, and is still owned and run by the Billingham family. Originally a manufacturer of fishing bags, in 1978 Billingham discovered that a large number of their bags were being sold to a

photographer A photographer (the Greek language, Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographe ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Within a year production had switched almost entirely to specialist camera bags. Billingham Bags have worldwide distribution and are still hand made in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Billingham bags are notable for their process of bonding the fabric of the bag to

butyl rubber Butyl rubber, sometimes just called "butyl", is a synthetic rubber, a copolymer of isobutylene with isoprene. The abbreviation IIR stands for isobutylene isoprene rubber. Polyisobutylene, also known as "PIB" or polyisobutene, (C4H8)n, is the ho ...

for water resistance. Billingham have had partnerships with well known camera manufacturers Leica and

Hasselblad Victor Hasselblad AB is a Swedish manufacturer of medium format cameras, photographic equipment and image scanners based in Gothenburg, Sweden. The company originally became known for its classic analog medium-format cameras that used a waist- ...

, making custom camera bags for both companies. They have also had a number of collaborations with British fashion and design house Pedlars. The company celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2013.

Products

While Billingham produce rucksacks, vests and laptop/tablet accessories, they are most widely known for their range of shoulder bags which they have been producing for photographers since 1978. The bags are well regarded by professional photographers, photojournalists and travel writers due to their traditional construction of canvas and leather, although some also use synthetic materials. Users of Billingham bags include television presenters

Richard Hammond Richard Mark Hammond (born 19 December 1969) is an English journalist, television presenter, mechanic, and writer. He is best known for co-hosting the BBC Two motoring programme ''Top Gear'' from 2002 until 2015 with Jeremy Clarkson and Jame ...

, who described his as 'a sort of comfort blanket', and Matt James.

References

{{reflist

External links

"Picking a Bag for a Camera"
''The New York Times'' Bits blog (includes an image of a camera bag from Billingham). Photography equipment Companies based in Sandwell Design companies established in 1973 Leather manufacturers Bags Manufacturing companies established in 1973 1973 establishments in England