On the sidewalk he laid out an antique wooden trunk that said “Bindle Bros,” along with a bleached cow skull and bindles of varying sizes and colors.Īdjusting his Josiah costume in front of a Dunkin’ Donuts, Mr. Baldwin had borrowed a truck from friends and draped it with an American flag. To prove the point, on a recent morning the Bindle Brothers operated a pop-up shop on the corner of Bedford Avenue and North Seventh Street in Williamsburg, a.k.a. Is an artisanal bindle all that different from the cheeseboards made from fallen trees sold at the Brooklyn Flea? Or the actual Hobo Sticks sold on Etsy by a shop called BagsOnSticks, seemingly without irony? (If it’s a joke, it’s a dry one.) Like all good satire, the Bindle Brothers idea works because it skirts the edge of believability. “I’m two steps away from buying one,” he said, adding that elements of the actors’ hobo costumes are “straight from my closet.” Baldwin, who lives in Williamsburg, said that by marketing bindles to urbanites he is poking fun at a culture he himself is part of. He also created the video, a spoof on the reverent clips made by Fast Company, and a functional website that is equipped to take credit card numbers from anyone gullible enough to make a purchase.Īs satirical characters, the Bindle Brothers take aim at several targets: rural-chic hipster fashion heritage brands that sell high-priced proletariat workwear the artisanal trend embodied by the Mast Brothers and other Brooklyn-based makers and the wide-eyed, can’t-fail optimism of start-up culture. He cast two local performers, Ben Kronberg and Matt Klinman, to play the roles of Josiah and Dusty. The Bindle Brothers are in fact the creation of Kemp Baldwin, a 33-year-old comedy writer and director. You can’t just tie a bandanna to the end of a stick.”Īt this point the reader might be thinking, handmade bindles? Are you serious? And the deluxe model, the Teddy Roosevelt, is listed at $350.īut as Josiah points out, their products are handmade locally in Brooklyn: “There’s a lot of R and D that goes into constructing one of these gems. The “twindle,” a double-branched bindle, is $178.90. Their basic “green” model, so-named for the color of the bandanna, runs $99. “But bindles are really meant for your hopes and your dreams.”īindle Brothers bindles are not cheap. “You can fit any physical objects in a bindle,” Josiah said. In the video, Josiah, who is the chief executive officer and frequent spokesman, likens the bindle to “luggage at its purest” and explains that he and Dusty are selling not a mere stick and a sack but the promise of adventure. “We’re trying to build adventures, one stick, one bindle at a time,” Dusty likes to say, referring to the famous hobo accouterment he and his older brother make and sell in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.Īs their business card states, the Bindle Brothers specialize in “locally-grown, naturally-fallen, artisanal bindle bags.” In doing so, they are reviving an item not seen since the days of Steinbeck, when itinerant farmhands and rail-hopping hobos known as “bindle stiffs” made sacks to carry their meager belongings around the country.Īlready, the Bindle Brothers have been featured in a glowing video profile by Business Company magazine. With their suspenders, floppy caps and cotton work clothes, you may imagine them playing a foot-stomping rendition of “Big Rock Candy Mountain.”Īctually, though, they would rather sell the band an antiquated fashion accessory. So it doesn't seem unreasonable that if you carry a blanket and a stick, you might wrap your possessions in the blanket and sling it over your shoulder on the stick.The Bindle Brothers, Josiah and Dusty, have a name that sounds like one of those banjo-plucking decidedly old-timey musical groups. Remember, these things were common 80 or 100 years ago, when hobo life was different from the city homeless you see today. And sticks have lots of uses, such as defending yourself from stray dogs or other animals, as support when going over rough ground, etc. If you're homeless and sleep rough every night, wrapping up in a blanket offers comfort and protection against the wind.
If you think about it, both the blanket and the stick were essential items for an itinerant hobo. In modern popular culture the bindle is portrayed as a stick with cloth or a blanket tied around one end for carrying items, with the entire array being carried over the shoulder."Ī blanket is considerably larger than a handkerchief and could therefore carry a lot more stuff and be much heavier. The Wikipedia entry says "The bindle is colloquially known as the " blanket stick", particularly within the Northeastern hobo community.
In fact, it was never a handkerchief, but a much larger piece of cloth. Probably you got "handkerchief" from movies or cartoons.
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