Sea Bags, designers and manufacturers of handmade items from recycled sails, is coming to Boothbay Harbor. The retail store at 8 Wharf St. will open Friday, April 12.

Paul Gori, vice president of retail operations for Sea Bags, told the Boothbay Register, “With our founding and heritage tied to the working waterfront in Portland, we set our sights on expanding into similar coastal communities, so Boothbay Harbor was a perfect fit for us. Also, Boothbay's other attraction was the opportunity for an extended season beyond summer and fall, with Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens' Gardens Aglow holiday lights spectacular.”   

As for the store's location, Sea Bags CEO Don Oakes said, “We were fortunate that a spot in Boothbay became available that was simply too good to pass up.” The building was constructed in 2015-16 by developer Rahul Anand and was home to Seawicks Candle Company until last fall. Seawicks opened a new store in Freeport a block from another Sea Bags store in late November 2018.

Since 1999, Sea Bags has been making fun, functional and stylish totes from reclaimed sail cloth in Portland's historic Old Port district. The company makes a diverse line of totes, bags and home goods, all featuring material from recycled sails. The products are handcrafted at 25 Custom House Wharf in Portland with an emphasis on keeping the entire supply chain as local as possible. They use one of the last remaining thread manufacturers in the U.S. and one of a few rope manufacturers in New England. As for the sails, all are upcycled, and the company reports to have kept more than 600 tons of materials from ending up in landfills.

Sea Bags have been featured in Vogue, The Oprah Magazine and Redbook and on the Today Show. The company was one of the earliest members of Maine Outdoor Brands, an industry group leading an effort to bring a new workforce to Maine and leverage the outdoor lifestyle to create economic opportunity.

Sea Bags have been available in the Boothbay region since at least 2007 when Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens’ original gift shop opened and carried the line. More recently, Sweet Bay on Townsend Avenue has carried a large variety of Sea Bags designs and reported that they have been their top seller for many years.

Sweet Bay owners Ken and Cathy Rayle praised the professionalism of Sea Bags and and said the company had been very generous in working with them to buy back inventory. According to Ken Rayle, “We look forward to welcoming Sea Bags to the neighborhood and hope they will become an active part of our community.” The Rayles will still offer some exclusive Sea Bags products they designed in partnership with the company including those with local nautical charts.

The Boothbay Harbor store will carry the full line of Sea Bags' designs and seasonal collections, including totes and home accessories. The store will close from January to April each year. Sea Bags products are also available at www.seabags.com and at its 20 other retail stores throughout the East Coast.