Hoi An Soul · Made to order
Takes Arch D. Survives February.
32 inch · 83 cm · Full-grain leather
Nobody drives to a site visit here. Whatever you’re carrying, you carry. Up the stairs at 14th Street, through the salt, into a lobby where they want ID. Cardboard doesn’t survive that twice.
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Free US shipping · 30-day returns · No duties at the door
- Made by hand in Vietnam
- Full-grain hide
- Solid brass
- 10-year guarantee
It hangs flat, so you stop noticing it
The strap anchors at both ends instead of one. That’s the whole difference between wearing a tube and wrestling one through a turnstile at Union Square with a coffee in the other hand.
Empty, it’s 2 lb 10 oz. Less than the laptop already in your bag.What it carries
- Arch D · 24×36 in610 mm
- Arch E1 · 30×42 in762 mm
- ANSI D · 22×34 in559 mm
- Arch C · 18×24 in457 mm
- ANSI C · 17×22 in432 mm
- A1, A2, A3 metric594 mm
- Renderings, maps, prints
- Arch E · 36×48 in914 mm | too long
- ANSI E · 34×44 in864 mm | too long
- A0 metric841 mm | too long
A rolled sheet needs a tube as long as its shorter side. At 83 cm this takes a full Arch D set without forcing, and Arch E1 with room. Arch E needs 90 cm or more. We don’t make that size yet, and we’d rather say it here than have you find out at the counter.
| This tube | Cardboard | |
|---|---|---|
| Lifespan | Decades | A winter, maybe two |
| Rain and salt | Adds patina | Softens, then warps |
| Rush hour on the 6 | Holds its shape | Dents and stays dented |
| When it’s damaged | We repair it. Ten years. | Recycling |
| After a year | Darker where you hold it | Frayed at both ends |
| Walking into the meeting | Reads as considered | Reads as temporary |
How it is built
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One seam, full-grain
Cut from a single piece of full-grain cowhide, closed with one stitched seam down the length. The top layer of the hide, left uncorrected. It takes on patina instead of wearing through.
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The strap holds the cap shut
The lid lifts off deep and clean, and the strap runs over it and buckles down. While the tube is on your shoulder the cap cannot come off. Nothing to fail on a crowded platform.
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Solid brass, not plated
Buckles, keepers, rivets. Plating flakes after two winters of road salt. Brass just dulls, and it will outlast the stitching.
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Anchored at both ends
The strap fixes top and bottom rather than at one point, so 32 inches of tube hangs flat across your back instead of swinging into a subway door as it closes.
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Lined interior
Pig skin lining down the full bore. No bare seams, no raw edges, nothing to score a drawing on the way out.
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Nothing stamped on it
No logo, no branded hardware, no season. It reads the same in ten years as it does the day it lands.
Detail
Specification
- Length
- 32.7 in · 83 cm
- Diameter
- 3.9 in · 10 cm
- Weight
- 2 lb 10 oz · 1.2 kg, empty
- Strap
- 63 in · 160 cm, adjustable
- Leather
- Full-grain cowhide
- Lining
- Soft pig leather
- Hardware
- Solid brass
- Water
- Water resistant
- Made
- By hand in Hoi An, Vietnam - allow a week
Made by hand, one at a time
Every tube is cut, stitched, burnished and assembled by our artisans in Hoi An. Yours doesn’t exist until you order it, which is why it takes about a week before it ships.
If it’s ever damaged, send it back. We repair it, free, for ten years.
Paper here has a long memory
In 1922 Hugh Ferriss worked up four charcoal studies of what the 1916 zoning law would force this city to become. The setback, stepped back and back again, drawn before anyone had built a floor of it. The wedding-cake skyline came afterward. The drawings are still in the archive.
Full-grain leather keeps a record the same way. It darkens at the cap, along the strap where it crosses your shoulder, at the edge you grab on the way out the door. After a year it stops looking new and starts looking like yours. That isn’t wear. That’s the point.
Before you order
How long until it gets here?
About a week on the bench, because yours is cut after you order it, then five days or less by DHL Express. Two weeks door to door. If you need it by a date, email first and we’ll tell you straight whether we can make it.
Am I going to get hit with duties?
No. Shipping is free and duties are paid before it leaves us. The price on this page is the price. Nothing owed to the courier.
Will my set actually fit?
Arch D and Arch E1, comfortably. Full Arch E, no, that needs a longer tube than we make. Check the table above, and if it’s wrong for you, send it back inside 30 days for a full refund.
Is it a nuisance to carry to a filing?
It sits across your back and leaves both hands free, which is the entire argument for it on a walk to 280 Broadway in January. Worn diagonally, 32 inches clears a turnstile.
What happens when it rains on it?
Wipe it down and let it dry on its own, no radiator, no hair dryer. Leather goes dark where it’s wet and evens out again as it dries.
Can you put initials on it?
Yes, no charge. Every tube is made to order, so it’s a matter of telling us. Add them at checkout or email before you order.
Does it work as a gift?
It’s the piece we ship most for graduations, licensure and first practices. It arrives in a plain box with no invoice inside. Leave a note at checkout and we’ll write it out and include it.
Why Vietnam and not made here?
Because the workshop is in Hoi An and has been for years. The same tube cut in New York runs three times this, and the hands doing it would have less practice. You’re paying for the hide and the hours, not the zip code.