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 Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is in the Black Country, west of Birmingham. The town was known for the manufacture of chains in the first half of the twentiet ...

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

, England. 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 homop ...

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

Leica Leica may refer to: Companies * Ernst Leitz GmbH, later divided into: ** Leica Biosystems GmbH, a cancer diagnostics company ** Leica Camera AG, a German camera and optics manufacturer ** Leica Geosystems AG, a Swiss manufacturer of surveying and ...

and

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

, 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, and author. He co-hosted the BBC Two motoring programme ''Top Gear (2002 TV series), Top Gear'' from 2002 until 2015 with Jeremy Clarkson and James Ma ...

, 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