It is a tale as old as time – we fell in love. And their name is St.ranac.
It goes without saying that we have always supported and admired local businesses. External community plays a particularly important role to us, which is why partnering with BH brands and artists is a common practice (even tradition) in Mistral. They make our daily lives better, and we take pride in displaying these partisanships everywhere we go. Wearing merch with the tagline “Made in BiH” is an honor and a privilege.
While planning Mistral’s 11th birthday presents, we were on the lookout for fresh, handmade merch of local production. Brand St.ranac, with their signatory handmade backpacks, was no stranger to us. We have been friends with Azra Hodžić, the architect behind the brand, for some time now. Even though we loved all her products, we wanted to make one that is customized to our needs.
We gave her a call, and two months later, our entire crew proudly wears a one-of-a-kind, Mistral-branded, and locally designed backpack. For the special celebratory occasion, we have filled the backpack with additional customized gifts, all marked with our 11th birthday motto “Stronger than ever”.
The Story Behind St.ranac
Azra Hodžić is an architect from Sarajevo. She is a sharp, witty wanderlust and the brain and face behind the brand. She combined the knowledge acquired during her studies of architecture with her sensibility towards clean lines and simple aesthetics, which has resulted in a refined design of all her products.
Her goal was to create a product that people would love, use continuously and that has an element of practicality to it.
The first item she ever made was a model of roll-top backpack, intended for personal use. Soon after, many of her friends made inquiries about it and showed great interest in the product, which gave her the initial push to make this hobby into something bigger – her own business.
MistralxSt.ranac: How It’s Made
In communication with our designers, St.ranac team came up with an idea of how to visually present Mistral x St.ranac with two of our logos side by side. The backpack is specific for its navy-blue color, which is one of the Mistral symbols. The fabric is directly imported from The Netherlands and it’s waterproof, so we can carry all our gadgets and laptops carefreely under all weather conditions. We also asked for an additional laptop compartment inside of the bag.
Creating 250 backpacks in such a brief time was a challenging task, but one that St.ranac team successfully completed.
“To be honest, it was a great challenge for us to respond to such a big order, and yet we are glad we succeeded! Because of the support of large companies like Mistral, small manufactories gain strength and expertise to improve our own production, fine-tune our processes and overcome our own daily limits,” said Azra, and expressed her content with one more thing: “What additionally makes me happy is that our backpack will now be showcased all around BiH, and other countries as Mistral employees live and work all over the world.”
We stay loyal to all our partners, and this collaboration is no exception. As Mersed (our CEO) saw this product for the first time, he decided that every single newcomer that enters our team should get one. We can safely say that this awesome collaboration will last for a long time.
To Azra and her St.ranac team – congratulations for pulling this off and thank you for your hard work and love invested in this project. Now it’s time to order another round of backpacks, as we have more newcomers just around the corner, shall we?