The Lawyer knew it was going to be a long, tough day: meetings with important clients—in today’s economy, is there any other kind?—and a barrage of paperwork, phone calls and emails.

Since time is money, aka billable hours, she planned on eating lunch at his desk, as usual. And she didn’t want to skip her morning workout.

Fortunately for The Lawyer—name changed to protect the guilty-- her firm recently had given Duffle-Paks to the staff. Her Duffle-Pak, with the firm’s name embroidered on both sides, looks like a nice duffle bag, but also carries a laptop computer.

So her day went like this:

• Exercise at health club, shower, change into the business casual clothes—including shoes—that she had packed in her Duffle-Pak. Store workout clothes in Duffle-Pak.

• While riding train to office, send and respond to emails using her laptop, stored in her Duffle-Pak. Also review paper files that she stored underneath her computer. Passenger behind her gabbing on cell phone, so she uses her iPod, kept in a specially designed side pocket with a pass-through eyelet.

• Grab sandwich and soft drink from convenience store while walking from train to office. At lunch the food is still cold because she had kept it in the Duffle-Pak’s thermal pocket.

And so it goes for those who have gotten their hands on the new product from NuSport International Inc., based in Shorewood, Ill., near Joliet. Called the Duffle-Pak because it can be used as a backpack as well as a duffle bag, it’s an ideal promotional product for corporate gifts while also proving popular with athletic teams, college students, fire departments and police personal, according to Dave Lawson, one of the inventors.

“We see so many kids on traveling soccer and other teams carrying duffle bags. If there were also room for laptops, kids could entertain themselves—and maybe even do schoolwork—while on road trips,” said Lawson, president of NuSport.

Prices start at $69.99 for single orders, although Lawson believes most business will come through group sales. “In addition to gifts for employees, I envision selling to fraternities, sororities and sports teams,” Lawson said.

Much like a Swiss Army Knife, the Duffle-Pak has many features and can be used many ways. But the ability to unobtrusively carry laptops computers is what could make it unique.

In a world where theft of laptops is common, this is no small thing. “Most computer bags might as well just have signs on them that say, `Steal me’,” said Gary Pradel, a web site designer and film producer based in Naperville, Ill., a Chicago suburb.

“Since the Duffle-Pak looks like a duffle bag, not a computer bag, it’s much less likely to get stolen,” Pradel said. “After all, why would anybody want to steal your gym clothes?”

Pradel, who works out of his home, says the Duffle-Pak makes an ideal portable office for his almost daily road trips. “I need different equipment based on what clients need, so versatility is important,” he said.

In addition to housing a laptop, iPod holder and a cooler compartment, the Duffle-Pak also includes:

• Flip-up side panels to access storage pockets, including holders for cell phones and PDA devices;
• Water-resistant top compartment with three inside pockets;
• Flip open ID tag;
• External and internal hooks for key rings or flash drives; and
• Personalized embroidery. In addition to the name of a company or team, each bag can also include the owner’s name.
The Duffle-Pak is difficult to explain because it does so much. “And photos don’t do it justice,” Lawson said. “You have to see it to understand the possibilities. When people get their hands on one, they inevitably say that they want one.” Duffle-Paks currently come in six colors with more to follow. “A girls’ sports team or a woman traveling is going to want something livelier than what we make for lawyers, so we want to offer as many choices as possible,” Lawson said.

For more information or to order Duffle-Paks call 800-621-5811 or 815-744-0440, or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it '; document.write( '' ); document.write( addy_text42261 ); document.write( '<\/a>' ); //-->\n This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or visit http://www.NuSportWorld.com. ##

Sidebar: How and Why to Create Something New

Where do new products come from? Read on, but remember, the key words are, “I started wondering…”

Innovations like the Duffle-Pak—practical, versatile and affordable--don’t come along often, so you might expect such products come to life only after years of research and development by high priced experts.

But you would be wrong. Dave Lawson and George Rogers are not inventors or research whizzes. Lawson is a former butcher turned serial entrepreneur, and Rogers background is in distribution management.

Lawson, 52, left a secure job with Jewel-Osco because he wanted to be his own boss. He started a business cleaning model homes for real estate developers in 1994 and did very well. When he sold in 2007, the firm had approximately 40 employees and annual revenues of more than $2 million.

The following year, bitten again by the entrepreneurial bug, Lawson bought Hunter Golf, a Shorewood-based designer and distributor of golf bags that had started in 1975 but seen a sharp decrease in revenues in recent years.

After a few months Lawson realized that the business needed a year-round revenue stream, since golf bags do not sell well during winter. “I tried to think of what we could offer consumers that would be a good value and not like anything now on the market.” His first idea, a different type of backpack, didn’t cut it. “Then one day I just happened to have a duffle bag at work and I started wondering if we couldn’t make some sort of hybrid of a backpack and duffle bag.”

Lawson and George Rogers, a long-time Hunter manager, considered what features are not typically offered in duffle bags or back packs. This led them to the computer holder.

“Then it just evolved,” said Lawson, who showed his idea to a Hunters golf bag supplier. “We came up with design after design, which our manufacturer would start sewing.”

The fancy term for this is, “develop prototypes,” a process that larger companies often make lengthy and expensive. After a few weeks, Lawson and Rogers had designed a hybrid bag and backpack that can be used as a mobile office, a week-long trip or a day at a sports competition with places for: laptop computer; paper files; hot or cold food; cell phone and Blackberry; pens and other office supplies; eye glasses: iPod; and two Russell Terriers. We’re kidding about the Terriers. Or are we?

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