From Scandinavia to the Edge of the World, Db Wants You to 'Weigh Lighter'
Hypebeast spoke to Vincent Laine, Db’s Creative Director, about its latest bags made with a revolutionary new material called Graflyte.
Since its inception in 2012, Db has been clear about its mission: it is, simply, to “create better travel solutions” for its community of athletes and adventurers. Its most recent collection, Weigh Lighter, is as much a labor of love as it is a realization of its core purpose, comprising five exceptionally lightweight and equally durable bags constructed with a relatively new mono material called Graflyte – a “next-generation” composite fabric created by innovative materials company ALUULA, Graflyte is described as having “eight times the strength-to-weight ratio of steel [with] a soft nylon feel” and is waterproof, UV-resistant and can be recycled.
A homegrown success story in Scandinavia, Db has emerged as a fast growing global cult-favorite amongst travellers worldwide – recently, LVMH’s Luxury Ventures Fund (LLV) announced that it had acquired a minority stake in the brand, an investment that’s testament to both its pedigree as a purveyor of premium travel goods as it is to the rise in global interest it has been experiencing. The new Weigh Lighter collection is rooted in Db’s core principles to create the very best products whilst also looking ahead to find and use materials in new and innovative ways, acting as a sort of crossroads where its strong recent growth meets its ever-growing ambitions as a brand. “I think it is safe to say that this collection represents a new chapter for the brand,” Vincent Laine, Db’s Creative Director, tells Hypebeast, adding that the process of bringing Weigh Lighter to market “carved new lanes in our creative thinking and gave us new tools for the future – new pillars that we now can proudly build upon moving forward.”
The collection was developed over more than a year of rigorous trial and error with Db working closely with ALUULA to try, test, and learn which of the many different configurations of fabric thickness, placement and design would make the best end product. For Db, developing Weigh Lighter was also a bit of a leap of faith: it was an entirely new process for its team, some of whom have been with the company from the start. “We did not know exactly where we would end up and how it would turn out,” Laine tells Hypebeast, “there was no guarantee this would work – we just had to believe in it together.” Laine – who joined Db from Leica, where he is credited as the lead designer of both the Leica Q and Leica Q2 cameras – attributes his personal growth and the team’s evolution to the project, telling us that “as designers and creatives this project allowed us to evolve as a team” and adding that the process ultimately “challenged [and] changed our preconceptions.”
“As a team, we have never done this much heavy lifting just to create something this light.”
The Weigh Lighter collection features four bags and a snow roller, Db’s signature product, including the Weigh Lighter Sling, a super-light shoulder or waist bag that fits up to 10L of stuff and weighs just 138g; this is joined by the Weigh Lighter Backpack, a 25L capacity “mountaineering bag” that looks just at home in the city as it does on the slopes, which features a roll-top closure and a two-way vertical zipper for quick access, weighing only 470g; the largest of the lot, the Weigh Lighter Split Duffel is a Graflyte take on one of Db’s most popular models, featuring a huge 70L of space and weighing just 1.3kg (around 2.8lbs). With snow sports at its heart, Db’s Weigh Lighter collection also includes the Weigh Lighter Helmet Bag, a 32L multi-use carryall that fits large ski and snowboard helmets, as well as just about anything else. And last, and quite literally least (given the brand has made less than 20 units), Db has revolutionized the Snow Roller – the very first product it released – with the 127L Weigh Lighter Snow Roller Pro, creating what it says is the “the world’s first length adjustable, compressible ski and snowboard bag.” Weighing just 2.4kg (around 5.3lbs), the Weigh Lighter Snow Roller Pro is 50% lighter than the original Snow Roller, a highly limited niche product with a price to match.
As well as being incredibly light, Db chose to use Graflyte for this collection because of its translucent nature. At a glance, the bags are white; but, up close, you notice that they’re partly see-through. Db’s design language is one of its signatures: it often makes products that are modular and can be combined for convenience with others. Db applied the same approach in designing the Weigh Lighter collection, using the material’s naturally transparent qualities as a feature for its users. “We strategically designed panels and pockets to provide visibility where needed, allowing users to see contents at a glance,” explains Laine, adding that the brand also included “opaque compartments for privacy.”
“This interplay of transparency informed both the exterior and interior construction. Beyond function, translucency became a design tool in itself, allowing us to rethink branding and layering. Instead of traditional surface applications, we embedded elements beneath the fabric, letting them emerge subtly through the material. This approach also led us to proudly expose structural components that are typically hidden—such as our recycled foam, turning them into a defining visual statement rather than concealing them behind layers.”
To shoot the campaign for its new collection, Db headed to Nordkapp (North Cape) in Norway – an all-white place with an otherworldly feel situated above the Arctic Circle. The cape, located on an island called Magerøya, is also the northernmost part of Europe, the literal last piece of land on the continent – an appropriate location for a deserving collection. If Db’s ambitions as a brand weren’t already clear through its latest collection, it would be safe to say that its location scout came through as backup.
“Translucency generally means that a fabric is thin or weak in traditional terms – except in this case, where it is the most durable fabric we have ever used. This exact twist of our preconceptions felt as if we were cheating physics, it sparked a sense of something otherworldly and ethereal that ultimately guided our visual expression as well as the location where we shot the campaign, in North Cape – the northernmost point in Europe,” says Laine. “This landscape speaks in unexpected extremes and for this trip there was no exception. The colorway in which we introduced Weigh Lighter is called Aurora, reflected in the purple and lime green accents throughout the collection. On the last night of the shoot we got to experience aurora and its grand mystique – closing the circle by connecting the intent of the product, our visual concept in the very nature that inspired us.”
The Weigh Lighter collection marks the start of a new chapter for Db, showcasing the brand’s technical prowess while remaining true to its design DNA. It is available now worldwide on Db’s website and select retail partners.
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