Shuttle Trader’s Blue Bag tape

This design may not appear familiar to foreigners, but people from Russia would recognize it easily. That is because most of them have seen shuttle traders. Shuttle trade refers to the activity in which individual entrepreneurs buy goods abroad and import them for resale in street markets or small shops. The last decade in Russia saw many people travel to, for example, China, and then return to Russia with heavy bags full of things not for themselves, but for sale. These bags are just about always the same—large rectangular plaid-patterned bags made of thin, but durable plastic straps, with a zipper. And that’s what we designed our tape to look like.