In November 2016, in Basel, FREITAG opened its 12th proprietary store. But this was the first time the Zurich-based bag manufacturers were not the sole tenants. In contrast to previous stores in cities from Tokyo to Lausanne, or the flash rust-covered container tower housing the flagship store in Zurich, this one is bang in the middle of the “Mitte” coffee house in Basel. After all, when the first FREITAG bag appeared over 20 years ago, it hadn’t been produced in a lonely one-room apartment but a flat-share. The store concept, which was developed in collaboration with spillmann echsle architekten, likewise takes up the community and collaboration idea with freely available workstations from the FREITAG factory in Zurich Oerlikon.