Skip to main content

Tom Augustine, inventor and founder of Stwrap, wearing a Stwrap on a tan bag strap

FOUNDER STORY

It Started With a Strap.

Years ago, while taking my kids to school, I noticed something. Backpacks had personality everywhere: colors, designs, patches, and keychains. But the straps were plain, empty, and overlooked.

I kept thinking, Why not the strap?

That simple question started everything. I imagined turning that unused piece of a bag into a place for someone to show something that mattered to them: a photo, a team, a memory, a place, a person, a cause, or an idea.

I combined the words strap and wrap to form Stwrap.

The strap was always there. It just needed a story.

Tom Augustine
Inventor and Founder of Stwrap

WinCraft by Fanatics logo

FROM IDEA TO PROOF

Sports Was the Beginning. Not the Destination.

Once the concept was real, I needed to prove Stwrap could be produced well, hold up in everyday use, and scale beyond an idea. Stwrap was licensed exclusively to WinCraft, one of the leading manufacturers of licensed and promotional products for professional and college sports teams.

Sports made sense as an early proving ground. Fans already live in gear. Identity matters. Colors matter. What you carry says something about who you are.

But the bigger lesson was not sports. It was that people were willing to put identity on the strap — and that the strap itself could become something much more interesting than empty space.

Person wearing a lanyard with multiple Stwraps collected and displayed together

WHAT PEOPLE TAUGHT US

People Took the Idea Further Than I Could Have Planned.

People did not just wear Stwraps. They collected them, changed them, shared them, and wore several at once.

That was the moment the bigger opportunity became clear. Stwrap was not one category or one kind of story. It could represent a person, a pet, a place, a passion, a moment, a cause, a team, an organization, or an idea we had not thought of yet.

The strap stays the same. The story can change every time.