OUR STORY
Gothenburg, Sweden
Cista makes one thing: a wheeled tote bag for people who would rather not be seen with a wheeled tote bag.
The problem it solves is an ordinary one. You go out for a few things and come back with more than you meant to buy, and there is a distance between you and your front door. Carrying it all at once is the choice most people make, because a second trip feels worse than the walk.
Solutions have existed for decades. They worked. Almost nobody wanted to be seen with one.
Why nobody bought one
In Sweden you would rather not be looked at in the supermarket.
Nobody here starts a conversation in the queue, and nobody particularly wants one started with them. The supermarket is the obvious case, but it holds anywhere you are out doing errands. The worst thing you can pull through town is an object that asks for attention.
That was most of what was on offer. Either a shape nobody had redrawn in forty years, or more modern options from brands out of cultures where being spoken to in the street is a pleasant part of the day. Both solved the problem. Neither solved this one. What there was not, anywhere, was something quiet.
So the bag stayed at home and people carried heavy instead, which is a very Swedish way of solving nothing at all.
What that meant
Quiet became the fixed constraint.
Everything else had to be solved inside it. Matte surfaces, nothing that catches the light, discreet logotypes. Four swivel wheels, so the bag can stay upright beside you or be pulled behind you, whichever suits the pavement. A reinforced steel base and a foam layer, and a fold that means it never gets stuffed away and forgotten. Wheels you can replace, because a worn wheel should not be the end of a bag.
Most of the development went on materials. The outer shell is 500D PVC — matte, water resistant, built to take years of weather and use. Inside, a softer lining so the bag feels like something you own rather than a plastic container on wheels.
The name
A cista was carried closed.
A cista was a box or basket that people in Greece and Rome carried things in. Produce from the market. Private belongings. And in the older rites it went through the street in procession with its lid on, because what it held was nobody else's business.
We did not find a better word for what we were trying to make.
Who we are
A small family business in Gothenburg.
We design here and ship from our fulfilment centre in the Netherlands, so orders across Europe arrive in days rather than weeks. The family supports, tests, comments, develops, and pushes the company further than any of us would on our own.
We are small enough that the people who make the decisions are the people who answer the email. If something goes wrong, write to us. It is a short chain.
Heavy plans, made easier.
Two sizes. Four wheels. One large compartment. Foldable. Free shipping across Europe, and two years of warranty behind it.
See the bag