In an era of fast fashion and cheap chic, Tufts & Batson stands out. The St. Louis-based company, launched in 2012 by Amelia Tufts and Gabe Batson, is built on the principle that consumer goods should last a lifetime…or longer. Known for its handmade bamboo fly rods, tweed-covered travel trunks, and lightweight canoes, these bespoke objects take hundreds of hours to bring to life.
Tufts, 41, and Batson, 50, met in 2004 when they lived in Portland, Oregon and worked in the restaurant industry. A year later, during a fishing trip together, Tufts borrowed Batson’s homemade bamboo rod and, intrigued, was inspired to make one of her own with Batson as her guide. “I thought it would be fun to do something together,” says Tufts. “I like to be challenged and use my hands.” What followed was a five-year journey to create the perfect bamboo rod. “It isn’t just a reed of bamboo that is turned into the shaft but, rather, six to seven pieces of split bamboo that are meticulously cut and glued together to create a perfectly balanced, lightweight mechanism for fly fishing,” she says.
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At the World Forestry Center in Portland a few years later, Batson met Ed Hartzell, a retired high school teacher and fly fisherman, who would also become the couple’s first mentor, teaching them how to turn metal on a lathe to create the fittings and components, while also showing them how to lay a perfect glass-like varnish. In 2008, when Tufts and Batson moved to Sweet Home, Oregon to shadow renowned rod-maker Darryl Whitehead–they met while sourcing materials from him–what began as a hobby turned into an apprenticeship that they couldn’t pass up.
“Daryll helped us in ways far beyond the construction of a rod,” says Batson. “He helped us develop an appropriate mindset to create something of high quality. He taught us about the world of bamboo rods; the people, the suppliers, how the finances could work. He spent a lot of time instilling a confidence in us that we won’t forget for the rest of our lives.” Yet it still took almost five more years for the couple to produce a rod under their own name. In 2012, when they moved to St. Louis–Tufts is a native of St. Louis–they finally launched their own business in Maplewood.
While fly rods gave Tufts & Batson its start, the rods serve a limited market and require intensive and expensive labor to produce. To be financially sustainable, the couple knew that they’d need to branch out. When they began to brainstorm next steps for the label, they were inspired by their surroundings, creating stories that helped spark ideas for other things that they could make.
By adapting their woodworking skills and drawing from their love of rivers, the couple set out to build custom canoes. But not just any canoe. Canoes from Tufts & Batson are lined in leather and trimmed in brass. Batson, who grew up finishing off of them, was intrigued by the idea of a canoe so light weight that one could balance it using just one hand. “Exploring the construction style of that canoe became the genesis for making our own,” he says.
Eventually, the pair moved into designing trunks. Dressed in Linden tweed, the trunks are trimmed in ostrich leather and decorated with Italian brass locks and nautical-grade fasteners. Batson enrolled in a Zoom class with a leather smith in Kent, England to learn how to mold the leather handles and hand-stitch the clochette. Each trunk takes more than 50 hours to make and prices start at $2,500.
Today, Tufts and Batson continue to press forward with new ideas. They’re working on developing fragrances and small-leather goods and belts, says Tufts. “We’re really trying to keep true to our origins and our story,” she says. “We’re craftsmen first and foremost, but we want to find a way to reach more people.”
