The story goes Minuteman needed better bags and Dave approached Stuart who was working part-time as a bike courier and asked if he could make 20 for the fleet.

The simple shoulder bags were much more practical for the job than a backpack (no need to remove completely to access the contents).

After making gradual improvements to the materials and design Stuart & Dave met at The George Hotel in St Kilda and decided to start a bag company.

[6] In November 2021, David Roper, now joined by his daughter Virginia Martin, announced they had reacquired Crumpler.

[10] The Smith St, Collingwood store reopened in December 2021, having been converted to a showroom with the addition of a workshop where designers can be seen creating limited, exclusive Fitzroy versions of classic Crumpler messenger bags.

In 2018, the private equity brand owners and then CEO launched an all-new logo following results of a focus group.

[12] Crumpler became known for unusual marketing largely credited to Dave Roper which is deliberately informal with an idiosyncratic approach.

[4] Some of its approaches include giant logo stencils painted on building site hoardings, the infamous Beer for Bags event where beer was the only currency accepted in store during the sale,[13] logo fruit stickers placed on millions of apples and oranges,[14] tiny boxes of matches, and using a nude body model to demonstrate the sizes of its bags.