In this series, WeWork’s director of digital community selects a WeWork member to get to know better, sharing her fun findings with the rest of the community.
When Anthony Escobar retired from the Los Angeles Police Department, he brought a unique perspective to the field of bag design, creating the perfect product for busy fathers everywhere. With the Iconoclast Dad Bag, Escobar’s invention proves that style is just as important as utility, sharing the message #IAmAModernDad. As the WeWork Fine Arts member gears up for his in-time-for-Father’s-Day appearance on Extra, read on to learn more about what inspired the bag, his thoughts on family and parenting, and more.
You’re a former police officer who came up with a line of bags for fathers: Iconoclast Dad Bags. What inspired you to come up with the concept?
I found out I had a daughter—she was eight months old when I found out about her. And I’d already retired from the LAPD. So now I needed a bag! So I went out there, looking to see what was available, and I saw all the bags for dads are either glorified messenger bags with these novelty pockets and zippers—they’re not functional—and all the diaper bag ads only had women in the pictures! So I was thinking, “Wow, are they saying that childcare is primarily a women’s job and men shouldn’t do this? Are they stuck in the past?” So I thought that there should be a way to make a more functional, stylish bag for dads.
What features are included in each Iconoclast Dad Bag?
The main feature that sets my bag apart is that it offers true hands-free convenience. It sits diagonally across your back, and you rotate it around so it sits horizontally across your body when you need access to the contents. You have access to everything in the bag without having to take it off. If you’re changing a diaper and you’re in a yucky restroom, you never have to take the bag off, so it stays clean.
I utilize MOLLE [Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment]—the military uses that on most of their bags. They’re belt-like straps, so you can attach other pouches to your bag. I applied it vertically, as opposed to horizontally. And I have a pending design patent on that. By applying it vertically across the front of the bag, it makes whatever pouches you attach easily accessible when the bag is rotated to the front of the body.
What type of feedback have you gotten from dads?
I’ve gotten a lot of “Dude, I love this bag! I can use it for so many more things than when I’m with my kids!” and I’ve gotten a lot of feedback from moms that say, “Finally—a bag that he’ll carry, and I won’t have to fight him to carry, because he likes this bag!”
The idea was to create a stylish, masculine, hands-free bag that a dad will carry long after the diaper wipes-and-diapers stage is over. Once your child is done with diapers, you don’t want to touch the majority of bags again. But Iconoclast Dad Bags break that mold. They are bags you’ll still want to carry when your kid is four, five, six years old because it’s that stylish and functional.
That’s also where the philosophy of the brand came from. The Iconoclast Dad Bag: “Because childcare isn’t just a woman’s job.”
Is there anywhere you’d like to take the brand that you haven’t had the chance to yet?
I’d like to see it worn basically by every type of dad. The modern dad to us is confident and successful. Our modern dads come from all races and walks of life. Whether you’re a single dad, a married dad, a granddad, a gay dad—if you have “dad” in your title, this is the bag you need.
And it’s also empowering—it’s giving us dads the tools to go out there and do what we’ve always been able to do, which is to nurture our children. And with women playing a much bigger role in the workforce, it means it’s our job also to support women in our lives and step up and do our share in the childcare.
What inspires you each day?
I’d be lying if I didn’t say that there’s a lot of people out there I need to prove wrong— who said things like “Iconoclast?! That name is never gonna work.” And on the opposite side of the coin, it’s the passion. I’ve really fallen in love with the concept and the idea when I was creating it. And it’s that love and passion that gets me up every day, at 5:30, 6 AM, to get out there and make it happen.
I was raised by a single mom in East L.A., so I understand the bond and the strength of parents. And I want to make their lives easier. We are men—we want something simple. Give me a bag that holds my stuff, my kids’ stuff—make it stylish, functional, and masculine, and I’m good! There are other companies trying to do similar things, but they are missing the point: it’s simple. We can take care of our kids—we just need the right tools. And that’s where the name “Iconoclast” came from. “Iconoclast” is defined as a mold-breaker—someone who challenges conventional beliefs. We are breaking the mold that dad bags have to be novelty, feminine, flowery bags, or not functional.
Photos: Salvador Ochoa