Cactus Leather

From the spines of the cacti to the needle of the sewing machine, sustainability and ecological friendliness are at the heart of the process behind each Pomona Bag.

"Sustainability was always going to be a big part of whatever I started," said Nathan Higdon, creator of Pomona Bags. "It was always gonna be a big part of the brand, and who I am. I have love for the planet and nature. Stumbling across the cactus leather was like a perfect storm for me."

Nate, a Lubbock local that graduated from Monterey High School, started his college career at Texas Tech studying wind energy, but after a semester of that he decided to study advertising and graphic design.

Barely 21 with a bachelor's in advertising, Nate wasn't satisfied, and decided to go back to school for fashion.

"I had been doing all my ad projects on fashion brands and i was getting more into fashion and streetwear in that time," said Nate. "After I graduated I was like 'is advertising really what I want to do for the rest of my life?' so I decided to look into the fashion program at Tech."

After a tour of the fashion program from the president of it, Nate decided to give it a shot for a semester and he fell in love with it, however he ended up graduating in 2020, right around the time the pandemic was hitting.

"Our senior year was really rough because of the pandemic," said Nate. "Our whole senior showcase got cancelled so we didn’t get to do anything and I ended up getting really burnt out. We had been working so hard on it for the past two years and then it was just gone. I kinda fell out of love with it for a little bit. Then, i was doing some research on eco-friendly fabrics because i was just curious where the science was. I found the cactus leather and that got the gears turning on the bags."

Looking into eco-friendly fabrics, Nate came across a young company making cactus-based leather, and he decided to order a few colors just out of curiosity.

"No one was really using them when I found them — Deserto MX. They launched in 2019 and they were still really knew when i found them," said Nate. "I made an order of like 4 meters of the green, beige, and this ugly red. I ordered all three just to see what they looked and felt like and I was really impressed with the quality and feel, how soft it was. I really liked bags before that and I had designed a couple that went with collections for school, but I got to researching bags and the history of handbags and I started making cool shit."

And that cool sh*t that Nathan started making was-and-is under the name Pomona Bags.

"Pomona is the Roman Goddess of Gardens and the roman imagery of her inspired my logo design," said Nate. "I've also taken some creative liberties with the design to get some of my own heritage in there. My ancestors come from around Germany and Ireland, so the Irish gods typically have antlers, like more Norse mythology. I blended the two and made it my own thing."

Pomona's line-up features handbags, crossbody bags, sweaters, and there's more on the way.

"Being in school and learning about the underbelly of the industry, sustainability was always gonna be a big part of whatever brand I created," said Nate. "I started the fashion program with the end goal of starting my own brand. It kind of happened quicker than I had planned but I’m happy with where I’m at."

You can keep up with Pomona Bags on Instagram, @pomonabags.