Where it began…
We’ve been friends for more than 20 years - in fact, we may as well be family. Over the past few years, we’ve moved from living near each other in the city to living ever nearer by the sea.
Until 2020, despite owning beach huts and spending countless days on the beach with our families nipping in and out of the sea, we — Walpole & Stone (aka Waldorf and Statler) — hadn’t so much as dipped our toes in! Then Covid 19 hit.To keep sane, we decided to try winter swimming.
On a bright cold November morning, clad in swimmers and bobble hats, we took to the waves with a small group of friends. It was exhilarating and that was it: we were hooked!
Since then we’ve swum — well, bobbed — most days, through sunshine, rain, sleet and snow. We bought the kit: towels, changing robes, water booties, gloves, Thermos flasks. And as it got colder we bought neoprene. We had no shame — we were bloomin’ impressed with ourselves for getting in, full stop!
But our feet were sandy and freezing cold.
That’s when we came up with our idea for a luxurious, insulated comfy bag to stand and change in. We needed all our gear to be close at hand and our feet to be warm, dry and away from the elements, to keep us going even when the weather was at its bleakest.Big Dipper swim changing bag was born , along with it’s sibling the Skinny Dipper swim change mat. And our little hands have been carefully crafting each one ever since.