Our Story

Station XV is a Spartan9 initiative.

I founded Spartan9 in Singapore in 2012. For the past 12 years, we’ve been supporting clients through a host of challenging situations in a range of challenging environments. From the jungles of Central Kalimantan to the streets of Aleppo, we’ve been to places that many people will never get to see in their lifetimes.

These locations and activities can place extreme demands on gear.

To meet these demands, in 2020, I designed and built a satchel. Initially available in DCF and UltraWeave 400, the Street Satchel proved to be popular with people in our community. The first and second batches were sold out in a few weeks. At that point, I realised there may be a broader demand for gear purposefully designed and built for people travelling and working in challenging environments.

I spent most of 2022 refining my designs and trying and failing to find a manufacturing partner. By the end of the year, I was ready to shelve the project. At the last safe moment I was referred to a manufacturing partner in Vietnam. This company turned out to be the perfect fit. I visited the factory in August 2023 to prototype the first range of bags, and returned to the factory in December 2023 to approve the pre-production samples.

Our first production run started in January 2024 and was completed at the end of February 2024.

We formally launched on 1 April 2024.

Station XV bags and accessories are based on a very specific design philosophy, which sets us apart from many other companies out there. Not necessarily better, just different.

I use Station XV products daily and have come to rely on them. Just in the last few years, my Street Satchel (an early prototype) has accompanied me on trips to Indonesia, Thailand, Turkey, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Nepal, Romania, Moldova, Hungary, and Morocco. It’s been stuffed under the seat in planes, thrown unceremoniously between river boats in Borneo, and worn while on the back of motorbikes zipping through traffic in Phnom Penh.

We can’t wait to see where you take your Station XV bags.

Welcome to the Station XV community.

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Grant Rayner

Maaloula, Syria

What is Station XV?

Station XV is us. Well, it’s us now, but it didn’t always used to be that way.

The original Station XV had quite a remarkable history. Located 12 miles North of London, on the busy A1 Barnet Bypass, near Borehamwood, Station XV was one of several experimental stations operated by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War II.

Station XV had a unique mission – inventing, designing, and crafting various gadgets and gear used by British and Allied secret agents and resistance fighters. Station XV focused on the development of camouflage, sabotage, and subterfuge devices. The work done there played a vital role in supporting the SOE’s espionage and guerrilla warfare efforts across Europe and other theatres of war during the war.

Now, while we’re not in the business of crafting gear for secret agents and resistance fighters, we’ve embraced the same spirit by adopting an experimental mindset, by focusing on rigorous testing, and by pushing the boundaries of practical design.