Next Stop: The Story Behind K&L NYC’s “Subway Bag”

If you’ve stopped by K&L New York recently, you may have noticed something new heading out the door with your bottles. It’s black. It’s unmistakably New York.

Our new K&L NYC shopping bags—quickly dubbed the “Subway Bag”—came together the same way a lot of good ideas do around here: a casual email, some back‑and‑forth, a few strong opinions, and someone deciding to see what might happen if they just tried something. What started as a swag idea turned into a fully licensed, very real love letter to the city we’re lucky to newly call home.

Below, the designer tells the story in his own words—how the bag took shape, how the MTA got involved, and why the process mattered just as much as the finished product:

“CEO Brian Zucker emailed an idea for K&L bags and swag to several people in NYC and California. After a little back and forth, some tweaking, and a little boredom at home, I decided to see if I could come up with something on my end. I remember someone suggesting (I think it was Dustin Cantrell) to "keep it authentic," so I used pictures of actual MTA Subway signs and Brian's ideas as guides to come up with what eventually became the "final" version.

When the subject of the legality of using MTA signs was brought up, I reached out to the MTA's Commercial Ventures Department about licensing, as the MTA is known for being very protective of their intellectual property. It was a pretty straightforward process and after about a week of sending our ideas and application, the contract was sent to Brian for approval!

One very important thing that I took out of all this was that even as a relatively new employee of K&L Wine Merchants, our input is welcomed and valued.”

- Santiago Villasis, K&L New York Operations Specialist and “Subway Bag” designer