DULUTH — The oldest canvas-and-leather bag and pack manufacturer in the country has a new owner.

The Duluth Pack brand was sold to Kevin Hall, of Alexandria, Minnesota, and “another business partner,” effective immediately, according to a Duluth Pack news release issued early Wednesday morning. The canoe pack company was previously owned by Tom Sega, who in 2007 joined a group of Duluth Pack’s existing silent owners — BKR Investments of Fargo, North Dakota — and served as the company’s president and CEO.

“We're making Duluth Pack something for everybody and we really, again, are excited about that and see a wonderful future here forward,” Hall said in a news release. “If Duluth Pack has meant something to you in the past, these changes are for you.”

The sale price was not provided.

Duluth Pack said its Canal Park storefront, 365 Canal Park Drive, was recently remodeled, and new products, branding and messaging are expected soon. The news release said the company’s “base of operations” and manufacturing will remain in Duluth.

Duluth Packs are manufactured at 1610 W. Superior St. in Lincoln Park. According to the electronic certificate of real estate value, the building was sold by Sega’s BKR Investments to BKH for $350,000 on Jan. 1.

Hall, Duluth Pack’s new owner, is listed as the BKH’s organizer. Jessica Dorn and a rural Vining, Minnesota, address are listed as BKH’s registered agent and office, according to the limited liability company’s articles of organization filed with the Minnesota Secretary of State on Oct. 21, 2024. A company spokesperson said Dorn is not Hall's partner in the business and that the partner “has requested to remain anonymous.”

The Vining address is also listed as the “principal place of business” in a public notice that ran in the Feb. 8 and 15 editions of the News Tribune that noted BKH assumed the name Duluth Pack.

The signature Duluth Pack traces its roots to Camille Poirier, a French-Canadian who moved to Duluth in 1870 with a small stock of leather and tools. He opened a shoe store but put his talents to work on more than just footwear.

On Dec. 12, 1882, Poirier filed for a patent on a canvas sack he had fashioned featuring a buckled flap, shoulder straps, a tumpline, a sternum strap and an umbrella holder. He called his creation the Poirier Pack, but over time it became known as the Duluth Pack.

In 1911, Poirer sold his pack business to Duluth Tent & Awning Co. Since then, the company has grown in popularity, even appearing in movies.