nik bentel rethinks the lidl supermarket shopping cart to create wire-framed 'trolley bag'

nk bentel and lidl introduce the ‘trolley bag’

New York–based Nik Bentel Studio has a knack for reworking everyday objects into sharply executed design pieces, and its latest release, the Trolley Bag, follows that logic with dry humor. Developed in collaboration with German supermarket chain Lidl, the bag distills the familiar wireframe shopping cart into a compact handbag.

Fabricated from stainless steel, the piece retains the cart’s recognizable grid structure and tubular handle, scaled down and refined into something wearable. A chain strap allows it to hang at the shoulder, while a trolley-coin detail nods to the mechanics of European supermarket carts. The materiality remains intentionally industrial to give the bag a sculptural presence that feels closer to product design than conventional fashion.

Nik Bentel Studio scales down the supermarket trolley into a stainless steel handbag | images © Nik Bentel Studio

playing with consumer culture

The Lidl Trolley Bag builds on Nik Bentel’s growing body of work that plays with consumer culture — most notably the Croissant Bag, which translated a bakery staple into a leather accessory. With this latest creation, the studio shifts from food to infrastructure by taking an overlooked retail object and reframing it as a collectible design piece.

As with previous releases, scarcity is part of the concept. The bag launched around London Fashion Week in limited quantities, reinforcing its position somewhere between fashion drop and design experiment. In Bentel’s hands, even the supermarket trolley becomes a study in material, proportion, and the strange appeal of the ordinary.

a familiar retail object is reframed as a limited-edition collectible

the Trolley Bag retains the cart’s tubular handle and metal lattice at shoulder-bag size

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project info:

name: Trolley Bag

designer: Nik Bentel Studio | @nikbentelstudio
collaborator: Lidl | @lidlgb