When Justin Castles founded a business creating camera straps almost six years ago, it was because he couldn't find a product he considered comfortable.
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This year, the pandemic threatened to put a stop to the launch of his latest product - a quick-release strap.
After forging ahead with a launch in April, camera giant Canon took notice of the product and ordered 800 to accompany the release of their new EOS R5 camera.
Mr Castles said everything fell into place for the launch of his new strap.
"The last few months have been very good compared to how they started off," he said.
"I was more worried about (the product) than anything. It was supposed to be released at the end of March and everything went bad, which was disappointing.
"We had this great product ready to release and had to push the launch back because I was worried that it wasn't really the right time. After three four weeks ended up launching anyway and it went fantastically."
Lucky Camera Straps are made completely in Bendigo with the help of Colonial Leather in Long Gully.
"It's very hard to make them, because instead of making the strap from leather, we have a neoprene insert in the centre and wrap soft upholstery leather around that," Mr Castles said.
"It's the hardest, most time consuming and labour intensive strap we have ever made but also the most comfortable strap we have ever made.
"(Colonial Leather) have been in Bendigo for almost 30 years. We partnered with them when first designing (our) straps. They did a lot to make this happen so quickly."
Canon Australia senior product manager Brendan Maher said Canon and Lucky Camera Straps have been working together for a number of years.
"Justin is wonderful at what he does because he's a photographer and has been in the shoes of our consumers," Mr Maher said. "The first-hand experience of carrying a camera around all day, knowing where photographers require support and comfort, and understanding the environments photographers go into that might cause wear and tear to a strap is invaluable.
"The quality and design of (this) strap was so nice, that we expanded the order to 800."
Mr Castles started his business after being unhappy with camera straps available on the market and sells about 2000 camera straps a year. He said the regional setting of his business was important to his success.
"With the low cost of living and running a business in regional Victoria contributed massively to making this business work," he said.
"If we had an office in Melbourne with the additional cost living, we might not have made it through early stages of building a business."