Some brands start with a business plan.
Paleta started with a bag.

When Sofia Reyes was 28, her grandmother passed away in Oaxaca. Her abuela had spent 40 years painting — on walls, on wood, on whatever surface held still long enough. Among the things she left Sofia was an old leather bag, hand-painted with scenes from their hometown: marigolds tumbling over a church wall, a jaguar half-hidden in flowering vines, a woman standing tall with her hands on her hips like she owned the sky.

Sofia brought that bag back to Austin, where she was working as a brand designer for tech startups. She carried it to client meetings, to coffee shops, to the grocery store. And everywhere she went, women stopped her to ask: where did you get that?

"I'd have to explain that my abuela made it, that she was gone, that there was only one. And I'd watch the look on their faces — this mix of I'm sorry and I wish I had something like that. That's when I started thinking."

— Sofia Reyes, Founder of Paleta Bags

What those women were wishing for, she realized, wasn't just a nice bag. It was a bag that felt like them — their culture, their strength, their story — without having to explain it to anyone.

She quit her job in early 2026. Spent six months obsessing over materials, talking to artisans, going through 200-something design sketches. She named the brand after two things her abuela loved: her painter's palette — la paleta de colores — which sat permanently on the worktable, and the ice pops she'd make every summer, paletas: bright, sweet, full of color, gone too soon.

The first collection sold out in 11 days.

Paleta Bags is still just Sofia and a small team, based in San Antonio, Texas. Every design goes through the same gut check she's had from the beginning: ¿Para quién es esto? — Who is this for? The answer is always the same: for the woman who knows exactly who she is, and is done apologizing for it.

"The woman I make bags for doesn't need her bag to make her feel powerful. She already is. She just needs something that keeps up with her."

— Sofia Reyes, Founder of Paleta Bags