We’re out of the Grape fabric: no more bags in Grape will be made. And, unlike Plum, we definitely won’t be able to get anymore Grape fabric. (The Grape ballistic nylon fabric that is available to us has flaws which we find unacceptable.)

Bags still available in Grape as of today (07/20/07):
The StyleKit
The ID
The Ego
The Zephyr
The Aeronaut
The LUX

Talk about it in our forums.

The Flashpacker Quiz

Sample question:

4. You bought it last holiday, it’s cluttering up the spare room..

a) a didgeridoo — would you like to hear me play it?
b) a straw donkey — somehow, the irony rubbed off on the flight home
c) the deed to your 20 acres of protected equatorial rainforest

Thanks to PM4HIRE for posting the Flashpacker link in our forums.

Customer J.S. wrote to tell us that his TOM BIHN Mini Organizer Pouch fits his iPhone perfectly, and included a few pictures to show just how good of a fit it is:

More pictures after the jump. The TOM BIHN Mini Organizer Pouch is available in Cordura, Padded, or Clear. All three versions have a #5 YKK coil zipper with a plastic slider which is less likely to damage sensitive electronic gizmos.

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From the New York Times:
Your Briefcase Just Ran Over My Toe

By LISA BELKIN
Published: June 28, 2007

“Not since women first laced clunky sneakers over pantyhose for the trek to work has an accessory brought out such strong feelings among the armies who drag pounds of papers between home and office. What one commuter sees as the answer to all aches and pains, the next one views as a hazard waiting to happen: what gets you through the subway station faster only gets in my way as I run for the train.”
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What do YOU think about rolling bags? We don’t make one. Do you think that we should? Talk about it in our forums.

Above: A picture shows a 15″ Powerbook cradled in the four layers of protection that our Brain Cell hard-sided laptop case provides.

First layer: 500 denier Cordura. Cordura resists tears and abrasion like no other fabric of its kind, and is 3X more durable than standard polyester. We use the best Cordura available, woven and finished in the U.S.A.

Second layer: A strong-but-light-weight plastic corrugated to provide hard-sided protection. Die-cut to our specifications in
the U.S.A.

Third layer: Soft 8mm-thick Ether Foam absorbs shocks and wraps your laptop in the sling that suspends it off the bottom of the Brain Cell. U.S. made.

Fourth layer: Super soft poly-knit tricot fabric brushed for softness: cradles your laptop and keeps it free from scratches. Laminated to the Ether Foam for us in Washington state.

We recently sent Judie Lipsett Hughes, founder of Gear Diary and guardian of Avah the kitten and Gizmo the dog, a Zephyr briefcase for review. Little did we know that the shipping box the Zephyr was sent in would be used in Avah’s campaign against the innocently napping Gizmo.

Can’t get enough cute pet pictures? Check out this alternative our our Laptop Keyboard Cover.

Update: Riley and Lily are famous! They’ve been featured (along with Avah and Gizmo) over at Itchmo, a great blog all about cats, dogs, and their guardians.

TOM BIHN Sales Associate and Laptop Fit Expert Amy has been receiving quite a few emails from you asking if the Dell D620 laptop will fit inside of the newly redesigned Buzz sling bag. Here’s the response she posted in our forums:

“Essentially, the built-in sleeve within the Buzz will fit laptops that are 14.1 x 9.6 x 1.3 or smaller. That said, if your D620 does not have an extended battery on it, then it will fit. The extended batteries unfortunately add another inch or so, thus making the depth about 10.3″, and compromising fit inside the Buzz.”

We receive emails every day from people asking all kinds of different questions – about our bags, our shipping policies, or about Tom’s dog Riley.

Occasionally, when we reply to one of these emails, our response will bounce back to us for one of a few reasons: the inquiring person’s email address is invalid, their mailbox is full, or a typo was made in the email address field in the contact form.

If you’ve sent an email to us and haven’t received a reply, it’s not because we didn’t reply to you: either we never received your email, or we couldn’t send a reply to you.

We want the opportunity to answer all of your questions. If you haven’t received a reply to the email that you sent to us, please call us at 1-800-729-9607 or +1-206-652-4123.

A few weeks ago we told you that we were sold out of our Plum 1000 Denier Cordura fabric with little hope of being able to obtain it again, and that we would be replacing it with Grape 1000 Denier Cordura.

Many of you told us that you much prefer the Plum color to the Grape color. We tried one last time to save Plum, and guess what: success! We will be receiving a fresh batch of Plum 1000 Denier Cordura in the next few weeks. That means Plum Large Cafe Bags, Medium Cafe Bags, and Small Cafe Bags, Utility Totes, and Plum Buzz bags, too!

Plum:

We’ve added new pictures of the Archetype cork molded laptop case, and the Cork Organizer Pouch to the site. Both the Archetype and the Cork Organizer Pouch are in stock and ready to ship.

Note: The Cork Organizer Pouch isn’t really that big. It measures 7″ x 5″ while the Archetype in the above picture measures 15″ x 10 1/2″ x 2″.