Questions or comments on the Western Flyer? Talk about it in our forums. The Western Flyer will be available for pre-order in late December and will ship January/February 2008.

The Swift knitting bag is selling out very quickly and once the bags sell out, they won’t be available again until late January. Kelly/Navy, Cocoa/Olive, Plum/Steel, and Black/Steel are especially close to being sold out.

The Utility Tote is available in four new colors: Plum/Olive, Sapphire/Steel, Crimson/Crimson, and Plum/Black. These new colors join Cocoa/Olive, Sapphire/Olive, Crimson/Navy, Cocoa/Navy, Kelly/Navy, Olive/Navy, Steel/Black, and Black/Black.

The Clear Bottom Yarn Stuff Sack is now available in Sapphire/White Dyneema. One Black/White Dyneema Clear Bottom Yarn Stuff Sack is included with our Swift knitting bag. Extra Yarn Stuff Sacks in other variations — including All Fabric and Sapphire/White Dyneema Clear Bottom — can be purchased separately.

gmich from the TOM BIHN Forums on his Brain Bag:

“Combined with the Brain Cell (I have a size 5), it gives the ultimate protection to my laptop. The construction of the bag is top-notch, from the stitching and fabric to the zippers and straps. I’ve read other Brain Bag users report that their bags still look virtually brand new after 4 or 5 years of hard use, and I have no doubt that is true. The bag is heavy duty in every way. As a teacher who has lots of papers and files to carry, my favorite accessory is the Freudian Slip. I’ve tried other accordion files or organization systems before, but they’ve always been too clunky or cheaply made. The Freudian Slip is just what I need: it’s slim, doesn’t take up much space, and I can put 5 or 6 fully-loaded plastic file folders in the front pockets — and they’re accessible as soon as I unzip the bag. On the other side I store my ipod, flash drives, business cards, and up to ten DVDs (in a car visor sleeve I’ve re-purposed for the Freudian Slip). It’s also cool that I can easily pull the whole thing out and have it next to my desk when I’m working.” Read the entire post in our forums.

Main Entry: Western Flyer
Idea origin: Tom’s brain/a conversation with a customer
Dates: Idea conceived Summer 07. First prototype September 07. Pre-order
in November 07. Ships early-late December 07.

1) The Western Flyer is a new, smaller-sized carry-on bag made out of the same materials as our Aeronaut maximum carry-on (1050 denier ballistic nylon, Japanese-made Dyneema ripstop) though it features a different layout, pocket and organizational configuration, and offers a unique third method of carrying/wearing: a sling strap similar to the one that our Buzz sling bag has.

Local designer creates knitting’s “it” bag

Tom Bihn’s carry-all delivers bells, whistles and plenty of room

Our Brain Cell laptop case has gained a reputation for offering the best
protection one can get for their laptop short of using a heavy metal
briefcase. The Brain Cell cradles laptops in 8mm thick soft foam padding, suspends them in a 4mm hard corrugated plastic insert that protects from the front, back, and bottom, and protects them the sides by dense cross-linked closed-cell polyethylene foam, providing the ultimate in laptop protection.

And now that protection is even better. All Brain Cells, Horizontal and Vertical, now have an new fifth layer of protection: 12mm thick premium memory foam, manufactured to our specifications in the U.S.A. The layer of memory foam is fixed to the corrugated plastic floor of the Brain Cell, separating the bottom of the foam sling from the corrugated plastic shell. The memory foam acts as an extra layer of cushion as well as an effective shock absorber.

The Brain Cell is manufactured by our highly skilled Seattle factory
crew. Components of the Brain Cell, from the 500 denier Cordura to the premium memory foam, are manufactured to our specifications in the United States.

The Brain Cell. $60. Vertical or Horizontal. Available in 11 different sizes to fit a wide range of laptops. Multiple colors. Ships immediately.

“The Western Flyer is a small carry-on bag similar to the Aeronaut in function. It’s volume is about 25 liters or a little more than half the Aeronaut’s volume.

Rather than convert to a backpack as the Aeronaut does, it has a sling-bag strap, like the Buzz. This strap is designed to be worn cross-body on the right shoulder; it zips away when not in use. A Poron padded handle and two heavy metal “D” rings (for an optional shoulder strap) allow you to carry it the conventional ways too.

The Western Flyer has three exterior pockets (two zip closed) and two equal-sized main compartments (like the Brain Bag). The front compartment can be further divided in two with a zip-out divider, creating two compartments well sized for shoes. The back compartment has webbing loops so you can use annex clips to secure a Brain Cell (horizontal or vertical; we’ll let you know soon which sizes fit, not all for sure). Matching packing cubes will follow shortly.

The Western Flyer is made of 1050 ballistic nylon in crimson, steel or black; lined with Dyneema/nylon ripstop. Ships late December or early January, we hope! [Available for pre-order before then]” — posted by Tom Bihn in the Forums

“Sometime around 1987 or 1988, I was living in an old house on Beach Hill in Santa Cruz, California. That year I had a small Halloween party at my house. Guests were trickling in, and at some point I looked out the front window and down the driveway. Keep in mind, this house was about 100 years old and the window glass was quite rippled.

Through the window I thought I saw a giant TOM BIHN backpack coming down the drive. I immediately looked around the the front room in which I was standing, to see which of my packs was being so strangely reflected and distorted in the window glass.

There was no pack like the one I had seen coming down the drive in the room, so I looked out the window again. There, coming down the drive, was a TOM BIHN backpack the size of a human, five or six feet tall.

I thought to myself “I must be sewing too many packs – I’m imagining things”. I looked again and the human sized backpack was stepping up to the door and ringing the doorbell.

To my great surprise and delight, my friend Juanita Parker had made her Halloween costume to be a large-scale model of her royal blue & black TOM BIHN Limpet pack, accurate enough to fool even the designer himself.
Let that be a lesson to you all!” — Tom Bihn