Happy Holidays to all of you from all of us! Sorry it’s a bit late – weather made for very interesting driving conditions, but we’re all now safe and sound with our families. We hope you had a great holiday! If you need to reach us, send us an email or leave a message on our voicemail.

It took three hours and driving 40mph the whole way to Seattle, but we made it in and all orders for in-stock items will ship tomorrow. Woohoo! We’ll post pictures of the incredible (for Seattle) snow and ice tomorrow. For those of you in Seattle who want to brave the streets to visit our store, call us at 206-652-4123 or email us at seattle@tombihn.com – we’ll be here and ready to let you into the showroom until 12:30pm tomorrow (Monday).

Above: a cell phone picture of a sign on the ferry we rode over on tonight. There are a few hours left to take advantage of our $10 UPS 2nd Day Air (just in time for Christmas) shipping special…

Because of today’s closure due to snow we are offering $10 UPS 2nd Day Air shipping on all U.S. orders – this weekend only (offer expires at 12:00 a.m. Sunday, December 21st.)

Orders placed for in-stock items will be shipped on Monday, December 22nd. Orders shipped Monday via UPS 2nd Day Air are guaranteed for delivery on Wednesday, December 24th. No code is required for this offer – simply select $10 UPS 2nd Day Air shipping at checkout.

Road conditions were treacherous enough today here in Seattle that we asked our employees to stay home and be safe instead of attempting to come in. That means that no packages will be shipped today, and that our Seattle retail store is closed.

If you placed an online order between 12:00pm Thursday and 12:00pm Friday, (expecting that it would be shipped on Friday) don’t worry: we will upgrade your shipping to the next level at no additional charge, resulting in your order being delivered either on time or ahead of schedule.

If you had planned on visiting our Seattle store today, please call us at 1-800-729-9607 to place your order over the phone or place your order online through this Web site. UPS Ground shipping for orders within Washington state is free.

Yes, we’re usually a little wimpy about snow in Seattle. But it’s snowed about 4″ already and the roads are pretty icy and dangerous. This means our Seattle Retail Store may be closed Friday (we are still going to do everything we can to get there to open it!) and, worst case scenario, we may not be able to ship out orders that day, either. In the unlikely event that we are unable to ship orders Friday, we will upgrade all orders to the next shipping method at no charge and ship them out on Monday – resulting in the orders being delivered on time or ahead of schedule.

Questions, concerns? Call us at 1-800-729-9607 (no answer? We’re on the other line with a customer – please leave a message and we’ll give you a quick call back) or email us. Don’t worry: we will make sure you get your new bag in time for Christmas.

Our Seattle factory showroom/retail store will be closing at 3:00pm tomorrow (we normally close at 5:00pm.) We’re sorry for the late notice – there is a weather alert indicating possible snow/high winds/etc. right in the heart of our commute and we don’t want to get stuck! Thanks for your understanding, and we’re sorry if this causes you any inconvenience. Please email or call us with any questions. If you were planning to visit our store between 3-5pm tomorrow, please let us know – we may be able to make other arrangements for you.

From all of us at Tom Bihn – have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Now we’re going home to cook. (Potato and Leak Au Gratin, in case you’re wondering.)

I’ve just walked through our Seattle factory and seen that the Shop Bag is almost done – your orders might even ship this week!

Below are pictures taken today in our Seattle factory. Tom and our factory crew were busy making samples of our up-and-coming Market Bag and Camera Insert. We also had just received our new Solar/White Dyneema. Solar is a color custom created by Tom in cooperation with the Japenese factory that makes our Dyneema ripstop fabric (what is Dyneema? See this Wikipedia entry on the fabric.) Keep reading the blog next week for news on which bags will be available for pre-order in Solar/White.

Be sure to click ‘Read More..’ to see all of the pictures.

The Market Bag in Solar/White Dyneema.

Lisa (Sewing Supervisor) working on the Market Bag.

The Small Cafe Bag in Storm/Sapphire in the midst of production.

Close-up of our new Solar/White Dyneema

First sample of the camera insert for testing by Tom’s brother Dan who is a professional photographer.

Inside the Brain Bag backpack.

Irma, TOM BIHN fabric and material cutter.

Scary!

Riley didn’t feel like dressing up, but he did feel like laying on the couch all day.