Our Company

Our Seattle Factory Showroom/Retail Store will be open Saturday, March 6th from 12:00pm - 4:00pm. Though usually open one day each month, we will also be open a second day in March - the 24th, a Wednesday, from 11:00am - 3:00pm. For directions to our Seattle Showroom and more information, click here.

Over the next year, we'll be sharing with you the reasons we choose to ship via UPS (United Parcel Service).

Via UPS.com -

UPS learned through time studies that avoiding left-hand turns saves time, conserves fuel, lowers emissions and increases safety. UPS managers used to plan routes by hand on maps while driving to destinations. They then experimented with the routes, eliminating left-hand turns to see if it led to increased efficiency. It worked. For the past several decades, UPS has designed routes in a series of loops with as few left-hand turns as possible.

Since the deployment of this route planning technology in 2004, UPS has eliminated millions of miles off delivery routes, taking already-expedient routes and giving them razor edge efficiency.

As a result, UPS:

Saved 10 million gallons of gas

Reduced CO2 emissions by 100,000 metric tons, equivalent to 5,300 passenger cars off the road for an entire year.

Katy - TOM BIHN Customer Service Extraordinaire - and a friend recently hiked the Marymere Falls Trail - with a Steel/Solar Dyneema Synapse.
Below: Katy took these great photos of the hike with her iPhone.

How Social Media Helps One Small Business Connect with Fans
by Leah Betancourt

Excerpt:
"A-Ha Moments On Flickr

The Tom Bihn Flickr group has 278 items posted and more than 115 members. The stream isn’t just photos of people wearing their bags while traveling or at the airport. Informative photos show how much can fit inside a bag (and weight) and how items look once they’re in the bag. What’s also interesting are the user comments. Someone commented on a photo in the Flickr group that they had been looking everywhere for a photo of that exact bag and wanted to know if the bag was still available. Another person chimed in that they were also looking for that same bag."

Read the full article at American Express OPEN Forum.

You've received an email from UPS informing you that your TOM BIHN order has shipped. Woohoo! Armed with your UPS tracking number, what's the best way to stay updated on the progress of your parcel? Try one of the following applications:

UPS Mobile App for iPhone

UPS Mobile App for BlackBerry

Boxoh Package Tracking (RSS package tracking)

Apple Dashboard Widget: Delivery Status

TOM BIHN Package Tracking Page
Enter your order number and you'll be taken to tracking information for your parcel.

Our Seattle Factory Showroom/Retail Store will be open tomorrow - Saturday, January 16th - from 12:00pm - 4:00pm. We hope that our store being open on a Saturday (as opposed to the middle of the day on a weekday) will be more convenient for you.

See you there!

Our January email newsletter - sent out this morning - featured the latest news on the Camera Insert, Diaper Changing Pad, Field Journal Notebook, Compass travel bag, and more. Didn't receive the newsletter? Don't worry: we'll be reposting its contents on the blog over the course of this week.

Read Brad at One Bag, One World post on the latest Compass news - "Tom's ultralight is nearer" - here.

From all of us here at TOM BIHN: Happy New Year!

Early next week, we'll send out our January email newsletter. It will feature news on Tom's latest designs, including those you are aware of - Field Journal Notebook and Camera Insert - to designs you (probably) had no idea were in development. You can sign up for our email newsletter/mailing list here.

Many of you know that each year we do something special to thank our customers and the members of the TOM BIHN Forums. This year, we're proud to donate $1 on behalf of each forum member (there are 1,769 forum members) to Adopt-A-Minefield. Adopt-A-Minefield's campaign is to solve the global land mine crisis. All around the world, innocent civilians, often children, are injured or killed by these left-overs of armed conflict. If that wasn't bad enough, both domestic and wild animals are killed by land mines as well. Adopt-A-Minefield is working to remedy this unacceptable state of affairs.

You, our customers and TOM BIHN Forum members, have made this possible. Thank you!

Our giving this year is not yet over: as a company, we're proud to collectively support Adopt-A-Minefield. Tom and Darcy are supporting more specific charities in their own community as well - stay tuned for more on that next week.

From all of us at TOM BIHN: Have a wonderful holiday!

Our Seattle Factory Showroom/Retail Store will be open tomorrow from 12pm - 6pm. Katy will be on hand to help you with any questions you may have. This is one of two days that our store will be open in December - the other is Wednesday, December 16th with the limited hours of 12pm - 4pm. Luggage Tags are in-stock in our Seattle Factory Showroom, as is the Aeronaut. (But maybe not for long!)

Above: If you arrive at our Seattle Factory Showroom before 2pm, there's a chance you might see our factory in action.