Friends of Riley (Our dog)

We often get emails from customers telling us how much they love the pages on our site for Riley the dog and Bear the cat. If we’re lucky, those customers include pictures of their companion animals, just like the picture below that customer E.F. sent us of his 14-1/2 week old puppy named Riley. Yes, another Riley!

Riley Pup!

We can’t stand not sharing super-cute pictures like this one with the rest of you, so we’ve decided to revamp Riley’s page to include a “Friends of Riley” section that will feature Bear, and pictures of the companion animals of employees and customers. Do you have a picture of your companion animal that should be included in the upcoming “Friends of Riley” gallery? Send it to us!

More pictures of the Riley the puppy and a couple of new pictures of our Riley are after the break.


Riley Pup!

Riley Pup!

Our Riley

Our Riley

TB Crew | 17 March 2006 1:35 pm

Pop Wuping Review of the ID Messenger Bag (Lots of pictures)

Clark MacLeod of Pop Wuping posted his review of our ID messenger bag today. You can check it out here.

His review of the ID bag is thorough and gives you a good sense of what the bag is like and what it can hold, but what we’re going to feature in this post are the pictures Clark posted along with his review. They are really good pictures, and they feature people with and wearing the ID — exactly the kind of picture you (our customers) request. More (and bigger) pictures are after the break.The following pictures belong to and are by Pop Wuping.
Pictures of the ID bag by Pop Wuping

Pictures of the ID bag by Pop Wuping

Pictures of the ID bag by Pop Wuping

Pictures of the ID bag by Pop Wuping

Pictures of the ID bag by Pop Wuping

Pictures of the ID bag by Pop Wuping

TB Crew | 16 March 2006 4:00 pm

Scott Collins: I want to tell you about my favorite bag

Scott Collin's Su
Customer Scott Collins posted this review of the Super Ego, Brain Cell, and his experience with Tom Bihn bags and the company itself on his blog. Below is an excerpt, but we recommend visit Scott’s site to read the entire post.

From Scott Collins’ Journal:

“On my next visit to Santa Cruz, I stopped by Tom’s shop to look at his wares. Tom turned out to be an easy-going and jovial man in an Akubra hat (that he had re-shaped to fit his personality) who makes damn good bags. My mother is a seamstress, sewing teacher, and accessory designer. She raised us with these skills, and raised us to have these skills. Now that my kids are too old for hand-made Halloween costumes, the main consequence of this history is an annoying Perfect Pitch with respect to objects made by stitching things together. I can barely make myself look straight on at most clothing because it’s such obvious crap. Similarly backpacks, messenger bags, etc., etc. Unlike just about every other bag I’d ever seen, Tom’s stuff was better than what I could have made for myself.
That day I think I bought a messenger bag, a waist pack, and a duffel bag. When I mentioned I would probably stop for food before heading back over the hill to San Jose, Tom not only directed me to his favorite breakfast spot, but called them up to make sure they’d stay open for me.”
The Super Ego

TB Crew | 14 March 2006 1:05 pm

In stock: The Size 4X Monolith, Medium Cafe Bag, and Freudian Slip

The Monolith, Medium Cafe Bag, and Freudian Slip
The Size 4X Monolith

Designed specifically for the 15.4″ MacBook Pro. Your MacBook hangs suspended, cradled in 8mm thick soft foam padding in a 4mm hard corrugated plastic insert that protects from the front, back, and bottom. Available in colors Black, Steel, Crimson, Wasabi, and Deep Blue.

The Medium Cafe Bag

The Café Bag is available in colors: Black/Steel, Black/Wasabi, Cocoa/Steel, Cocoa/Wasabi, Plum/Steel, Plum/Wasabi, Olive/Steel, Olive/Wasabi, Steel/Deep Blue, Steel/Crimson, and Crimson/Steel.

The Freudian Slip

The Freudian Slip is made to fit inside either the Brain Bag, the Smart Alec, or your current daypack. One side has organizer pockets for your pens, PDA, cell phone, or any small electronics. The other keeps your files and folders neat and protected. Total organization.

TB Crew | 13 March 2006 11:55 am

The Imago: A new small messenger-style bag

Below is a sneak peak picture:

What is it?

Details will come soon (the Imago has some very cool features.) In the meantime, what are your first impressions?

TB Crew | 9 March 2006 2:03 pm

The Mac ReviewCast Reviews the Brain Bag Backpack

Be sure to check out episode #44 (direct link) of the Mac ReviewCast for an in-depth review of the Brain Bag.

Reviewed by Tim Verpoorten, producer of Mac ReviewCast and publisher of SurfBits.com, the details and layout of the Brain Bag come alive. If you can’t come to our Seattle Factory Showroom to see a Brain Bag in person, listening to this podcast review is the next best thing.

Mac ReviewCast

TB Crew | 8 March 2006 11:17 am

Customer P.D. – Tsunamis, record snowfalls, and the Brain Bag.

Lots of snow!
You may remember customer P.D. from this blog post, where we posted a section from his email about being in India during the 2005 tsunami. He wrote that he and his family, safe and unharmed, spent the remainder of their holiday in India volunteering at relief camps to help those displaced or otherwise affected by the disaster, and he also wrote to us to let us know how his Tom Bihn Brain Bag backpack held up.

P.D. recently wrote to us again to tell us how his Brain Bag did during another trip where he experienced extreme weather — in New York, during record snowfalls. Below are pictures P.D. took of the snow and his comments about his Brain Bag.

“My latest adventure was in New York. I decided to spend a weekend there at the end of my business trip in order to explore and see some sights in the Big Apple. Snow – Lots of pretty white snow. The most snow to ever fall in New York since record keeping began over a hundred years ago. Now this was the first time I have ever seen snow falling (seen a light cover on the ground once before) and it was beautiful. Why would you care? Only in that my trusty Brain Bag and Large Cafe Bag (recently re-waterproofed) took the snow admirably. As with everything else I have put them through, they took it smiling and said, “Is that the best you can do?”

More snow!

TB Crew | 7 March 2006 1:16 pm

Burney’s Gadgets for Legal Pros: Empire Builder Review

The Empire Builder and Absolute Strap
Brett Burney is the Legal Technology Support Coordinator at Thompson Hine in Cleveland, Ohio. He regularly reviews products for Law.com’s Automated Lawyer and Law Office Computing Magazine. And he recently reviewed our Empire Builder briefcase, Absolute Shoulder Strap, and Snake charmer bags.

Excerpt:

“Their products are not cheap. You can’t buy Tom Bihn bags out of your local office supply store. But you do get amazing quality and superior craftsmanship. If you really depend on your laptop and need a carrying bag that will protect it thoroughly, then a Tom Bihn bag is for you, and I heartily recommend the Empire Builder.”

Go here to read the full review on the LLRX web site. On our site, check out the Empire Builder, Absolute Shoulder Strap, and Snake Charmer.

TB Crew | 6 March 2006 3:01 pm

Popgadget on the Jimi Wallet

The Jimi
Yesterday, Popgadget featured a post on the Jimi and had lots of good things to say about it. And we do, too.

I’ve never met a person who didn’t like the Jimi. Almost every time I buy something in a store and pull out my Jimi, the salesperson says they’ve never seen anything like it and asks where they can get one. And they’re really surprised to hear that the Jimi is only $14.00. And even more surprised when they find out that the Jimi is made in the U.S. out of partially recycled materials. (By the way — we only sell products made in the U.S., Canada, and Germany on our Web site. You can relax and shop knowing you don’t have to check every label or detail to make sure what you’re buying is made by people who are paid fair wages and work in comfortable conditions.)

I’m a little bit abusive with my Jimi. I stuff it with more cards than you should, and on days where I end up with more than a few bills, I force the Jimi shut. I recommend you be a lot nicer to your Jimi than I am to mine, but even with my harsh treatment of the Jimi, it still works and looks pretty new.

Check out the Jimi at PopGadget, the Jimi Web site (where there is a cool flash demo of the Jimi), or visit our Jimi page.

TB Crew | 3 March 2006 10:47 am

We’re a favorite of Gekko Blogs! What do you think of us?

We’ve been listed as a favorite blog on Gekko Blogs! Very cool. While you’re checking out the Gekko Blogs site, be sure to listen to some of their podcasts. Their podcasts have inspired us to start podcasting, which brings up a question I’d like to ask you: What should we podcast about? What would you like to hear? Would you, our customers, be interested in participating in our podcast? And while you’re at it, what do you think of our blog? Let us know what you think by posting in our forums or emailing us.

Tom Bihn Forums — A Tom Bihn Podcast: What would you want to hear?

TB Crew | 3 March 2006 10:10 am