Week of 18 February, 2007 - 01:00 to 25 February, 2007 - 00:59

Check out the Smart Alec Backpack page for new pictures of the interior of the bag, and close-up pictures of the side and interior pocket organizers. FYI: The Smart Alec is in-stock and ready to ship in all colors.

The Small Cafe Bag is now available for pre-order in two new color combinations: Kelly/Steel and Navy/Crimson. Both of these new colors will ship on March 1st.

Check out this review of the Aeronaut by customer Yash K.

Excerpt:
"When the Aeronaut was first introduced, I was in awe of its appearance. I thought to myself, this is a beautiful bag!

I have to admit, I have a lot of bags, of all sorts. But I don't have anything quite like the Aeronaut. I was thinking about using this for travel, as I have a few trips planned for this summer. I am writing this review while on my first summer trip." Read the full review.
Photo by Yash K.

Talk about the Aeronaut in our forums
The Aeronaut Page at TOM BIHN

See them on the Brain Bag page.

June (TOM BIHN Factory Manager) just told me that those with backorders for the Empire Builder should expect their bags to be shipped early next week, February 26th and 27th. That's five weeks before the expected shipping date!

The Smart Alec backpack is now in-stock and ready to ship. Other products recently put back into stock are the Brain Bag, Freudian Slip, Size 5 Horizontal and Vertical Soft Cells, Size 6 Brain Cell in Olive, and Size 2XL Horizontal and Vertical Soft Cells.

Recent blog posts on the Smart Alec:
Customer raves about her Smart Alec
Spymac reviews the Smart Alec
Am I a Smart Alec or Brain?
MacDailyNews Reviews the Smart Alec

The design of the Zephyr (the smaller Empire Builder) is being finalized as this post is written. We will post preview pictures of the Zephyr soon (we'd like to take a picture for you now, but Tom is continually sewing, tearing apart, and re-sewing the current prototype to get the details just right for upcoming production of the bag.) The Zephyr is expected enter production in March or early April, and will be available for pre-order around then, too.

As originally conceived, the Zephyr featured all of the same features and details as the Empire Builder. Fortuitously, while designing the Zephyr, Tom reworked that front pouch to look even better, especially when it's full of your gear. Most importantly, the new front pouch design fixes the problem some of you have experienced of your Empire Builder: tipping over when there's too much stuff in the front pocket. The new design actually adds stability to the briefcase, sort of like an outrigger on a canoe.

Happily, both the new Zephyr and the next batch of the Empire Builder (due in late March) will feature this new pouch.

One of our customers recently contacted us to tell us that he'd seen reviews posted on the Web that critiqued another laptop manufacturer's product: users were saying the dyes from the lining fabrics were bleeding onto the laptops being carried inside.

Concerned that our laptop bags could have the same problem, he asked: are the fabrics that Tom Bihn uses colorfast, or might they bleed too?

The answer? No.

We use the best quality fabrics from U.S. mills that follow government (read: EPA) regulations. In fact, when our fabric mills aren't making fabric for us, they are usually making the same fabric to meet rigorous military specifications.

Overseas fabric mills aren't subject to the same rules and regulations. If you buy nylon fabrics overseas, it's a lot cheaper than the fabric you'd buy from U.S. mills, but it often is of significantly lesser quality, and could potentially have problems such as "fugative" dye.

Sometimes people ask why our bags are so expensive. One reason is because we spend more on higher quality fabrics, zippers, buckles, webbing, thread, and every other part that goes into the bag. The price we pay for that higher-quality material and those tougher zippers and buckles gets passed on to you, but you'll also have a bag that will last years and won't bleed dye on your stuff!