Week of 11 March, 2007 - 01:00 to 17 March, 2007 - 23:59

Check out the new review of the Smart Alec published by the great folks over at MacNN. What did they think of the Smart Alec? That it's a great bag (lots of space, sternum and waist straps, etc.) but that it's expensive. And both of those things, we think, are true. Because we use high-quality U.S. made Ballistic Nylon and Cordura®, and because our bags are manufactured in our own Seattle, Washington factory as opposed to overseas, they are expensive. We think the bags are worth it. What do you think? Let us know in our forums.

In other Smart Alec backpack news, we recently posted new interior pictures of the Smart Alec. You had been asking us for them for a long time, and we finally have them! Check them out by clicking the picture below.

The Empire Builder Briefcase is now in stock in all colors: Black/Steel/Crimson, Black/Steel/Wasabi, Black/Steel/Olive, Black/Steel/Steel, Black/Black/Steel, Black/Black/Deep Blue, Black/Hunter/Steel, and Black/Crimson/Steel. The Empire Builder ships immediately.

We must be really famous now - we have our own Flickr group! So far, the TOM BIHN Bags Flickr Group has 19 members and 105 photos. You are welcome to join and post your own pictures.

Most of the pictures in the group are pictures that customers took of their own bags, and we're working on adding a few, too. As we go through the TOM BIHN vaults, we're finding a lot of cool pictures of Tom's early designs, some dating back to the late 70's. (Special thanks to Tom's mom for sending us these pictures.) We also plan to add more pictures of our awesome Seattle factory at work on making the bags.

If you want to be notified every time a picture is added to the group, consider subscribing to the TOM BIHN Flickr Group RSS feed.

The Empire Builder Briefcase is now in stock in two color combinations: Black/Steel/Olive and Black/Black/Steel.

These two color combinations will ship immediately. We will let you know as soon as other color combinations are available.