Spring is starting to show its face here in Seattle—buds on the trees, longer light, and a fresh batch of ideas taking root in the factory. Here’s what we’ve been working on, what’s happening behind the scenes, and a look at what’s coming next.
What’s Been on Our Minds Lately
This year’s been a wild one! Even though we manufacture all our bags right here in our Seattle factory, we’re not immune to the new tariffs. Our supply chain spans the world (check out our Materials page for details), and we’ve always chosen our suppliers based on best quality.
Our suppliers’ quality has been tested and relationships built over many years so we don’t plan to change there, even as rising tariffs increase our material costs. While we don’t yet know the full impact, we’re eagerly monitoring the latest developments. Over the past several years, we have seen strong demand for our products but our margins have been under pressure as our moderate price increases have been much less than wage increases trying to maintain Seattle standard of living for our team and other costs going up. We don’t want to only push higher prices, so we're actively exploring different ideas to improve our own efficiency (we are not considering layoffs—we have the best team of bag makers in the world!).
You sold us out of Spectron—more is on the way.
Our two 420d Spectron pre-orders kept us incredibly busy. We also decided to throw a surprise batch of our new Minimalist Wallet into the mix. These batches completely used up our entire in-house stock of Spectron.
The new wallet is the result of a full year of design iterations and feedback. We had to retire all versions of the original Nik’s Minimalist Wallet because we received a significant amount of repair requests in the last year, mostly due to issues with the elastic band wearing out too quickly. Our new Minimalist Wallet solves for the original’s durability issues while staying true to the origami-inspired minimalist design. We are also currently developing other variations—stay tuned!
Spectron Synapses are also on the way for the first time. (Also special shoutout to everyone who emailed or DMed us letting us know you spotted the Ursa Synapse 25 on the main character of HBO’s The Pitt. It was very cool for us to see that and to recently learn that Noah Wyle is a TB fan!)
Nomad 16 Has Launched
In case you missed it, the Nomad 16 is here. It’s the larger sibling to the original Nomad Tote, now renamed the Nomad 11. It checks the boxes we heard you asking for: room for a 16" laptop and an optional crossbody strap, all while keeping its sleek tote shape and personal item carry-on size.
Curious about the design process? Check out our Behind the Seams blog.
X-Pac Color Contest: You Voted, Periwinkle Won!
A big thank you to everyone who voted in our X-Pac color contest. Periwinkle took the crown. We haven’t decided which bags it’ll debut in yet, so feel free to drop your ideas in the comments.
We’ve also got leftover roll ends from all the sampled X-Pac colors. These will eventually be making surprise appearances in our Mystery Grab Bags. And no, you still can’t choose your color (unless you come visit us in-person) - it wouldn’t be a mystery otherwise!
Special Drops You Might Have Missed
Bummers
They’re back. We haven’t restocked the Bummer in over two years. A shipment of Ballistic nylon arrived last year with shipping damage, which made large sections unusable. However, the Bummer’s small panels were a perfect fit, allowing us to work around the damaged sections of the fabric, and we didn’t have to let that fabric go to waste.
Seasonal Shop Bags
Available in Original and Zip-Top styles, both small and large. We rarely make these because they use a ton of fabric, but we’ve had a flood of requests. Wisteria and Tidal 200 Halcyon both sold out fast but we don’t expect to restock those colors this year. If you missed out, stay tuned for future seasonal colors!
On the Horizon
Smart Alec 2.0!
We’re through development and getting ready to launch in late spring or early summer.
A New Guide’s Edition Synik!
We had so much fun with the return of the Guide’s Edition Synik 30 that we’re going to be making more Guide’s Editions and in more than one size. This time we’re planning to use a new interior fabric—we think you will like it even more than Coyote Parapack. Stay tuned.
Some Color Updates
We also have three new seasonal colors slated for this year and are very excited to debut them in the coming months.
One of the questions we hear most is whether Spectron will be available in any color besides Black. The short answer is yes! We are working on choosing our next color. Currently, we’ve got several color dips underway. Some are callbacks to fan-favorite 400d Halcyon colors and some are totally new. We’re also experimenting with richer, warmer tones unlike anything we’ve offered before.
Got a dream color? Let us know. We’re still refining the direction and we love hearing from you.
Further along the horizon!
We’re in the early stages of some 2026 projects — including something totally new for us. We can’t wait to share more when the time is right.
Thanks, as always, for being part of this journey. Your support, feedback, and enthusiasm keep us going. These are difficult times but we’re excited for what’s next.
Kathleen - May 16, 2025
Having come to your products relatively recently, I feel like I missed all the amazing colors and wider fabric choices that used to be available. My choices have been limited to fairly dull, somewhat muddy exterior colors in ballistic. I just received a couple of the Spectron pieces (I settled for black because I wanted to see something other than ballistic) and I would definitely expand my collection if brighter, happier colors in the blue, maybe blue green family were offered. My dream pieces would be a Synik 19 and a Paradigm in a blue/aqua/turquoise/or teal Spectron. Not as dark as deep blue ballistic – something brighter and more joyful!