How much flair you got on that bag? 7 pieces? 37 pieces? We want to see it. Whether you tag it, bedazzle it, or pin grungy pieces of fabric to it, we want to see how you make your bag yours. Whoever shows us the best flaired-out bag will receive $200 to build the bag of their dreams. Here’s how you play:
Contest Rules (obey!)
Once you’ve played by the rules, highly qualified and very serious judges at T2 will select and then announce the winner on this blog on Wednesday, October 8. The winner will be emailed a $200 coupon to build the flair palette of their dreams. See the flair here!
*By emailing your photos to t2contest@timbuk2.com, you waive your rights to exclusive access of your photo(s). Timbuk2 can/will use the winning photo in various marketing materials.
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Wish I had flare on my bag, but haven’t found too much to put on there!
Flair? I ain’t got no flair. I don’t need no flair! I don’t have to show you any stinkin’ flair!
My Timbuktu Messenger is perfect as it is. I don’t need to put a lot of crap on it to “make it mine”. I have the receipt and that makes it mine.
does it have to be a timbuk2 bag? I really want one, but I don’t have one. I have some nice stuff on another bag that I’d like to replace with a timbuk2.
tell me tell me!
I have a Thorina Rose bag that is practically a 5th limb, but I wouldn’t dream of putting anything else on it! It’s a work of art just as it is!
I have only a few pieces of flair (buttons) on my bag. I mostly decorate my bag with these things I call bag tags, which are simple print elements that are laminated and hung off to one side. The tags are different representations of things I like or places (or events) that I’ve been.
currently I’m down to two pieces of flair. I had a few more buttons on my bag but they both broke off.
what’s left is pretty awesome though
I posted earlier, but it didn’t show up. If it’s in moderation, please delete this double post.
I don’t have much when it comes to flair on my bag. I do have what I call bag tags. These are simple print elements that I laminate and hang off to the side.
Most of them represent either things that I like or places that I’ve been.
I also haven’t flared up my bag, as it is beautiful and wonderful as is, and makes me happy to carry it! But if the contest were about what was in the bag…. hoo, boy! I’ve got so much random crap in there!! and it just keeps on carrying! Plus, I wouldn’t want to pin through the waterproofness…
i don’t really have much flare on my bag, just this patch that features a cricket on roller-skates that my sister sent me…i sort of feel like the fact that my bag (hauled everywhere, by the way) is striped, brightly colored, and approx. half my size makes a pretty good personal statement. i really haven’t explored what that might be?
I have a BIKE SNOB NYC button on my bag, and a Campagnolo pin. Bag is the special messenger, with REFLECTIVE PANEL, the kind you guys don’t make anymore :- (
No worries, I have 2 more stacked up in the closet. Lifetime supply.
Let’s see…. I’ve got sweat, dried mud (some uncultured people might call it dirt), a few splatters of blood (mine), fountain pen ink (pesky stuff refuses to come completely off), some sort of amalgamation of Indian spices (smells great, though), and a few abrasions on my messenger. I had some flare that I scavenged from my Mork suspenders that I got as a kid, but they seem to have wandered off.
On the assumption that you’ll accept piccies of non-Timbuk2 bags from those of us who are saving our pennies to buy one, let me tell you about the flaired up bag I do have. It’s your regular old backpack that I got as a going-away-to-college gift over a decade ago. This was the bag that travelled through Europe with me and as such, has patches from all of the countries I could scam patches. In the years since then, I’ve also been gifted with buttons and pins from various pursuits, namely writing and knitting. My two all-time favorite author-pimping buttons are my “Bite Me!” button from Sherrilyn Kenyon, and “My Mom Can Kill Your Mom” button from Leslie Langtry. I think my favorite patch is the one from Scotland. The bag is now beat to beyond usefulness (I don’t want to know what the residue is that clings to my papers that reside in it), but it is a well-loved bag full of memories for me.
I use my bag as my stage manager kit bag. Which goes to every rehearsal, meeting, and show with me. It’s like a theatre first aid kit. I keep everything in it from extra scripts and pencils, to a literal first aid kit.
As for the flair from the outside, I have something from every show it’s worked on (that’s right, the bag works too!) In addition I have what some actors I’ve worked with call my “sassy flair” my favorite being the “Piss me off and you’ll bow in the dark” pin. I also have the “I’m a thespian, wanna watch” and the “I’m a thespian, my parents thought it was just a stage” pins. I also love the “All the world is a stage, and the stage manager is god” pin.
All in all, it’s not the flair that makes the bag, it is the good stuff inside, and when you start a show and suddenly something backstage breaks…everyone knows that the hot glue gun is in my timbuk2 bag!
The only flair I have on my Messenger is the ultimate message…my peace sign!!! Need I say more?? I use my bag daily and see that message everyday - it helps in my line of work!
My bag is twice as heavy when I first bought it, due to lots of things I hang from the bag, friendship bands, tags, soft toys, ropes, key chains, name tags, unused watches, bells, from the places I traveled to. that should cover it. That’s what makes my bag, mine.
My flare is my bag! I’m rocking red/white/blue! It’s my mini me! Showing my ture colors everytime I duck my head and throw it over my shoulder. Here we go America!
And now that it’s 3 years old it has picked up some oil, mud and dirt over the many miles….
I LOVE Timbuk2!
I’ve got a T2 bag that I bought back in 2005 and it’s still my favorite. I use my newer Timbuk2 for daily use, but my old school is my go-to bag when I ride. There aren’t any buttons, but it does have patches that are new (within the past few years).
Edit: My old school bag was from 1995.
I have one big piece of flair on my bag but I think it is pretty sweet. I got the bag from a friend…….it was sort of beat up so I thought I would hook it up…
on my bag right now i have a jack sparrow pirate flag pin (a little cliche but i like it), a carabiner (to help keep the bag off public restroom floors), a bone fish hook (from tahiti), two voodoo babies (a pirate and a mickey mouse, both for good juju), and a string of little plastic skull beads (continuing the pirate theme). my flair changes frequently though.
I have some flair patches on my timbuk2 bag. I’d like to find more, but they have to “flair-worthy”. (Think “Sponge Worthy” episode of Seinfeld). No just any ol’ flair will do.
I am almost afraid to post after reading all of the I-do-not-have-flair posts.
However, I teach in a middle school and if you know middle schoolers, they flair up their backpacks mighty fine to the point that you can identify which student in walking down the hall by the particular tones of their flair.
In response to this, I decided to over-flair my bag and invite students to add to it as well. There are pins, buttons (one student even put a SUBHUMANS button on–sweet), stickers, carabiners, a piece of Duck Tape, luggage tags, pens, a dog tag, a school pride wrist band…my bag even has a monkey repelling of of the strap that makes noise when squeezed.
Overdone…I hope so. Anything to make middle school students wonder about their teacher’s sanity.
I like to keep things simple, but I did add a few pieces of flair to my bag. I have a Tan Musette Tote as my day bag and have added my Intramural Zombie and Vampire hunting patch, and a few buttons that my friend made. It’s nice, simple, and totally awesome.
My bag has had a lot of stuff attached to it over the years I’ve had it. Most of it is video game stuff I get from my store, but I do have a charm from my visit to the giant Bhudda in Japan, a pirate coin bag where I keep change mostly, but some aluminum coins for the proper noise, a “film crew” patch from the follow up to MST3K, a patch from Invader Zim (before it was mainstream) and a “Republic Commando” patch from my first trip to E3 in 2004. There’s some stuff on the inside too, but nothing of much note, except the remnaints of a bloody handprint from when I was an extra in LifeLess.
That WindWaker pic on the front I drew just before the game came out. What can I say? I was a fan of the unique style.
I love my T2 Bag. It’s a 2000. Navy blue and Gray. Origianl things all over. Don’t got no flair though. Wouldn’t want to damage the tranquility of it. Get comments about it EVERYWHERE I go. Everybody wants to know where I got it and where they can get one. Best part is, mine is so large. Bought it for school, then became a messange… The description that TimBuk2 staed it was, “large enough to carry a copier on my back” and I DID!!!
Love it Long Time.
Just saw the flickr pics. Those are some great examples of bag flair!
I’ve got an ugly old Jansport that deep in its red cordura heart wishes it was a beautiful beautiful Timbuk2 bag. Some fancy-pants folks have stamps in their passports, but I’ve got flair on my bag– What I do, where I’ve been, what I listen to and most importantly, what NOT to do: “Don’t Panic”.
I’ve got an Aer Lingus luggage tag (the kind that the airport staff put on your bag), a UBCM 100 Port of Vancouver luggage tag (the kind that you write your name in), a reflective one of those things you put on your pants so you don’t get caught in the sprocket when you’re riding your bike, and a punk button that I stole from someone sometime. On a Commute that is a few years old.
I had my two daughters make their own tumbuk2 bag for school one year, because they are the best bags out there and I was tired of buying a new school bag ever year. They both collect pins from where ever we go. Then they put them on their bags. I love their bags so much. I got my self one for nursing school. I get asked about it all the time because it has the birds on it.
The flair on my bag is mostly sentimental e.g. Mr. Friendly pins my hubby got me in our early stages of going out, the skeleton key was from one of my friends, the purplish Vosges ribbon reminds me of my husband’s cat (unfortunately died of cancer a couple of months ago), I’m a big Remy (Ratatouille) fan so there’s a tac pin on the flap, the other pins remind me of when I had lived in Brooklyn (bought the pins on Court Street). I usually keep some kind of scarf tied to the strap of the bag for chilly nights and I like the way they look on there. I decorated my bag with vintage trim just because I love that stuff (my mom’s influence). The mini coin purse attached on the bag handle holds clean doggie-walk bags for convenience- so I don’t have to dig through my bag for them… That’s what makes this bag mine.
My bag is not a Timbuk2, as I do not own one yet (I’m working on that). But this pack has treated me well all through college, and collected much flair that reflects myself and the places I’ve been. It’s a little dirty, but I like it that way. Ribbons, carabiners, safety pins, Homer Simpson, thermometer, hand made, store bought, foreign, not,… it’s all me!
My bag used to have 3 buttons of squirrels cleaning, which I got in Banff Canada (squirrels are the city mascot of Banff and they had a campaign to beautify Banff’s streets, therefore, cleaning squirrels.
Unfortunately, I misplaced two of the squirrels and am only left with Rochelle and her beloved feather duster.
Mr. Dangerous is the name of a character by graphic novelist Paul Hornschemeier, I thought it complemented the squirrel well, being that squirrels don’t usually dust (or at least to my knowledge) and dusting seems a bit of a dangerously anal-retentive thing for a squirrel to be doing, though squirrels do seem to be very possessive of their nuts.
I don’t put too much flair on my bag because I use it as both a bookbag, camera case, laptop holder, and purse (not all at the same time though) and I don’t want to loose all of my favorite buttons!
I’ve had a fetish for flair for, for…since I got the bag. The bag got me through college and other excursions. I love it when a patch falls off, revealing the original color of the bag, the extent of the color fade.
I think it’s time to start all over again…
I’ve got all my flair concentrated on the right flap. So far, there’s about 10-12 pieces there, each with a unique story on how I got it. Most of them I got in college, but I got a few afterwards. But, the one piece that gets me the most comments is the mini Intel cleansuit/spacesuit figure hanging from the side of the bag. It’s bright orange, and I got it from the folks at Intel during a career fair. I’ve got the orange one on my Timbuk2 and a blue one on my backpack.
I bike commute to work every day, so I find it hard to hang stuff from my bag. Nevertheless, I have explored different flat flair. By far my favorite are the words i’ve written on my strap of the 7 virtues I want to live by: “Faith, Hope, Love, Justice, Temperance, Prudence and Courage”. It feels really nice being wrapped by these words every day. Perhaps another unique piece of flair is the symbol in the middle which I drew. It is the first writing of the concept of “Liberty”, done in ancient Sumerian cuneiform. Other more traditional flair includes pins of Mexico and Britain to remember when I lived in those countries. A patch in the middle for the Maryland Tolls (cadet) was done because the blue colors remind me of police officers, and really, how much training does it take to collect tolls? Finally there is the hells on wheels patch for my sometimes dangerous bike riding, viking helmet for my childhood, recycle patch, american flag, pirate pin and two quotes using buttons.
On the outside, my flair is mostly functional. I like the understated, cool look of the black bag.
On the inside, my bag has its own personality (drawing by my wife), but you only see it if you see me opening my bag, and you think “What was that?” Now the secret is out.
Here you see the bag ready for a bike ride. If I were out on my bike, I would be wearing the helmet and gloves. If I had parked my bike, the lock would be on the bike.
The gloves go on the outside with the helmet because putting anything soaked with sweat on the inside of a waterproofed bag is not good :-).
Besides the water bottle (note that it is hooked on), maps, bungee net (for attaching things to the bike if it won’t all fit in the bag), tools and protein
bars, the bag often holds groceries or books. I also keep a couple folded nylon grocery bags, in case I can’t fit everything from the store in the bag.
If I win, I’ll get the XL bag for those bigger grocery trips!
When I go to the gym to do martial arts, I strip out all the bike gear and put in my
training gear. Don’t worry, the knife and gun are fake, just for martial arts training. Again, gloves go on the outside, otherwise … yuck!
The third use of the bag is for long walks with the dog we recently rescued. You
can see he is ready to go for a walk. Among other things, the dog and I are
responsible for the family’s library trips. Daughters need books for school
projects. The wife wants mysteries and movies. And I read stacks of books on a
wide range of topics.
The Timbuk2 bag is part of my exercise program and my chance to reduce how much
fossil fuel we use. The dog thinks it is a lot of fun, too.
I ran the Japanese Animation Club of Tallahassee for years, and through biking to class, going to conventions, and ensuring that my bag was my bag, things have gotten dirty, pinned and customized. This bag has been my life, my companion, and the place where I keep my stuff. I’ve carried my computer, DVDs, toys, flyers, small animals, and had a bicycle strapped to it. I use this bag, and it has never let me down.
aarrggg… that’s not fair, I just ordered my custom T2 bag and I’m planning to add tons of stuff to it!!! Hoping there would be another contest like this!? =)
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[...] flaired out and we love it! In fact we love it so much, we’ve chosen Rafael as the winner of T2’s Flair Contest and we’re giving Rafael a $200 gift certificate to build the custom bag of his dreams. While [...]