Ellen Lupton is a writer, curator, graphic designer, and personal hero of mine. I reference her book, Thinking With Type, on a regular basis; not to mention she championed the DIY movement… which is pretty cool.
Ellen is here for a total of three days, her goal is to design a messenger bag with a message. She wants to make a bag that invites and connects with the culture of customization in a unique and fresh way. It is going to be a true collaboration between Timbuk2, Ellen, and you, the consumer. The bags will be designed so that you can riff on them and make them personal to you, which is sweet because that’s basically what we’re all about.
Today she was introduced to the staff, took a tour of the factory downstairs, did some concepting with our designers and took a quick field trip to WhizBang Fabrics for some inspiration. When I talked to her at the end of the day what really resonated with her was how compelling it was to see the factory and meet the sewers who would be making her bag. She said that the construction of the bag needs to be part of the message. She wants to create a connection to the human element. Check back tomorrow to see what shape that message will take.
Ever wonder what happened to Pete, or Pete from The Adventures of Pete and Pete? Apparently he is a messenger in New York, or at least playing one for Nada Surf music videos.
Back on the left coast, here are the current standings for Timbuk2’s bike challenge:
Spandex Jump Suits: 193 points Roid Rage: 168 points The Missing Link: 167 points Team in Training Wheels: 154 points Team Rabid Squirrels: 116 points Perry’s Kids: 17 points
May 23rd – June 1st Timbuk2 will have a pop-up store inside Threadless’s Chicago store.
Timbuk2 and Threadless hooked up and made three sweet bags. The artwork on the bags are also available on a tee shirt. We don’t recommend that you wear them both on the same day.
It was an incredible day for Bike to Work Day—according to the SFBC there were twice as many bicycles as cars headed downtown on San Francisco’s Market Street on the 14th annual Bike to Work Day. Bicyclists made up 64% of the eastbound traffic at Market St. & Van Ness Ave., while motorists comprised 32% between 8am and 9am today. (The remainder was transit vehicles and taxis). This is a nearly 31% increase over the number of people biking last year on Bike to Work Day. The counts were taken by the Municipal Transportation Agency.
It was also an incredible day in San Francisco period. The weather was 85+ degrees which means that being in a body of water was mandatory. So Keri and I opted to crash the downtown Holiday Inn’s swimming pool. Pretty much the best thing ever.
The current standings of Timbuk2’s Team Bike Challenge is:
The Missing Link: 128 points Spandex Jump Suits: 121 points Roid Rage: 119 points Team in Training Wheels: 81 points Team Rabid Squirrels: 78 points Perry’s Kids: 13 points
our man in the factory (Dan) send us this update about our newest custom bag… i thought it might be interesting to share with you, internet.
Cargo Tote Update:
It’s been a couple of weeks since we launched the cargo tote. The 1st few days were difficult since this product was new and the orders were high. But this is to be expected whenever there is a new product launch. Now that we have made 116 units, not including many samples, we are on track to even reduce the time further. During the first few days it was taking us an hour to make each bag, now we are down to an average of 35 minutes. There are other methods we can incorporate to bring down this time by a few more minutes, which we are poised to use in short order. Stay tuned.
it’s interesting to see how much work goes into our bags..especially a new one that we don’t have down to a science yet. making pictures of bags on the computer, however, is pretty easy. so, here are a few artist renditions of the cargo totes our customers have purchased so far:
cnn has an article about our lamitron bags and trash in general. but i think the most important feature of the article is the fact they said what no one else would dare…
The rad people at Timbuk2 hooked me up with an awesome new space (at 16th and Alabama) to make belts and spread the good biking word… so I spent this afternoon packing up all of ZPG’s worldly possessions and then unpacking them much faster on account of all the coffee I downed half an hour before. Speaking of fast action and spreading the good biking word, in celebration of Bike to Work day, Timbuk2 is sending out a ZPG sticker in every bag they sell this month — Wahoo!
New visiting hours will be posted soon…
*And yes, my giant ball of rubber is coming along very nicely, thank you very much.
**And yes, we are putting one of his Zero Per Gallon stickers in every online order for the month of May. Ride on!
We donated 500 bike to work day t-shirts to the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition for Bike to Work Day, that we had to deliver to their office. It seemed wrong to deliver Bike to Work t-shirts to a bike coalition by way of car so Cole and I schlepped all 500 in our bike trailers. If you are interested in doing more errands by bike check out Cetma Racks. Lane makes killer steel racks for the front of bikes that makes hauling a breeze.
For over 3 years I’ve worked alongside all these fixie fiends and somehow I managed to steer clear of being on two wheels myself. It’s not that the bike babble escaped me completely. I get that fixed gears have no brakes and track stands mean you don’t put your feet down at stop lights.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not addicted to a car or anything, in fact I don’t even have a drivers license. Instead my aversion seems to be for all things wheels. Hell, even my preferred public transit runs on cables (Cable Car) or rails (BART).
This year my Bike To Work Team Challenge Captain Ryan managed to wear down all my defenses and has somehow peer pressured me onto a bike. I thought I had some good excuses:
I haven’t been on a bike since I was 16.
I live on an uber hill in North Beach.
I don’t have a bike.
I just had a baby who likes having a mother.
Ryan had an answer for everything, so I gave in, and this morning, I DID IT!
I can’t say I’m converted yet, but I’m not as scared to head home as I was before and maybe I’ll get some sleep tonight knowing that I made it once. Maybe I’ll even loosen my grip some. Maybe.
