Best sellers and such

[Shiva]

Hi Darcy, Katy and others:

I was just curious: do you keep track of what your best selling bags are? and how many of them you have sold?
I was just curious how many Synapses have been sold since it first debuted? or how many Aeronauts a year? or Western Flyer? or the innumerable pouches. I am not sure if this is sensitive information or not, but it would be fun to know.

shiva

[bltkmt]

I would be interested as well!

[maverick]

I am not sure if this is sensitive information or not

i'm not darcy or katy, but if it were me, i don't know if i would necessarily want my competition to know how many bags i am selling. though i'm sure that someone at tom bihn is keeping track of the information you are describing .

if you run a publicly traded company, there are certain pieces of information that you are required to publish - balance sheets, earnings statements, and various other disclosures. if your company is privately held, on the other hand, you have the luxury of keeping information private.

but i think one can deduct that, if a product is selling well, a company will continue to make it. if a product doesn't sell well, you will likely see it get discontinued.

discontinuation of products is not something you see much of in the offerings from tom bihn because of the amount of research and development that goes into the initial design of a bag. tom bihn's bag designs are so well thought out, to the minutest detail, that the initial product introductions are so incredibly successful.

what you do see periodically, is refinements in the design of a product. because of the extensive design efforts that go into the initial introduction, again, these don't come all too frequently. we've seen the water bottle pocket in the western flyer adapt; we have seen revisions in the end pockets of the aeronaut, just as an example.

fortunately, tom bihn continues to make the synapse backpack, the western flyer, the aeronaut, many organizer pouches, and many, many other fine bags!

[bltkmt]

While I agree with all of Maverick's post, I am still not clear as to why TB would care if their competitor's were aware of this information? What would a competitor do with the fact that 10k Synapses have been sold?

[wennefer]

Something that I'd be interested in is an "archive" of Tom Bihn bags. Every so often people mention bags that are no longer in production and I'm curious about what they look like.

[maverick]

Something that I'd be interested in is an "archive" of Tom Bihn bags. Every so often people mention bags that are no longer in production and I'm curious about what they look like.

hi wennefer!

have a lookat the tom bihn museum thread.

[Just]

While I agree with all of Maverick's post, I am still not clear as to why TB would care if their competitor's were aware of this information? What would a competitor do with the fact that 10k Synapses have been sold?

Copy the design using shoddy material and sell it for cheaper, probably.

[KarlJ]

I think "best selling" wouldn't give away too much. I'd guess the best selling bag would be the Brain Bag, or maybe the Cafe Bags.

[backpack]

While I agree with all of Maverick's post, I am still not clear as to why TB would care if their competitor's were aware of this information? What would a competitor do with the fact that 10k Synapses have been sold?

In these day and age of reverse engineering, cut throat competition and
astroturfing, it is a smart idea for a small company to keep their sales stats private.

[Shiva]

Hello all,

I don't think I was looking for anything too "private" to disclose! More along the lines of "our all time best seller has been the Aeronaut with over 10000 sold;" or the Synapse first production of 1000 sold out in 10 days; I don't know--it can be a marketing tool too. But it is also fun.
As for cheap rip offs: that happens all the time regardless of how much TB sells or does not sell. And personally, I think, TB bags would be the hardest to reproduce. There is too much detail, elegance, and thoughtfulness in design.

[bltkmt]

Copy the design using shoddy material and sell it for cheaper, probably.

Presumably they can do that already, right?