2012 Wish List

[backpack]

Well... I was daydreaming and I saw a clear image of the Breve which opened up to have an iPad on one side and a letter size notepad on the other. There was also an ultrasuede flap between them but I just realized that it is not necessary for the iPad 2 because of the protective optional color cover.
Now, they need to make the protective optional color cover in purple!

[conejo23]

As a newbie to the Tom Bihn family, with my first (and so far, only) bag being the Brain Bag, I've become an unabashed fan of this company. Just loving my Brain Bag, but I'd love to see a few changes down the road:

- redesign the interior organizational pockets on the two side pockets. on one side, it's just pens, pens and more pens. on the other, it's one holder that's like two pen loops put together, then the rest is more pens. How many pens does Tom haul around in this thing?

- put o-rings in the two side pockets.

- make the elastic mesh on the water bottle pocket a little more elastic so if that side pocket is full, you can still fit in a reasonably sized water bottle.

- add some very simple organizational compartments on the outer/upper wall of both compartments. in normal usage, the top third of those compartments tends to be a lot of wasted space.

- increase the padding on the back of the bag, and on the shoulder straps. When I tried a horizontal brain cell in the Brain Bag,i couldn't put it in the back compartment, could feel the bottom of it digging into my back through the back padding.

- bring back Indigo! And would love to see a tasteful orange color introduced, something I haven't seen on any of the other products' color palettes.

If they released a bag with most of these features, I'd be selling my current bag on eBay and buying the new one, no doubt. But these are minor quibbles, this is simply a fantastic bag.

[Novan Leon]

I'm eagerly waiting for an official announcement about the new smaller Aeronaut design. I've been waiting for this new design for several years and I'm hopeful that 2012 will be the year.

PS. I'd also love to see the return of Crimson for the Western Flyer and Aeronaut, and possibly a Khaki/Tan/Army Green color scheme for some of the larger travel bags.

[Lani]

Can we say "Lani is OCD"? Yes, we can.

Here is a summary of this thread. I tried to note who specifically posted requests for things, but those do not include any "likes" people clicked on. Please add my vote on any item that has the word "Dyneema" in it! lol

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2012 Wish List Summary

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REVISIONS TO EXISTING MODELS:

Style/feature requests:

• AERONAUT: Internal compression straps (gmanedit)
• BRAIN BAG: redesign interior organizational pockets, put O-rings in side pockets, make elastic mesh on water bottle pocket more elastic, add simple organizational compartments in outer/upper wall of both compartments, increase back padding & on shoulder straps (conejo23)
• BREVE: iPad on one side, letter-size notepad on the other (backpack)
• CAFE BAGS:
  • O-ring on back slip-in pocket (iamsarar, kcarroll55)
  • Replace rings to D-rings so straps are removable (Lani)
• ORGANIZER POUCHES AND WALLETS with O-ring rather than a snaphook (Janine, autolycus)
• SIDE EFFECT: With no waist strap (Janine, darbs)
• "Blinky light loops" on TB bags like the Synapse (Rocks)

Fabric/material-related requests:

DYNEEMA

• 3D Clear Organizer Cube in Dyneema (ceepee)
• 3D Clear Organizer Cube with NO clear panels, all Dyneema (Lani)
• Clear Quarter Packing Cube with NO clear panels, all Dyneema (Lani)
• Side Effect in Dyneema, like PCSB (darbs, Lani)
• Ego in Dyneema (ceepee)
• Field Journal in Dyneema [UV preferred] (TXGirl)
• SYNAPSE: All-Dyneema with no padding, for ultralight packing (Walker)
• "Packable" Cafe Bags in Dyneema (Lani)

BALLISTIC NYLON

• Brain Bag in ballistic nylon with bigger pocket in front (Carolina)
• Ballistic Cafe Bags (capncat)

CORDURA

• 3D Clear Organizer Cube with NO clear panels, all Cordura (backpack, Lani)

CORK

• Add cork to an ID bag (GEOcycle)

MISC

• Travel Tray with clear bottom (Lani)
• Dry-lex mesh on back panel of Smart Alex, like Synapse (keb)

Color:

• Black Little Swift (in ultrasuede or ballistic) (dorayme, gochicken)
• New Dyneema colors (Janine, darbs)
• Azalea, Cork, Wasabi Imago
• Black and Kiwi Ego, with Azalea or UV lining with Azalea, UV, or Snow Leopard strip (WhiteStar)
• Black and Azalea Ego with Azalea Ballistic? (WhiteStar)
• Azalea Aeronaut with Azalea Ballistic (WhiteStar)
• Small Shop Bags in all Dyneema colors
• Anything using black exterior/UV Dyneema interior (gochicken)
• Anything in Plum (gochicken)
• Bring back Sapphire Dyneema (autolycus)
• Light blue Dyneema (autolycus)
• Synapse in steel Dyneema exterior/UV interior (TXGirl, marbenais, Walker)
• Introduce orange color (conejo23)
• Black/Forest/Iberian Ego (dougmon)

Size:

• AERONAUT: Smaller version (rabergnc, moriond, JLE, Rocks, marbenais, Novan Leon)
• BRAIN BAG: Smaller version (Walker)
• CELL PHONE POCKETS: Increase size on models that have one, to hold iPhones in cases [and larger Android phones] (123veo)
• FREUDIAN SLIP: sized for a synapse (raberngnc, gmanedit)
• KEY STRAP: Shorter - 4"? (kcarroll55)
• ORGANIZER POUCH:
  • Sized to hold half-letter and A5 paper (backpack)
  • Taller and longer medium ("made to the Original Large Pouch") (backpack)
  • Sized to hold a Moleskine-type notebook [in blue ultrasude or sapphire Dyneema] (KmK)
  • Medium size, with some depth (Tlacltme)
• PACKING CUBE SHOULDER BAG: Larger -- same width/depth but taller (so bag is more squarish (Lani)
• SYNAPSE:
  • Larger; 20% more capacity (Yonkdaddy, xtal, calel, larryb, Goliath, dmilem, Tlacltme, andymeg)
  • Ballistic nylon version (TXGirl)
• SWIFT:
  • Medium-sized, in between the two current sizes (lagolden)
• TRI-STAR: Slightly larger - "Quad-Star" (verysimple)
• WALLET:
  • Slightly larger to add several credit cards (kcarroll55, dorayme, Janine, gmanedit)
  • Larger, to use with grocery coupons
• WESTERN FLYER:
  • Lighter/simpler -- "Spartan Flyer" w/ same dimensions but only 1 compartment, etc. (toyryla)
  • Smaller -- "Northwestern Flyer"? with smaller dimensions, fewer pockets (Lani)
• ULTRASUEDE SCREEN CLOTH: Smaller, sized to fit in organizer pouch to create own separator (gmanedit)

Brand new products:

• Diaper bag (vamper)
• Double-sided pen case with slots that fit in FJN (backpack, DQBunny)
• Packing Cube to store a suit or sportjacket (Yonkdaddy)
• Packing Cube Messenger/Duffel -- like the backpack but with a horizontal format with D-rings just like PCSB (Lani)
• "Pilot" -- bigger brother of Co-Pilot (autolycus)
• Very simple Dyneema garment bag (autolycus, WhiteStar)
• Knife roll/case in ballistic (Badger, jennygoat)

Website improvements:

• Real-time list of organizer pouches (what colors/fabric combos are available). (Janine, darbs)

Other:

• Return of retired models, perhaps in limited runs (Janine, darbs)
• Bring back Indigo (conejo23)
• More Dyneema colors
• More bags in Ballistic nylon
• Sell whistles and doorstops (backpack)

[Badger]

. . .

. . .

whoa.

[nukediver]

I. Am. Totally. Impressed. WOW. And thanks for the GREAT summary!

[Walker]

Wow! Lani. Thanks.

Add the smaller Brain Bag. This has been discussed on the forum for years. And Tom has been said that he is working on one. Of course, TB time stands on its own . Not a criticism. If anything, I upload Tom for not bowing to pressure to release a product he is not happy, proud and ready to release.

[Lani]

Add the smaller Brain Bag.

Added to the list!

[dougmon]

I have one crazy wish. I'd like an Black/Forest/Iberian Ego. I think the Iberian Dyneema would be an excellent interior, and I don't think I've ever seen it.

[marbenais]

Lani, you're awesome!

[moriond]

Lani, wasn't there a request (from you, and others) for more vertical organizer pouch options? I don't think that's quite included in the above requests -- "taller and longer medium" doesn't quite cover it. Also, I'm not sure it's been discussed in this thread, but related to the organizer pouch suggestions was a request for ones suited to be used in the Field Journal Notebook. The medium is too large; the closest fit right now, as dorayme mentioned in one of her posts, is the Kindle pouch, which is slightly shorter and slimmer (with tapered design) than the medium pouch. Among the padded pouches, one that they briefly tried making for the Magic Trackpad will fit in the FJN. (I have this, and it's smaller than the SuperDrive sized pouch. It also fits the Lenovo ThinkPad ultra-bay HDD adapters for swapping extra hard drives into your laptop quite well.)

Awesome effort. Thanks for the summary.

moriond

[darbs]

After using my Side Effect for months, I've decided I need another one...in another color. So my wish list is for more color options for the Side Effect! Cardinal/Crimson? Linen? Cocoa? Navy? (oh, Navy!) Please?!?!?!? I know it comes in Plum and Black now and I'm considering ordering the plum one, but I just don't know if I would use that color as much. Oh, what if it was in Turquoise? Or Azalea? or Forest/Conifer?

[Kichen$ink]

I wish for a Steel/Cork/Cayenne Imago...pretty please

[Tlacltme]

I wish for the return of the Turquoise/Wasabi LCB...and for the Navy/Iberian love to spread to the Co-pilot and the Western Flyer If any or all of these three appeared, I would snatch them up IMMEDIATELY!

[bbcamp]

This is a late entry, but I would love to see an option for the Aeronaut, Tristar, Western flyer to have [I]both backpack straps anda rolling luggage pass-through/back pocket. I use my Aeronaut as a carry-on bag quite a lot, together with a rolling suitcase. I'm thinking of a Western Flyer now, but can't decide--I want both options!

I would also be very intrigued by a re-design of the exterior pockets on the Tristar/Western Flyer, to make them a little-more usable as a briefcase.

And finally, I have long been arguing for a notepad holder (8 1/2 by 11 and A4, please) with an integrated padded pocket for a MacBook Air/iPad/Netbook. Maybe a slightly bigger FJN? One might also fit in a bluetooth keyboard, instead of the notepad.

I see from the thread a potential for a 'tool roll'--for some, pens and pencils, for others, knives, for another, knitting needles. I realize this suggests different-sized pockets, but Tom has been bending space for a while now, he'll find a way.

Oh, and while I know the idea is anathema to many on the forum, I'd like to see Tom get together with one of those rocket scientist engineers up there in Seattle and design a durable, light-weight folding luggage trolly (to fit the Aeronaut?). Some of us are getting on in years, and even with a scanner I rarely travel without 20 pounds of paper....


And one more thing: I want a complete, out of the blue, "I never saw it coming and I have to have one now!" surprise from Tom. don't you?

bb