Limited Edition Tactical Pouches!

So how much do you guys know about the fabric I use for the base of my messenger bags? Probably less than you're about to!

Whoop Whoop! Sold out of messenger bags! (For now)

That's right folks. The great folks at Transit Bicycle Company have cleaned us out!

Good for you, they aren't hoarders, and will be more than happy to sell one to you, so you still have a chance at getting some amazing color combos. Check out their site of give em a call! Fran Their owner told me they are willing to take and ship out of town orders, so get on it before them Dallas folk swoop them first!

Transit Bicycle Co.
3839 McKinney Ave
Dallas, TX 75204
(214) 219-2453

Check inside the post to see what they got!

Better Late than never!

So back when I actually had my shit together for this, I would get some pretty amazing customer e-mails from time to time. I always meant to share, but could never find the time. Here's some cool stuff sent in!

Matthieu from Germany wrote "Munich was having free beers because the Soccer Team won the championship. And you were there!"

Awesome!

Large Hip Pouches

Medium Hip Pouches

Mini Hip Pouches

Cell Pouches

Belts!

Been a while...

Hey everyone, it's been quite some time. I hope all of you are well, and enjoying the holiday season. It's been quite a year, and I figured I would fill everyone in.

For starters, the jig is up. I am 1 person, rather than a staff of a few people. Since the beginning of this company back in 08, everything that has been produced/designed has been done so by me. From all of the individual orders, to my wholesale accounts. I have been making these bags with every ounce of me, from a shop set up in my living room, when I was back in LA, and now in a basement since I have relocated to Baltimore.

Since  day 1 I have referred to the work I have done on the day to day, in a plural sense. I did this for a few reasons. The first being that I have had a lot of help from some amazing people over the years. Mainly cutting fabric, but toward the end of my run in LA, I was seeing enough orders to hire on a seamstress, to come  over a few times a week to help me keep up with production. The second reason being I always hoped for my company to eventually grow into a "we" or an "us". My original goal, was to build up enough business to be able to employ some people to start, and eventually transition my company into a Co-op, with equal ownership, amongst the team of people I dreamed would some day help me. As much as I loved the idea of being my own boss, I hated the idea of having to be someone else's. I was never in this to make a bunch of money, just enough to live off doing what I loved. The Third and final reason was to instill confidence in my customers, that they were dealing with someone serious about what they did. I had a goal to produce products that matched the quality and durability of some of the bigger companies out there, while still being 100% hand made, in-house. I feared that sales would not be as good as they could be if everyone knew that the bags they were buying were coming from one person working out of a living room/basement. 

Since the start of this company, I worked an average of 90+ hrs a week on making these products. I loved every minute of it, but needless to say it was exhausting. Between keeping up with 19 wholesale dealers around the globe, countless individual orders through the site, and sponsoring 5-10 events per month. The move cross-country, while trying to set back up, and re-aquatint myself with a town i hadn't interacted with in over 3yrs also took quite the toll. Between ending an almor 5yr personal relationship, re-locating cross country, and trying to dig myself out of a financial hole that the move had left me in, I found myself a bit overwhelmed, and I tried desperately to hold on.

Everything came to a bit of a head in February of this year. I was scammed out of  $2400 (half in bags, half in money) over an international shipping loophole via PayPal, and some greedy and heartless people. At the same time, my e-mail was hacked and I lost any/all access to it, and my contact with clients. This pretty much crippled me, financially and emotionally, and I decided to throw in the towel for a while. People put in orders for items they never received, and ultimately had to file claims with paypal to get their money back. This was money, and orders I never even knew existed to begin with, and if you got caught in the middle of this situation, I honestly can't apologize enough. I am still without my paypal account  due to a negative balance that I am frantically trying to work off, while keeping a roof over my head.

Since taking my hiatus, I have been working odd-jobs to pay the bills from cooking to construction. It has been far less stressful working for someone else for 40hrs a week, and not having the world resting on my shoulders. Still it has left me with the empty feeling, after walking away from one of the first and only things I have found in my life that I truly loved to do.

With that said, I have recently started making bags again in my spare time. Essentially I have been running through my left over fabric making batches of bags/pouches, and coming up with some great and out of the ordinary color combos. For me to produce these in my own time, rather than trying to keep my hair, while keeping up with a stack of pending orders, I have found that the experience of making these bags is far less stressful, and something I enjoy and makes me happy once again.

I will be posting photos of what I have available in the coming days. Currently I am almost completely out of fabric, and I can't say definitively that I will have anything more/new up on the blog before summer. For now I am keeping my bag-making as more of a part-time endevour, and starting over essentially from scratch.

If you are interested in anything you see, please contact me via info@transientbags.com to work out an order. Needless to say my turn around times will be far quicker, since the bags are already done, and ready to ship. Feel free to get in touch with all/any comments or questions. 

Thanks so much to all the customers, that supported me over the years, and to those that dealt with me and my company over the final 3 months of it's existence  before shutting down, I honestly can't apologize enough.

Alex

For the Hell of it Sale 15%OFF!!!

Spring is around the corner (I HOPE, cause this snow is killing us!), and the holidays are FINALLY over! To treat everyone that made it through the stress-fest that is the holiday season, we have decided to have a sale through February.

Gear up now for the new year and get a killer discount!

Enter SNOWJOB2011 during your checkout, to receive 15% off your order with us.

That is all, stay awesome.

We're Back! New Location, New Site, New Colors!

Hey Everyone! After LONG wait, we are back up and ready to go! We are now Baltimore-Based, and have finished setting up our new and improved workshop. Our color selection of Messenger bags has been expanded, including some killer combo's!
We have also added a new location to our list of dealers. Say hello to Cranky's Bikes!
Former part-owner of Orange20 Bikes, Jim C has moved to Santa Barbara and opened a killer new shop! Be sure to stop in and check them out if you're in the area.
Cranky's Bikes
1014 State St
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
(805) 963-7433

Miss Us?

Hey Everyone. Obviously the 8th has come and gone, and we apologize for the inconvenience. Moving cross country has proved to be a bite more time consuming than we had anticipated. But have no fear! We will be back up and running come first thing Monday (08/01) with a new and improved site, as well as an expanded color selection of Messenger bags.

We have finished setting up our new and improved (and much larger!) workspace. So get ready people, cause here we come!

Closed Temporarily!

Hey Everyone,

We're going to be closing down shop for the next month, to pack up and move cross-country! When we re-launch expect some nice little surprises from us!

In the meantime, we will be packing, driving 2800/mi in 3 days (FUN!), and setting up a new & improved workshop!

***If you have placed an order on, or before today (6/8), you can expect it to ship by 6/15 AT THE LATEST. You will be notified by us via PayPal with tracking info. Please feel free to contact us with all/any questions regarding your order with us.

Send all questions to transientbags@gmail.com***

Moving Sale- 10%OFF!!

Hey Everyone! As some of you May already know, we are moving
to Baltimore at the end of June! We are having a Moving Sale, to
cut down on packing, truck weight, gas, etc. Order your gear for
summer now, and receive 10% off your total Order!


We will be pausing orders for a month starting June8th.
All store orders received prior to close, will be shipped
by June 15th.


Come June 28th we will be loaded up, and driving cross country!
We will arrive in Baltimore July 1st, and begin building our new
workshop. Come July 8th, we will be back open and ready for
business. Keep your ear to the ground, because we have some
really great surprises/projects, lined up for when we get out there.

More updates to follow!

Fun Projects We're involved in the month!

So, we've got a bunch of fun stuff in the works over the next few weeks. Here's a brief look at some of the projects we are currently involved in.

Our new messenger bags are now available to our wholesale dealers. If you live near one of our dealers, go check them out. And if they don't have them yet, tell them to get at us!

We have completed our first ever "COLLAB"! Our friend Cache' has being doing some amazing work around LA for the past couple of years. He decided to honor us, by painting one of our bags and hanging it at his current gallery show!

His work is featured through murals all over Los Angeles, he is a Mechanic over at Orange20 Bikes in East Hollywood. After you check out his stuff, you will notice how much he loves chickens, they are an ongoing theme throughout his work.

Caches' work will be hanging at the Crewest Gallery throughout the month of April. Once he is done with the bag, we (us&Cache') will be donating the bag to a benefit race in Philly!

I lived in Philly years ago,and that town still holds a special place in my heart. So when my favorite radical bookstore in Philly contacted us about kicking down prizes for an event, my heart skipped a beat.

The Wooden Shoe has been going strong, for over 30 years now. It is a radical bookstore helping to spread literature of all kinds, that would not be readily available to wider audiences other wise. They also facilitate local artist with space for intimate musical performances, sociopolitical talks & lectures, and so on.

They are a non-profit, and this event will be directly contributing to helping them out. If you live in Philly, give up your beer $ for one
night, and go race! You might win a one of a kind bag from us, as well some some other goodies, that we are sending their way!

Click to see if there are any radical book stores near you!

What a Month!

Hey Everyone! Things have been hectic (as usual) over the past month with the recent launch of our messenger bags! It seems like you guys are loving them!

Thank you so much to everyone that ordered from us last month. Not only did you get some great new gear but, 10% your order was donated to the HaitiAction.net

The earthquake hit Haiti, almost 3 months ago, and they still have a very long way to go. They really need our help, and we really need to make sure that the help we are trying to give, is getting to where it needs to be. Please make sure whatever charity you choose, get's your money to the people that need it most. The Red Cross can be helpful at times, but unfortunately a surplus of the money we donate to them, goes into trust interest funds, or directly to our Military for "helping".

Haitian Refugees Jailed For Not Having Visas

At the end of the day a small few, benefit from large sums of money that could prove beneficial to many more. People need food and shelter right now, not jails.

Please try your best to make sure that the money you donate for Haiti, is going to Haiti.

To everyone that ordered with us in the Month of March.

Not only did you guys get some great new gear, but you helped to make a difference in the lives of some people in that really needed (and still need), our help. Thank you.

Alex Sotiriou

Owner & Founder
Transient Bag Co.

After countless hours of design, material and hardware hunting, and testing, our messenger bags are finally here! Our bags will be launching in 4 colors to start off (Black, Chocolate, Royal Blue & Scarlet Red). We will be adding to our color stock for the messenger bags as time goes by.

I'm going to skip over the boring logistics and get right to it. Around November we had pretty much wrapped, on a solid prototype for a messenger bag. Why not release them way back then, and keep you from the 3 month wait, you ask? Because making a pretty bag and saying “it looks like it's tough” just aint' good enough. We put this bag through the ringer before making it available to you. With a little help of course.

Thankfully for us (and you) the messengers were ready for us! We kicked down 2 of our large bags to local couriers here in LA, for some product research & development. We were relying on the couriers out here to provide us with feedback concerning comfortability, and functionality.

As far as weather goes, 20days of rain a year, and an average temp. of 65, wasn't exactly going to be enough for us to put these bags to the test that mother nature can put the rest of the country though.. Don't get me wrong, I like LA, but 65 Degrees and sun in the middle of January just, isn't winter.

Enter NYC: Have you been watching the news or paying attention to weather reports, over the past few months? The North-Eastern to Mid-Atlantic seaboard has been getting it's ass kicked by old man winter this year. Sleet, Snow, Ice, rain, and sub-zero temperatures.

Sounds Perfect! 2 more bags off to NYC!

These 4 brave souls, beat the hell out of these bags for 6 weeks, and came back at us with some feedback. Overall, they all seemed to love the bags, but had a few few suggestions. Here's a peek into what they were looking for.

• Deeper Pen/Tool Pockets (check!)
• Add a stash pocket (well, if you say so!)
• Longer webbing straps on flap for larger Items (done, and done)
• Add a little more Volume to the outer Pockets (and, DONE!)

Not bad overall, we'd say. At the end of the day, we were more than happy to be hearing critiques on minor stuff like pockets size and strap length, over hearing that they just plain hated it. We provided them with a short questionnaire going over the bag all together, as well as an itemized list of all it's attributes for them to note. Here's a few direct quotes taken from what they had to say.

• "I have Scoliosis, reversed lordosis, & 3 herniated discs, so bag comfort is an issue. But this really works for me, hours + hours, all day every day."

• "I really appreciate the reflectors, and ease with which I have for the bigger outer Pockets"

• "It was very snug, and I was surprised at how much could fit"

• "The bag does not sway, and wraps nicely around the torso"

• "It's a great bag,good for all types of riders"

• "I put hard drives, laptops, film, prints, all in there in a downpour. Totally Dry"

• "I LOVE the strap, very easy to use"

• "Hardware is Solid, nothing slips, even with boxes in it"

• "Really held up well, to NYC winter. The strap is really comfy, the buckle is quick and easy, and pocket in all the right places"

• "If you really want the real deal, 100% reliable Messenger Bag, this is the one. It will fit all your laundry, or a whole bankers box. I even fit 5 gallons of paint!"

Well, I guess it would be safe to say that they liked it! These guys live on their bikes. Getting in and out of their bags countless times, over the course of a single day, and beating the Christ out of them in the process. We designed these bags with the couriers in mind, because if it's good enough for them, odds are it will be good enough for you!

Here's hoping, only time will tell,now that they're out in the public arena. We have a feeling that you'll be happy that you waited for us.

Lastly, I want to give a quick shout and thanks to everyone involved in making this happen.

-Derek
-Orlando
-Joey Krillz (Check out his Blog!)
-Bill
-Erin
-Ace from The Sleepers
-Kyle from Tracko
-John Prolly

Without you guys this wouldn't have been possible. From testing the bags, to modeling for the site, to supporting us on the web and helping to spread the word. We appreciate it, good looking out!

With that said, it's 6am, and I am going to bed. Dreaming of tomorrow, when all we'll have to do now, is make and ship these suckers! I might have missed something due to sleep-deprivation, but I'm sure I'll remember in the morning, and bless you all with another update. Talk soon folks!

-Alex

02.23.10 Closed Temporarily

Hey Everyone,

As I am sure you have already noticed, our web store is going to be closed down for a little while, in preparation for the launch of our new line of Messenger Bags (03.08.10)! If you have placed an order with us on/or before today (2.23) it will be completed and shipped by Friday (2.27) at the latest!

We are very sorry for the inconvenience that this may be causing some of you, but please try and keep in mind, it's for the greater good! We are a very small company consiting of an extensive line of hand made products, produced in-house. Every time we release a new product, the process of making it available to you, can be very time consuming, and make other tasks quite difficult, to keep up with. With that said, sit tight, because we'll be back on March 8th, just in time for our release! Did we mention that we will be offering free S&H on all domestic messenger bag orders placed throughout the Month of March?

If this all sounds new to you, scroll down and check out our previous Blog posts, so that you can catch yourself up! We uploaded some more photo's to our Flickr, so head on over to check em' out, and tell us what you think! http://www.flickr.com/photos/transientbags/




























See you soon!

-Alex Sotiriou
Owner & Founder
Transient Bag Co.

2 Weeks to go!

Hey Guys, here's yet another update! I'm really trying my hardest to keep everyone in the loop as much as possible. We have a little over 2 weeks to go until our launch date (March 8th!!) and needless to say, we have been scrambling to get a million things done in preparation.

To Kick things off we will be offering 5 colors (Black, Olive, Brown, Red & Blue) in 3 sizes. All colors and sizes will come standard with a Black Ballistic nylon base, and a strip of reflective taps running along the base edge. As always, the bags are hand made to order in-house. In the coming months we will be beefing up our color options (Fabric/Liner/Base/Trim & Velcro) and adding them to the site, so be sure to stay tuned!

I'm sure that some of you noticed, Kyle over at Tracko did yet another brief spread on us this morning. I dropped by Orange20 Bikes the other day, so he could check out our up-coming Small & Medium bags. He ended up taking some awesome photos, that I figured I would share with all of you. They help put the bags to scale, and will hopefully give you guys a better idea of what to expect from us. Modeling the Small and Medium is Ace, and modeling the Large is myself. Keep in mind, he is 5'6" and I am 6'2" so the comparison isn't as exact, as our future scale shot's will be. I have also typed up the measurements for everything, and have released the pricing on all bags.

That's about it for this round of updates, now we get to go make 20 bags from scratch, photograph them, and get them on the site, so that we can finally get them to you!!

Enough Chit-Chat, on to the bags!

SMALL MESSENGER//

The Outer portion of the Small (under the flap) is sectioned off into 7 separate storage areas. 4 Open Pockets, 1 Stash pocket and 2 Pen & Tool Holders. Inside the main compartment, there is 1 additional velcro enclosed pocket spanning the entire inner wall of the bag. As far as the size of the inner pocket goes, it can fit a 15" MacBook (while the velcro won't close it hold's snug, and comes flush to the top of the pocket. It's the perfect size for holding a spare notebook of two, while keeping those pesky book corners, from digging into your back while riding.

Constructed using 1000D Cordura, 1680D Ballistic Nylon Base, and 18oz Plastic Coated Poly-Liner (truck tarp).

Length: 22"
Height: 12"
Base: 5"
Cu/In: 1320
MSRP: $125

MEDIUM MESSENGER//

The Outer portion of the Medium (under the flap) is sectioned off into 7 separate storage areas. 4 Open Pockets, 1 Stash pocket and 2 Pen & Tool Holders. Inside the main compartment, there is 1 additional velcro enclosed pocket spanning the entire inner wall of the bag, which can easily fit a 15" laptop with a little room to spare.

Constructed using 1000D Cordura, 1680D Ballistic Nylon Base, and 18oz Plastic Coated Poly-Liner (truck tarp).

Length: 24"
Height: 14"
Base: 7"
Cu/In: 2352
MSRP: $145

LARGE MESSENGER//

The outer portion of the bag (under the flap) is sectioned off into 11 separate storage areas. 4 Open Pockets, 2 Velcro Pockets, 1 Stash Pocket, and 4 Pen & Tool Holders. Inside the main compartment, there is 1 additional velcro enclosed pocket spanning the entire inner wall of the bag, which can easily fit a 17" laptop. While having an exceptional amount of pockets, we have also designed them to stay out of your way when not in use. The large also features compression straps across the base helping to shrink the bag down, when empty (not to mention that it will also cinch down and hold shipping tubes), keeping it nice and comfy, either empty or full.

Constructed using 1000D Cordura, 1680D Balistic Nylon Base, and 18oz Plastic Coated Poly-Liner (truck tarp).

Length: 26"
Height: 16"
Base: 9"
Cu/In: 3744
MSRP: $170

Talk to all of you soon, feel free to drop us a line if you have any questions. Take care!

Alex Sotiriou
Owner & Founder
Transient Bag Co.

transientbags@gmail.com

Release Day Around the Corner!

Hey Everyone,

Just wanted to give all of you an update on our upcoming release. We've been crazy-busy trying to juggle a million things at once, in preparation, so please excuse us for leaving you all in the dark. We have been getting flooded with questions and feedback regarding the photo's of our new bags that have been floating around the web. At the moment, we are reaching the final stage of our product research. Our 4, courier "bag-beaters", are reaching the finishing point of their 6-week trial period. We are happy to say (going off what they have been telling us) the bags are holding up great!

We are also happy to announce that we have finally landed on a release date. March 8th we will be having a retail release through our site, where the bags will be available to the public. Shortly after they will be available to our wholesale dealers.


































To kick things off, we will be releasing our first model of courier bag in 3 sizes (Small, Medium Large) falling into a retail price range of $130-$170 (with a 20% discount to you working couriers out there). Full Product specs will coincide with the launch, but let us just say that we are quite happy the end result of these bags.

On a related side-note, I will be attending the after party for this weekends UNHOLY SHEEP SHIT race. Not only are we kicking down some custom hip pouches and accessories, I will also be bringing one of our new bags in each size, for everyone to check out in person. I will also be playing Black Metal DJ for the day.

For those of you in the LA area, you should really try and make it out for this, it really looks like it's going to be a blast. And for those of you that are up for hanging out, and not racing, that's ok too! Come to the Polo Courts in North Hollywood, for the after party, and some Black Metal Polo!

Well, I Guess The Cat's out of the Bag!

Teaser
Originally uploaded by Transient Bag Co.

A few days ago Kyle over at Tracko leaked a few photos that Ace took (check out The Sleepers blog) while I was over at Orange20 a few weeks ago. So I figured I would try and clue everyone in, as to what is going on with us.

As you can see we have been quite busy this Winter, working straight through the holidays to finish up our Messenger Bag prototypes. Well after months of notes, measurements, and designs we have finished! At the moment we have a few select Couriers from LA and NYC beating on our bags, for some product research & development. At the end of a 6-week test period, we will be gathering more notes, as well as some photos. With the feedback we receive from our testers, we will be making some final tweaks, and releasing them to you!

More detailed photo's, as well as a release date will be coming very soon. Just remember, Good things, come to those who wait!

Stay tuned for updates here, as well as over at TRACKO, and PROLLY IS NOT PROBABLY
-Alex

I guess today is just the day for updates...

So asides from announcing new locations and such, we have been totaly slacking as far as general updates. With that said, as well as our apologies, we have been having quite a crazy summer! Thing have been incredibly busy as of lately, (just the way we like it) and we have been getting a slew of orders. Not only are we being incredibly well recieved all over the US, we have also been taking on quite a bit of international orders as of lately! With a new dealer in France, as well as a new upcomming tealer in Japan (shhh, we'll give you details once the order ships) our client base continues to grow and grow, and our customers couldn't be more happy with our products. It's been a slow and steady road, but we are deffinitley getting there. Trying to run a company with the goal of giving our customers quality hand made products produced in-house, is tough, especially when you try to get it off the ground from scratch. Over the past year we have managed to introduce some great new products, expand our home-base, and are becomming a recognized name all over the world. We have achieved all of this while still maintaining some of the most affordable prices on the market, and producing products with structural and aestetic quality that will go toe-to-toe with some of the bigger names out there. Check out our review from Katy over at Fixed Gear Gallery! So needless to say, we are getting there!

Enough rambling, check out this awesome looking race we are sponsoring in Charleston SC, if you live in the area you should go!

New Dealer in San Jose!

Mark over at iMiNUSD Track Boutique up in San Jose placed an order with us a few weeks ago. They recieved their order yesterday and are good to go! The loaded up on an assortment of colors and sizes, so go grab some gear while it lasts. Thanks guys!




iMiNUSD Track Boutique
112 Paseo de San Antonio
San Jose, CA 95112
408 287 2310

http://www.iminusd.com

Vive la France!!!

We are happy to let everyone know, our products are now available in France via, Cyclope They placed quite a decent sized order including a good sized selection of our products in an assortment of colors. We shipped their order last week, so it should either be there, or be getting quite close. If you are in the area, you should swing by and check them out, their shop looks slick, thanks Barth!





Cyclope
100 Rue de la Folie Mericourt
75011 Paris
France
06 72 86 23 99

Hey B-More!

We are very happy to announce a new location to our list of dealers. Lindsay over at Baltimore Bicycle Works put in an order with us and will be carrying out products! I was lucky enough to go in and check this shop out first hand, andf I have to say, they have quite the set up in there. If you have not been you should go down and check it out, everyone in there is very friendly and helpful. Not to mention that they are the only worker owned and operated Bike shop in the area!




1813 Falls Rd
Baltimore, MD 21201
410.605.0705