Tom Bihn

What products are listed for this advertiser?

Made in the USA Backpacks / Back Packs, American Made Bags, American Made Briefcases, American Made Lap Top / Laptop Bags, American Made Messenger Bags, Made in America Packing Cube Backpack, and Made in the USA Travel Bags.

When 10-year-old Tom Bihn asked his parents for money to buy the equipment he wanted for his nascent outdoor adventures, they suggested two options: get an after-school job and earn the money, or just figure out how to make it yourself. Up for the challenge, Tom chose the second option. His grandmother had an old Singer home sewing machine which his brother Dan helped get running, Tom's mom taught him how to sew and his dad provided the foundations of the necessary engineering.

More than 40 years later, Tom's still at it ? designing and making the best backpacks, briefcases, and travel bags.
WHAT WE MAKE (OR WHAT MAKES A TOM BIHN BAG A TOM BIHN BAG)

DESIGN:

With his 30+ years of design experience, Tom Bihn designs all TOM BIHN bags.

The design process is always evolving and varies from one bag to the next. The constant operating principal behind the process is this: I don't want to make something that is already out there. It has to be unique ? work better, look better, last longer, fill a niche that no one else has filled. I keep in mind that, because our products last (almost) forever, I have a responsibility to make them be very useful and as handsome as possible as well: I personally don't like being around things that are not pleasing to the hand and eye, especially on a semipermanent basis. I feel in a small way like an architect.
?Tom Bihn

MATERIALS:

U.S. made, 1050 denier, high tenacity ballistic nylon fabric. YKK AquaGuard? water-repellent zippers. Superstrong Japanese Dyneema?/nylon ripstop fabric. 500 and 1000 denier U.S. Cordura? nylon. Duraflex? and Nexus buckles. Double-plated, U.S. made metal snaphooks. When we can't find what we want, we design it and have it made ? like our 250-lb-tested, acetal shoulder strap attachment rings, made for us in Georgia (U.S.A.).

We don't settle for less than the best: if there's a better fabric, a better zipper, a better anything out there, we'll find it. Of course the best materials don't guarantee a great bag: we've been making bags for quite a while, all along paying close attention to which materials work in specific applications and which may look good today but are likely to fail down the road (or trail).

CONSTRUCTION:

There's no finer team than our Seattle factory crew. Many of our seamstresses have been sewing backpacks and bags for over 30 years ? in fact, we have over 300 collective years of sewing experience in our factory. Tom works closely with the crew on refining the construction of his bags, relying on the crew to alert him to any details of the design or patterning that make cutting or sewing needlessly difficult or inefficient. Tom, Fong, Lisa, and the rest of the crew work as a team, tweaking new designs and refining current designs, adding new machines, binders, tools, cutting saws, and other laborsaving technology to further streamline (and at the same time humanize) our manufacturing process.

Much of the minutiae involved in creating our ?ber-durable bags is so deeply ingrained in us that we often forget to mention it: we finish 100% of the inside seams of our bags, we reinforce critical areas, like where a handle or strap joins the rest of the bag, with multiple bar tacks, all nylon webbing is hot knifed (heat fused) so it won't fray, and though you'll never see it, many crucial panels are overlock stitched prior to being included in the final construction. All to ensure your bag won't give up, ever!

A VARIETY OF CHOICES, LOTS OF OPTIONS

We're a small company that behaves like we're a big company: we offer a rather large number of color options in many of our bags. And most of those colors are our own proprietary colors ? colors you won't find anywhere else. Plus, you can customize your TOM BIHN bag purchase by choosing which shoulder strap works best for you, which size insert best fits your laptop, which combination of packing cubes will best suit your travel style. Finally, add zippered pouches and color-coded key straps to organize the interior of your TB bag.


The following is a reply from Tom Bihn to our question – "Are your products American Made?"

How do you know the products you have listed are Made in the USA?
Before including products in our database we review the advertiser’s website and/or contact them to ascertain the origin of their products. Some advertisers sell both Made in USA products and foreign ones. Therefore we highly recommend you review FAQ 2.

We immediately investigate any complaints regarding deceptive Country of Origin claims. If we determine an advertiser's claim is not truthful we will immediately remove the product/s from our database and suspend our relationship with the Company making the claim.

To document your complaint, email us by using our Contact Us page. We can only respond to complaints that have been submitted in writing.

What does Made in USA mean?
There is no law requiring most products to be labeled Made In USA, or have any other disclosure about the amount of U.S. content. However, for job creation purposes (see our Big Secret tab), if you have a choice between an imported product and one with no country of origin on its label, choose the product without a country of origin over the imported one. This is true because the product without the country origin on its label has at least some American labor in its content and the imported one most likely does not.

Note: Imported products are required by law to country of origin on their label and products partially Made In USA do not. To answer this question completely reviewing our Labeling Tips 1, 2 & 3. These tips are accessible from scrolling to the bottom of our home page clicking Browse All Tips button.