Timbuk2 Has the Customization Biz in the Bag

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Time flies when you're making custom messenger bags. Can you believe it's been 25 years since Timbuk2 first began in a garage in SF? Now, the company ships 150 to 500 custom bags per day, typically within three to seven days of an order being placed, Cult of Mac reports. Of the 60,000 bags made in SF last year, only four were exactly the same. And customization can happen quickly; Timbuk2 tells us that UPS picks up orders from the Shotwell Street factory daily at 4pm. If a customer places an expedited order by noon, that bag can be on the truck the same day.

Those numbers sound big, but non-customizable bags —produced in Vietnam, Indonesia, and China— actually make up 70 to 75 percent of the company's business, Cult of Mac reveals. That said, the custom bag business is a major enterprise. CEO Patti Cazzato tells us that Timbuk2 is the second largest urban manufacturer in SF, (the biggest is Anchor Brewing), thanks to the custom bags that come out of the local factory. Custom bags are sold at a 30 percent premium, but they're totally worth it thanks to that lifetime guarantee. So here's to Timbuk2's robust numbers and especially to its 25 years—and counting.
· Timbuk2: 25 years of sewin' bags in San Francisco [Cult of Mac]
· This Travel Kit Will Appease Even the Snobbiest of Coffee Snobs [Racked SF]