We’ve got a lot of buzzing energy with our newest production – Self Reflection – especially with the first bags making their way into the hands of our pre-order customers. Thank you to everyone who pre-ordered one of these bags! First followers rock! I posted on Instagram some quick shots of Eli putting her signature onto some of the pre-order backpacks. Preorders have ended — that said I do have one more Heron bag that is hand-signed by Eli. If you would like to order it, you can use the promo code “i_read_closely” and you’ll get the pre-order price. If you choose any bag other than the Blue Heron bag, it won’t be hand-signed by Eli, but you’ll still get the 20% discount price 🙂 If you try to use that code and it doesn’t work, it means that another blog reader has beat you to it.
In more ways than one the fun is only just beginning. We have an exciting photography opportunity on Aug 11, which is perfect timing for Self Reflection to take center stage as we head into the last half of the year. With bags in hand, we’ll start updating all of our photography and product shots and I can’t wait to start promoting Self Reflection more heavily. For many of our longtime blog followers — long time coming, right!? 🙂 These things take time. We’re learning. Buckles are polished, packaging is ready… time for Self Reflection to take center stage.
And what’s happening at the edges? In the wings? Where the drama lives.
“The real drama of life is never center stage. It’s always in the wings.”
— Fred Rogers (yes, that’s Mr. Rogers)
We’ve been pushing hard for the last few months on a special round of new bags; a test round of some new thoughts, ideas, and concepts. Rusty and I have been referring to this experimental round of sample bags as, The Custom 20. All this waiting, and now there’s more. While the polish of Self Reflection is ready for the spotlight, we are also thrashing with new scintillating drama off to the side, in the wings. The Custom 20 is an effort by Rusty and me, to experiment; new artwork, some tweaks to bag design, Photoshop, Illustrator, painstaking debates over pixels and measurements, late night discussions, lots of late nights… and I have shied away from updating this blog and social media with insights into that work. My running list of teachers, inspirations, and muses all encourage me directly to stop worrying too much about social media and to focus instead on Doing the Work. (Advice that is a comfort to receive.) With so much happening all at one time, the summertime has forced me to make some important choices and decisions about how I spend my time. And doing the work has eaten up every spare scrappy minute I could possibly snatch up or dig to find on my calendar. I can’t wait to blow some dust off our blog during the next few months so we can start sharing more about the work – all of it. Stay patient. It’s coming soon.
And in the meantime: get ready to enjoy a center stage rollout for Self Reflection. I can’t wait for our Aug 11 photoshoot, because these bags are stop-you-in-your-tracks gorgeous. And when you’re done pausing for their beauty — they also make great companions for taking steps on the journey that Badass Backpacks cares about most: the journey to better understand who we are, and who we are becoming.
