Update on the personal life.
The past year, two years, I don’t know. Either way, it’s been insane. The world has been upside down. Through all the craziness, I have worked and worked. My day job has been taxing. Next week I am starting a new job. I’ll still be machining, but the new gig will have normal human hours. Plus it’s a way more positive and creative environment. The hope is that I can actually manage my time in a way that allows me to work, be a good husband, be a good dad and make bags for YellowBird. The YB custom order list is finally looking manageable. Once I’m through that, I can actually start making produce for inventory. Then, I’ll start taking custom orders again. There’s a lot on my plate and my mental and physical health have taken a hit. So, heres to the next step. A step in a positive direction. I love you all and I am infinitely grateful for the support and patients.
Collaboration : TRUE CYCLES
Since pretty early on, I have had a number of bike shops reach out to me asking if they can stock and sell YELLOW BIRD products. Every time I politely decline and explain that my margins are small and my production can be pretty slow. When Karl at TRUE CYCLERY in New Haven, CT reached out, I said yes. What makes Karl and TRUE CYCLERY different? Everything. Karl has thrown out the playbook for traditional bicycle retail. And thank goodness for that. Instead, he has built a business model around the idea of one on one relationships between his shop, his customers and many of the people who actually make the products he sells. He started the shop that I have dreamed about for so long. We decided that the best place to start would be a seat bag. Every nice bike should be sold with a seat bag and the basic tools to fix or adjust small things mid ride. One more sign that TRUE CYCLERY is a shop that cares about the full experience. Karl is a fan of the tool roll style of seat bag. I had made a few in the past, but nothing that I liked. So, we kicked some ideas back and forth and got the ball rolling on the TRUE TOOL ROLL. Like anything good, it’s been a process. I have made so many prototypes and I keep saying “This is it!”. Then a few rides later, I find something to improve. After so many versions, I have landed on a version that I feel lives up to the quality and function that I strive for and that TRUE CYCLERY customer would expect. Keep an eye out for the TRUE TOOL ROLL at TRUE CYCLRY soon!
A mountain of custom orders.
Here’s a quick update on the life and times of YELLOW BIRD THREAD WORKS. Spring is here and summer feels right around the corner. Just like myself, you all seem to be pumped to go get some adventure time on your bikes. I have been shocked by how many of you all seem to want custom bags. It’s amazing and crazy stressful. YELLOW BIRD is not my main job, so I don’t hit the sewing dungeon until after I get my son to bed. I have been sewing until at least midnight almost every night for the past few months and I feel like I’m just chipping away at this custom order list. It’s crazy. I’m not looking for sympathy or anything like that, I just want to be transparent about how I work and what’s real. I do my best to manage and communicate expectations with anyone who asks about custom work. I feel like it’s been mostly successful. At this time, I think I need to put a pause on taking custom orders in. At least until I can get my list a little shorter. If you have something on the list already, you are good and I’m working as fast as I can. And again, thank you so much to everyone who has supported and encouraged me.
-Brian / YellowBirdThreadWorks
What a fuckin’ year.
Just spitting out some thoughts as we are wrapping up 2020. This marks the first full year for Yellow Bird Thread Works. It’s been one strange year. For so many reasons. Pandemic, politics, work, work, work, family and making some bags. It’s been chaos. And somehow, skipping sleep to make bags for friends new and old managed to add a sense of calm and connection to my world. I know 2021 isn’t going to make our problems go away, but I’m still going to take it as an opportunity to try to reset some of my thinking and to set some bigger goals for myself and Yellow Bird. Thanks again to everyone who is along for the ride.
Guided Growth
Yellow Bird Thread Works has been growing (Huge thank you to everyone who has supported and believed in this venture). As I look at what I am doing and I look at how other similar businesses are doing, I have to take a moment to reflect on my direction and my philosophies. After all, the point of doing this is to do it the way I want. I had myself thinking that I needed to be making higher volume of really consistent products. It was starting to stress me out. Each time I made a change in the design of a product, I felt like it was somehow an injustice to the things I had made previously because they were no longer consistent. They weren’t uniform. I was really beating myself up over these little things. Meanwhile, the thing that was really lifting me up and keeping me motivated was the fairly consistent stream of custom bags. I love making something unique for my customers. Those one on one projects got me thinking about why I started this in the first place. I don’t want to be a high volume factory. They exist and they fill a certain market. I am an artist and a creator. My designs will keep changing and evolving. I’ll never be compromising quality for quantity. I’m going to work at the pace I work at. I will continue to embrace growth and evolution in my designs and techniques. I hope these values come through to the people who care. I’m not sure if anyone actually reads these or not, but it’s good for me to get it out. -Brian
The Convertible
Just finished a small run of The Convertible fanny pack / handlebar bags. There are three for sale. All are Black exterior. One is Red inside. One is Teal inside and the last one is Yellow inside. In the past I have tried a few different ways to make a bag that was good on the hip and good on the bar. I always felt like one was better than the other. Enter The Convertible! It’s super comfortable and stable when on your waist. Then in just a few seconds, it easily stows away it’s straps to become a sleek and dependable bar bag. I put a lot of thought and love into these and I am sure you will feel it!
Fanny packs are hip. Or hip packs are fanny?
Anywho, I’m refining the design on my fanny packs. I have a few new ideas I’m flushing out and they have me pretty excited. This is my favorite part of the process. Taking an idea and reworking it. It’s pretty much the same process and mental tools I use for all of my work. I’m also pretty excited since this small run will be the first things to actually have my logo on them. That seems to make everything a little more legit. Keep checking in as I have a few other cool things in the works!