Just launched: Sling Pack messenger/sling hybrid
over 5 years ago – Thu, Oct 15, 2020 at 10:52:28 PM

When I launched the Slim Pack, you believed in me enough to order a bag even though I had only designed wallets before. Thank you!

It was definitely challenging to produce over 1000 backpacks but I learned a ton along the way and enjoyed sharing the process with you.

Even during the campaign, some folks began asking for a single strap bag of some kind. Some of you asked for a sling… others asked for some kind of mini messenger. That kicked off a number of conversations to identify the core functions you wanted…

• Stands on its own
• Weatherproof
• Versatile Carry Options
• Lightweight
• Stylish

Based on those criteria, I crated: 

 Sling Pack-a minimalist cross between a messenger & sling 

3 years after some of those customers made their requests, I reached out to see if they wanted to beta test it. Here’s what some of them had to say:

"OH MY GOODNESS, DAVE! You did it! You designed my perfect bag!! I've been searching for more than a dozen years and even tried to design and sew my own, and have never found quite what I wanted, but your new bag is IT!!!"  -Kai M. (beta tester)

I’d love to have you along for another campaign. I can’t wait to get it in your hands and have it become a key part of your everyday carry.

Thanks for your continued support!

Dave

Watch Video 

PS- I wanted to give you an early heads-up before I notify the rest of my email list so you’ll be able to grab an early bird reward. My apologies in advance if you backed multiple campaigns of mine but I want to make sure previous backers know about it.

Our New Kickstarter- Plus Slim Pack is Back in Black
over 6 years ago – Fri, Oct 11, 2019 at 11:10:35 AM

Greetings! As a backer of the Slim Pack, I thought you might be particularly interested in our new Coin Travel Wallet project since we’re including the Slim Pack as a reward.

If you’ve tried to order another Slim Pack, you probably noticed we’ve been sold out of gray ones all year and black ones longer than that. Essentially, the backpack was twice as expensive to make as we estimated. So it makes sense as a pre-order product so we’re doing a batch as a reward for this project.

Head on over to the project page and check out details on the new Coin Wallet as well as details about the Slim Pack reward, including several improvements we’ve made. (2 bottle pockets anyone?)

Thanks for your support!

Dave Z. SlimFold

PS- a limited number of Slim Packs will be completed before Christmas so jump in early to reserve one. If you backed other projects of mine, my apologies if you get duplicate alerts! I want to give backers a shot at early bird rewards before I announce it to the rest of my email list.

90% Shipped | Last Tier Locking
over 8 years ago – Thu, May 25, 2017 at 05:36:09 PM

Greetings Backers!

I’m happy to report that at this time, we’re 90% complete with the project! Basically, all of the rewards have been shipped aside from the Trendsetter tier and a few of the folks in the Combo tier who chose Black/Orange Slim Packs. 

On the logistical side, we’ve mostly been able to stick with the 50 Slim Packs per week schedule, but as you know the gains in productivity we were hoping to achieve by investing in tooling never materialized. Although it may seem like I spent thousands of dollars on dies for nothing, it probably also means that we would have been even further behind schedule had we not taken that step.

Another lesson was that adding just a few more colors added a tremendous amount to the complexity. The folks from Moment describe this challenge well in their post about having tried to do just black and white cases in their last project. The way it has affected this project most recently is that for efficiency, the sewing house made several batches of Black/Black in a row instead of switching back to Black/Orange like I was expecting.

While that means we now have enough Black/Black to fully complete the rewards in all of the tiers, it leaves one gap of a few folks in the Combo tier who selected Black/Orange who should have already received theirs by previous estimations. I do apologize to you who are in that tier who have been waiting and appreciate your patience. Production is fully focused on that color now and we will continue to ship them as they’re completed.

Trendsetter Tier Locking

Since we’ll start to ship the Trendsetter tier soon, the addresses will be locking on Sunday. Then they’ll begin shipping in the beginning of June. We’ll likely still be catching up with the Black/Orange models at that time so those will be going out after the Combo tiers have completed.

It’s been a long road and we’re not finished yet, but already I’m realizing how much I’ve learned, what I could have done better, and how much I’ll miss the process once we’ve wrapped up. Sounds like it’s time to start thinking about making another product, huh?

Dave

75% There!
almost 9 years ago – Sun, Mar 26, 2017 at 09:18:25 PM

Greetings!

As we mentioned in our last update, we were half way there and making steady progress towards shipping everyone’s rewards. I’m pleased to let you know that we’ve remained on track and have now shipped rewards to all wallet-only tier backers, RFID sleeve tier backers, and about 75% of Slim Pack backers!

In my testing, I can control certain variables such as water intensity and exposure time… but in the field, conditions are more variable and realistic. In one particular case though, a backer had the rare opportunity to perform a controlled experiment in the field during a flight…

 

For the Slim Packs, we’ve now worked through the First Mover and most of the Early Adopter reward levels for all colors except Charcoal/Orange. As described in this update, the combo tiers (Wallet + Backpack and 2x Backpack) are currently being fulfilled as we get new inventory each week. We should be complete with those in 3-4 weeks and move on to Trendsetters.

Other happy folks continue to comment on how much they like them and we’ve had severe weather all around which has really pushed the limits. 

"Received mine today and it's amazing!!!!!!!! Thanks Dave!" -Luna W

"Overall, I love the bag! It's going to be wonderful for me in the summer as I wander from cafe to cafe in search of nothing in particular while getting some work done. The bag is far more comfortable without a bulky jacket, so I can see myself taking this on bike trips, too…. Big plus is that I can actually turn around in these tiny European elevators now, which I cannot do with my other bag… Thanks!" -Tyler C

If you’ve received your pack, I’d love to hear what you think by commenting here or emailing [email protected].

Thanks for your patience and support! 
Dave Z

Combo + Multi Tiers Locking, Fulfillment Progress, and Reviews
about 9 years ago – Wed, Feb 15, 2017 at 08:10:23 PM

Greetings!

Lots of info in this update, but in case you’ve only got a second, here are the key takeaways…

• Addresses locking Friday for Combo and Multi tiers
• Almost half of the backpacks have been shipped and full completion is tracking towards May
• As more bags arrive, I'm so pleased to see how much you're liking them!

We’re almost half way there!

The fulfillment issues I mentioned earlier have been worked out so the packs are able to go out smoothly as we produce them, including internationally. We just sent another batch out yesterday so if you received a shipping notification, yours was among them.

For those who have not received your Slim Pack, please understand that at this moment, it’s very difficult for me to tell when your exact bag will ship. This is partly because instead of having just one color as originally planned, we introduced four based on backer feedback and the colors are being produced in different batches. In addition, the initial inability to ship international ones created a situation where even within a certain color, imbalances exist between tiers.

To address these logistics challenges, we loaded the reward selections in the system as backorders by tier- so your bag is reserved to go out in the appropriate order once inventory is available. What I can say is that we’re most behind on the Charcoal/Orange and Black/Orange since those were by far the most popular. They were also both added based on your feedback so thanks for helping improve the color selection! We’re doing our best to catch up and I also should be able to give you better estimates once a few of the tiers are fully shipped. 

Locking Addresses: Combo and Multi Tiers

As we approach completion of some colors in the Early Adopter tier, I’m going to be locking the addresses for the Slim Pack + MICRO Wallet Combo, Slim Pack + Original Wallet, and 2x Slim Pack tiers on FRIDAY.

If your address has changed since completing the survey, please update it using the same survey link you originally received through BackerKit. Try searching BackerKit in your email or recover your survey by following this link. 

Reviews

For folks who have received theirs, the feedback has been super! If you’d like to leave your feedback as well, drop a comment here or email [email protected].

"It's perfect. Absolutely loving it so far."-Patrick"@Dave. I just got my black/black backpack. Fantastic! well done." -Mike

"Dave, I received my backpack in the very first batch sent. It is incredible. It was put through its paces this weekend at the NAMM show in Anaheim CA during our crazy weather. It handled the rain with no problem, and for those not in CA, this was an exceptional amount of rain. I carried my DSLR and my iPad in it with no fear. Truly impressed with the comfort."-Sam

"Received my backpack (black/black) in Australia - just in time for back to uni. Very happy with the quality and how light the bag is. You have certainly delivered. Thanks." -Rose

"I got mine in the first shipment and finally got a chance to use it. It's everything he said it would be! Incredibly lightweight, and breathes really well -- I ride my bike to work on occasion, and barely felt the pack. No trapped body heat, the shoulder straps hit me just right after a little adjustment, and it felt like I was carrying nothing. Absolutely love it!"-Matt

I really wish that somehow they were all done as of now so I share the frustration of those who don’t have their rewards yet. But we’re continuing to be able to output about 50 bags per week. 

Thanks again for your support and patience as we work through the rest of the tiers! As always, I’ll continue to keep you updated.

Dave Z