June 30, 2014

Introducing the Aeronaut 30 and Four More Designs

We've been hinting for the last couple of months that we expected five new designs to debut this summer. And you've been amazingly patient with us. Before the reveal, we just wanted to take a moment and say thanks for your excitement and support. It's meant a lot to us as we worked really hard getting these five new designs ready for debut—no small feat for a company our size. Design patterns had to be finalized, names decided, pages built, videos shot, photos taken. You'd be amazed at how much of this came down to the wire; we even decided to change the name of one of the bags on Friday.

And without further ado, meet the five new designs (seven if you count their Packing Cubes) debuting today:

Aeronaut 30
The little brother of the original Aeronaut (now the Aeronaut 45). You know the saying: don't mess with what's good, and we didn't. Mostly, it's the same Aeronaut people have come to count on as the carry-on bag, just smaller and better suited to travel on North American regional commuter jets, intra-European flights, or for folks who want to pack less and don't need a maximum carry-on sized travel bag. Though the Aeronaut 30 is smaller in capacity, its fit is the same as the Aeronaut 45. In other words, if the original Aeronaut (45) fit you well, the Aeronaut 30 will as well. It's no small feat to make a bag that is 20% smaller yet still fits those 6' and taller (and shorter, of course). All that said, there were a few good things in the design of the Aeronaut that Tom realized he could make great. Design updates in the Aeronaut 30 you'll find include: both exterior end pockets are zippered, the main compartment snaps have been replaced with zippered dividers, allowing you to turn the Aeronaut 30 into a one or two compartment bag when you need it to be, and the Aeronaut 30's YKK Aquaguard® waterproof coil zippers have been flipped to be "right side up", which basically means they'll last even longer. (If you're wondering: these design updates will make their way to the Aeronaut 45 in the next 2-3 months.)

$270. Available for pre-order in eight color combinations, including the new Coyote/Steel. First production run ships by mid-August; second production run ships by late September.
Packing Cubes for the Aeronaut 30 are available for pre-order here.

Night Flight Travel Duffle
Tom's had the Night Flight concept on his (very crowded) design board for some time. So, when United Airlines announced their size new requirements for "personal items," it was simply a matter of a few adjustments, some late nights, and the Night Flight Travel Duffle was made real. That the Night Flight Travel Duffle looks suspiciously like a scaled-down version of an Aeronaut is no mistake: we took some of the same winning design elements from our most popular travel bag and morphed them into a small yet totally fetching duffle bag. Worth noting: Packing Cubes for the Night Flight are an option, as are Padded Organizational Dividers that allow you to organize and protect stuff like smaller cameras (you can even configure them for a DSLR) and noise-cancelling headphones as well as snacks and other stuff.

$180. Available for pre-order in eight color combinations, including the new Coyote/Steel. First production run ships by mid-August; second production run ships by late September.
Packing Cubes for the Night Flight Travel Duffle are available for pre-order here.

Travel Laundry Stuff Sack
Based on a design from Tom's archives (circa 1981) and inspired by his time hosteling around Europe, the Travel Laundry Stuff Sack works like this: start your trip off with the sack full of clean clothes, and as they become dirty, put them in other end of the same sack. A floating divider midway keeps the clean and the dirty clothes separated. The volume of the clothing doesn't change, but the ratio of clean to dirty does.

Available for pre-order in two sizes —Aeronaut 45 ($45) and Aeronaut 30 ($40)—in colors Steel and Ultraviolet. Ships by mid-August.

Daylight Backpack
Your solid, ultralight, and true companion for hikes, travel, even the daily commute. Similar to the Packing Cube Backpacks, though more pack and less cube. We want to point out a design feature we're quite proud of: shingled internal pouches/compartments that, when packed with two pieces of clothing, say, a shell jacket and a fleece or sweater, effectively create a padded back panel. We have tested the Daylight Backpack on hikes long and short, hiking up to where the trees are smaller yet older, and then down to secret lakes, and it's proved itself time and again.

$80. Available in seven color combinations, including Black Dyneema and Burnt Orange. In stock and ready to ship.

Q-Kit
One day, Kieu (our Bartack Operator — see her work) surprised June and Darcy with two of these small pouches. Its shape is reminiscent of the Kit, a retired design, but the Q-Kit is much smaller. June and Darcy liked their Q-Kits so much that they thought we should make more and let you guys give 'em a try. Clever and awesome (just like Kieu!), the Q-Kit is great for keeping track of very small stuff: coins, keys, phone adapters, as well as charms, hair things, and gewgaws of all kinds.