Next Stop, AUSTIN!

February 18 2011 posted by Jack

NAHBS!

A whole mess of caffeine is being consumed here at The Letter Shop these days. We are burning the midnight oil and waking up early to do it again every day as we prepare for the North American Handmade Bicycle Show and the debut of our Spring 2011 collection.

For those who don’t know, NAHBS is the ultimate gathering of handmade bicycle builders. These guys are more or less the rock stars of the cycling industry and we’re super-stoked to put our handmade messenger bags, pedal straps and accessories in the show alongside some of the most beautiful, well-built bicycles you’ll ever see.

This is a big deal for us as it will be our first trade show. It will be the first time many cyclists, many of them hardcore enthusiasts, will be exposed to our brand. Many more who may have heard of us will get to put their hands on our products for the first time and see our craftsmanship and passion up close.

Between all the new friends we plan to meet and the exciting new additions we’ve made to our ever-improving product line, we probably wouldn’t be able to sleep even if we tried. If you are in the Austin area be sure to come through and check out or booth. The event is open to the public and a must-see for anyone even remotely interested in cycling.

Stay plugged in to our various Social Media outlets as we share photos and updates on our progress. Big announcements to be found by Liking us on Facebook, chat with us and get detailed updates on the ol’ Twitter and see what we see on Tumblr.

Believe us when we say that NAHBS is the beginning of yet another chapter in the Burro story. See y’all in TEXAS!

Another Burro Commercial

February 08 2011 posted by Jack

video

Varity-Burro Bags from L. Gustavo Cooper on Vimeo.

If you are fan on Facebook, then you may have noticed the casting call we did a couple weeks ago. Since none of you decided to show up we made this little video with everyone who was working that Friday afternoon. Gus Cooper came by with another brilliant idea for a Burro commercial. His original concept was a little different from the final product but as always he came through and made us something awesome that is already out there getting some buzz.

We had a lot of fun making this and apparently we need to show Reeder and Jess how to properly wear that stabilizer strap (and teach Gus how to spell). But in the end I think we accomplished our goal of showing the variety of our bags and the personalities that wear them. My custom messenger is something I’m super proud of and I’m happy it made it into this project (it’s the green one with the camo pocket and was made from actual pieces of the uniform I wore in Afghanistan!). A custom Burro bag is more than just a place to put your junk, it’s a statement, an expression of your personal style and we make it just the way you want it. Build your own on our website!

In case you missed it, here’s the first video Gus did for us a few months ago.

Burro Pedal Straps from L. Gustavo Cooper on Vimeo.

If you need commercial video work or a music video, pretty much Gus is your dude! Check out his website and Vimeo page.

Welcome Budget Records and Jess

January 25 2011 posted by Jack

Steve, Ron and Jess join the Letter Shop family

I don’t know if y’all knew this or not but the newly renovated and renamed Budget Records officially opened last Saturday and ushered in a new era of radicalness here at the Letter Shop, our base of operations. The volunteers who helped out at the Diamond Mine were great but not having someone up front all the time made for some pretty irregular hours and things sort of fizzled out.

Some of you Jacksonville folks might remember Steve from Weird Wax and Vinyl Frontier. Lately he’s been running Budget Records down in St. Augustine and recently seized the opportunity to sell records in Jacksonville again. All of Triclops’ stuff is still here along with some of Steve’s inventory and new collections coming through daily. I’m talking some real gems here! Ron will be here Saturdays and Sundays to appraise collections as well as buy, sell and trade. This guy really knows his stuff (he’s blasting Can’s first album on cassette right now!) and is making some really great deals on rare and classic albums with recent releases of all kinds and local distros coming soon.

A few weeks ago Jess started taking over for Ron during the week and since she was going to be up front anyway we thought we’d recruit her to take care of the retail shop while we steer the ship. She’s done an amazing job cleaning things up and making the operation more legit and we’re super-stoked to have her on board. Jess will keep the shop open regular-like from 11am-7pm Tuesday through Saturday. We’re handing over the phone to her as well since we are always missing y’alls calls anyway. If you need to speak to Chris, Jack or John, leave a message with her at (904) 677-2977.

Now that we have someone running the shop full time, we’ll be doing a lot more to get people walking through. If you make clothes or handmade items of any kind, we want to talk to you about the possibility of carrying your products on consignment. Our space is super-limited so we can’t carry everything but we’d like to be the kind of place where you can find the best and most unique handmade items the city has to offer.

Follow both the new and improved Burro retail shop and Budget Records on The Letter Shop Facebook Page.

Richmond Goldsprints Tomorrow

January 20 2011 posted by Jack

event notice

Good ol’ Phil from Cultur is hosting a Goldsprints event tomorrow in Richmond. Lots of cool Burro supporters up there so check it out and win some Burro junk!

Customer Video - Anthony Rasca

January 20 2011 posted by Jack

customer submitted edit

Anthony Rasca is a young fgfs rider out of Long Beach, CA, one of the for sure hot spots for emerging riders nowadays. He’s been riding Burro Pedal Straps for a minute and shared this edit with us. Keep up the good work dude. RIDE FIRE!

Anthony Rasca edit from Anthony Rasca on Vimeo.

Bags in Toyland Recap

December 17 2010 posted by Jack

2010 Artist Series

Happy Holidays everyone! This past weekend we hosted our annual bag art show. In the past, we held this event at the BBB Complex where we used to reside. The new space is way bigger but doesn’t have the open warehouse space like the BBB so we sought out a new location for this year’s event. We also figured we’d mix things up and join forces with AIGA Jacksonville’s custom toy show. Their show last year was a huge success so it only made sense that we join forces to present the biggest art event of the year. After much deliberation, we finally secured the perfect space, the Old Library in Downtown. We had plenty of room to display all the bags and toys plus space to mingle and wheel and deal.

The show was a smashing success! Several bags sold the night of, about twice as many as years past. Intuition Ale Works provided us with two kegs of their flagship beer, People’s Pale and we can’t thank them enough. They are by far the best sponsor we’ve ever dealt with and provided us with everything we needed which was exactly what we needed as we pulled it all together at the last minute.

All the bags have been photographed and are viewable on our Flickr page. The ones that are still available can be purchased now on the website or locally at The Letter Shop. Almost all of these bags are one-of-a-kinds. We plan on reproducing a couple but the rest will never be seen again so if you see something you like, you better grab it!

Bags in Toyland

December 10 2010 posted by Jack

3rd annual bag art show

It’s that time again! Tomorrow night is Bags in Toyland at the Old Library in Downtown Jacksonville featuring custom Burro Bags and a toy show sponsored by AIGA Jacksonville. Everybody has been busting their ass this week to get all these bags ready and made. In fact, the sewing will continue well into the night. I’ve been posting some sneak peaks of the bags as they are being made that you can check out on the Burro Bags Lite Tumblr.

This is the third year we’ve done this show and the bags are ridiculous! We’ve recruited some talent from across the country to help us out this year and we’ve stepped up the requirements to make sure that every bag is something that will last through the abuse of everyday use. There is also a venue change this year as we’ve moved out of the old Springfield warehouse and the new shop just can’t accommodate the kind of crowd we are anticipating. We thought it would be cool to co-host the show with AIGA as several artists were participating in both shows and we figured we could find a spot that would make for a killer joint show.

We finally decided on the Old Library and so far everything is coming together awesome! Intuition Ale Works will provide some People’s Pale for you to try and there’s no cover. Club TSI is the afterparty destination so hold on to your flyers for free admission.

Click here for pics from the first show..
Then check out last year’s show pics here.
Also check out Varick’s pics from last year’s Designers in Toyland show at 229.

We may not be raging out quite as hard as we did at the old warehouse but we do have some amazing bags and toys and plenty of free beer so come out tomorrow night and let’s do this!