Spring 2011 Preview Bag Sale

March 10 2011 posted by Jack

preview of the new collection

Our Spring 2011 Collection of messenger bags is right around the corner. I initially said the drop would be March 15th, but with Chicken & Whiskey on the road for the next week and a half and seeing as how the 21st is the first day of Spring, figured that was as good a time as any to drop it right?

We’ve made a lot of improvements to our bags this season. There will be detailed info later but I just posted some bags to the online store that offer a sneak preview of what you can expect. These bags represent some of the prototypes we made as we finalized our offerings for next season. They are a mix of different options and therefore discounted from the regular Spring 2011 prices. The colorways are all random ones and most of the bags feature the last of the billboard we will be using (more on that later as well). In other words these are all one-off totally unique messengers. Everyone’s going to be rocking the new bags when they drop so why not get something different?

Things are going to be quiet for the next week or so but then expect to hear about lots of new and exciting developments all at once. Rest up suckers!

QUIET MUFF ULTRA!

Burro X Intuition Growler Carriers

March 08 2011 posted by Jack

a better way to tote your brew

A while back Chris and I met with Ben and Cari over at Intuition Ale Works, Jacksonville’s newest brewery. They wanted us to design something that would make carrying their heavy glass growlers easier and promote their brand at the same time. For some stupid reason, 40oz bottles are illegal in Florida (yeah, it sucks) so they can’t sell half-gallon growlers and instead fill quart and full gallons. The full gallons are heavy and cumbersome with only a tiny finger-hole for carrying. The quarts are obviously much smaller but you really need more than one to make the trip to the brewery worth it and you really can’t do more than one per hand.

We looked at all kinds of designs for the gallons and decided on the simplest one that accomplishes all we wanted it to and keeps the price down. It basically cradles the bottle and allows you to carry it as you would a plastic grocery bag so you can stop by the brewery on the way home from Publix and carry everything to the house at once. It’s genius in its simplicity! Cari sums it up pretty well:

The gallon carrier makes it easy to transport such an awkward vessel and it also makes it easier to pour!

I’m most proud of the double quart carrier. It seemed to me that if we modified our 8 can carriers for a quart-size bottle it would work perfect. Pur first design was a four quart carrier which Intuition chopped down to two. Apparently our thirst is a bit tougher to quench than the average beer-guzzler haha! Cari once again:

The double quart carrier is great for folks who want to try a couple different styles of beers and have some options, or for those who don’t want to commit to a full gallon of brew.

They came out super nice and I immediately took mine down to King Street and filled them with some of the King Street Stout and the I-10 IPA. The adjustable strap made toting the bottles really comfortable. Intuition had us put a pocket on the front for tasting notes. I like to party so I found an “alternative” use for the pocket on mine

These will be available at the Intuition Tap Room. Keep in touch with them on Facebook for the latest.

Burro Sponsored Event: March Mashness

March 05 2011 posted by Jack

win Burro swag!

Team Burro Welcomes Dennis Hicks

March 04 2011 posted by Jack

new Team Burro rider

Burro is proud to welcome Dennis Hicks of Austin, TX to the illustrious ranks of Team Burro.

Dennis was introduced to us by Leo Furmansky who was volunteering his sick photography skills on the trade show floor at NAHBS. Leo inherited a set of first-gen Burro Pedal Straps with a bike he bought and was stoked on the product. When he came by our booth he informed us of a local Austin kid he had been shooting for some time who shreds like no other. We got the opportunity to see for ourself at the Fast Folks trick comp where Dennis took 1st place over AJ Austin and Team Burro’s Zack Fortune. After watching him consistently nail 360s and wowing the crowd we knew we had to get him on the team. He was super stoked and the next day we set him up with a set of Grape Ape Chronic straps and got Leo to snap some more photos. We even met his dad who is a legend in his own right!

Here’s some pics from Leo of Dennis getting awesome.

Lots more Team Burro news coming soon!

Welcome Back Brandon!

March 03 2011 posted by Jack

Brandon Lannie return to FGFS

Brandon Lannie aka RVAFixed was one of our first sponsored riders. A little while back he took a break from riding fgfs to prepare for the birth of his daughter. Now that she’s come into the world, he’s back on his whip and ready to shred.

Welcome back Brandon!

NAHBS Recap

March 01 2011 posted by Jack

a brief recap of this weekend's trip

Well, it was an awesome weekend at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show and now we’re back at the office grinding away. It was quite an overwhelming experience to be honest. We made a lot of important connections with sales reps, distributors, new shops and most importantly, customers. We are already making preparations for next year’s show in Sacramento!

Thousands of people walked the showroom floor and many stopped by our booth to see what we were about. The best part of the whole show for us was meeting individual bike enthusiasts and letting them try on our bags and discover the innovative, comfortable design we have. Our Spring 2011 line of messengers was a big hit and folks were stoked on the improvements we’ve made this go ‘round. We even spotted a few older Burro bags in the crowd!

If what we heard is any indication, we had the best stickers at the show by far. You can still get your hands on some by signing up for our email list but please be patient as we stock up on new ones.

We met a lot of really cool “industry” peeps as well. Finally got to meet the metal viking punk himself, Mr. John “Prolly” Watson who did this nice little photo shoot of our booth and hooked us up with his new Black Metal Viking t-shirts. His coverage of the show far surpasses anything we could even attempt so if you want to see the best pics of the show, check out his Flickr sets.

When deciding where we wanted our booth, we purposely found a spot near the dudes at Geekhouse as they seemed to have similar tastes and style to us. And boy was that a good decision. As it happened, they brought a polo bike build they made for Brad from Urban Velo. We quickly took advantage of the opportunity to slap one of our brand new Bike Polo Wheel Covers on that beautiful, brightly painted whip and sure enough, tons of people wandered over to our booth next to ask about the new product. Expect a full report on the wheel clovers later this week.

Aside from that though, the Geekhouse dudes were an awesome crew and it as great kicking it with them. They make some incredibly sick bikes too including a badass Woodville Tourist for Prolly that stole the show in our opinion.

We also debuted our prototype Mike Schmitt Pro Model strap. Mike was our very first sponsored rider and this strap was his idea and to be quite honest, it’s the best thing ever. For reals! These will be available in a few months or so.

Let’s see, what else?

Oh yeah, OF COURSE!

The kids in Austin were super nice and hospitable and all-around blast to ride with. We got to hang out with former Team Burro member, Eric Puckett, met our new bud, Mr. AJ Austin and picked up a new rider while we were there, the incredibly awesome Dennis Hicks. Austin photog, Leo Furmansky stopped by the booth to tell us how much he loved our straps and tipped us off to Dennis. We caught him at the Fast Folks trick comp and watched him take 1st place (Team Burro’s Zack Fortune took third). After watching Dennis ride, the decision was an easy one and he was stoked as we were to join the team. We’ll be doing more on Dennis later this week as well so stay tuned…

So yeah, back to it after an 18-hour van ride and we couldn’t be more stoked on what the future has in store for us. The new Spring 2011 will drop on the website March 15th but we are taking wholesale orders now. If you’d like info on ordering Burro products for your shop, holler at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). In the meantime, straps are still for sale and we’ll be posting some crazy deals to get rid of some existing stock. Keep an eye out for a new limited edition Chronic colorway this week as well. Also expect to see a lot more activity on the blog. Good things are coming y’all!