This went out on the announce mailing list this morning. I was going to wait a few days before posting it on the website to give the patient folks on the announce list time to respond, but as they’ve already pushed the queue out to 12 months or so…

It’s that time — I’m finally ready to open up the queue for new orders. It’s been a long time coming and I thank you for your patience. I’ll be updating the corners of the website over the next day or so to reflect the new status.

To cut to the chase – if you want to a spot in the build queue, send an email to sales@zugsterbags.com. First come, first served. There’s no deposit required. Keep reading for all the details, and news about new products below.

The Order Queue

If you want to order a custom Zugster bag, send me an email to sales@zugsterbags.com indicating that and I’ll put your name down on the order queue. There’s no obligation, and no deposit needed to have a space in the order queue, just patience. I will be filling orders in batches of around a half dozen each at a time. When your batch is up next, I will contact you by email. At that point you have two weeks to specify your order and pay in full, otherwise you go back to the end of the queue!

Feel free to send inquiries by email at any time, about anything. I answer everything, but sometimes I do get a bit backed up, so don’t fret if it takes a day to get back to you.

As ever, remember that Zugster is a one-man, part-time, low-volume business. I estimate I can fill about 3 orders per month. I’m going to try fulfilling orders in batches this time around to see if I can improve that somewhat – we’ll see how that goes. No matter what, it’s still likely to be a long wait for a bag.

How to Specify your Order

Here’s what you should be thinking about while waiting for your spot! In order to complete your order I need to know:

• Model and size
• If it’s a messenger bag, what shoulder you’re going to wear it on
• Options
• Colors

It’s that last one that causes most folks minds to boggle at all the possible combinations. With all the possible combinations of Cordura, vinyl, and binding on different parts of the bag (body, base, pockets, flat, etc…) there are tens of thousands of possible combinations. So here’s a few ways to go about it:

• Standard Order – pick your body, base, pocket & optionally liner colors. You’re done! You get black binding, black padding and a gray liner if you don’t pick one.
• Let me choose. I love picking colorways. Just give me a base color and some guidance on what you do or especially do NOT like.
• Full Custom – have your dream bag all planned out in your head already? You can pick fabric colors for every separate component of the bag if you want, stitching color, binding, and padding. Additional charges may apply.

Just to give you an idea, here are all the components on a messenger bag that you can pick a color for individually (if you’re really obsessive): body, flat side pockets, 3D pockets, 3D pocket flaps, base layer, padding color, stitching, liner, inside pocket, binding, velcro (black or white only) . And then there are options that add even more possibilities…

New Products and Product Changes

Handlebar bags! A.K.A. front bags or rando (randonneur) bags. I’ve been getting requests for these for a long, long time, and I took the downtime in the first part of this year to design one and get them ready for production.

All messenger bags and backpacks now include an extra Cordura base layer as standard. It increases the life of the bag and also makes even the simplest plain bag more visually interesting with a complementary or contrasting color on the base.

I also have a small pannier model in progress. It’s about 85% completed and not ready for ordering yet, but if you want a pair (say, to match your rando bag — bagmatching can go to new extremes now!) and your spot in the queue comes up before they’re ready, I’ll reserve a spot for you when the design is ready for production.

And of course, as always there will be bags available from time to time in the store for immediate gratification.

Thanks for your continued interest!
-Adam