JOHN COPPIDGE

Just a heads up..

It’s a holiday in Korea on Friday, so Daniel will be shipping packages out on Monday.

Daypack announcement:

We are making a second sample tomorrow - we wanted to make sure the workflow and order is good before running up multiples, so as usual we’ll make one more prototype just the same to make sure we’re on the same page and the production will come out as expected. I have decided to make the bottom portion in TOJ calfskin, rather than our goat. Wanted to add a bit more thickness and durability, and the calf won out. In terms of how it will look - it’ll look just the same. It’s black leather, and so the differences will be inconsequential to the eye.

Because we showed the first sample with a goat trimmed bottom, and the next one will be calf - just wanted people who’ve ordered a backpack to let us know that going to calfskin will be ok. We can only do it with one type of leather and so there is no ‘choice’ per se, but if there’s a backlash we can stay with the goat. I’d prefer to evolve to calfskin for the thickness, though. Let us know, people.

A couple quick notes:

We’re almost to the number of backpack orders we wanted, and so we’re gonna set an official cutoff of next Monday for payments. If you want in, please place your pre-order by then. We are looking at 2-3 weeks turnaround on those once pre-order cutoff is reached.

We went to a new workshop for jackets today, that I had mentioned earlier - it’s much bigger and more capable than I had expected, and I really liked it. Our production capability just doubled now, and so the melt on lead times should start going rapidly. Also, any orders placed now are likely to be turned out in shorter time, for sure. Things are looking good. I will have an Anniversary model or two up pretty soon for viewing and maybe another leather or two, soon.

We’re about at break-even on the backpacks as far as pre-orders go; they are gonna be made now, we’re just waiting for the rest of the lot pre-orders to come in. As I’ve said, because they’re a lot order item ,we will have to close orders on them once they’re ready to sail. No individual orders are possible. I hadn’t thought of it before, but apologies are due, because loyalty club discounts and referral discounts are not available on the bags, they’re already priced below minimum. If the quantity of the bags blows up and we get another tier of discount, we’ll dividend the loyalty discount back to the applicable people but referrals are not applicable to non-clothes.

Pre-order window for the TOJ Daypack v2 is now open

Email me at templeofjawnz@gmail.com to get yours

Some quick snippets of good news:

a) Backpack interest was enough so that we can make a run, probably. Now the next step is to get back with the bag guy, determine a price, and then we can go back to the interested parties and get payments and start the run. This is for the black/black daypack. Helmet bag interest wasn’t really strong enough for the time being. it’s possible that we may get more interest in that over time.

It’s pretty much a reboot of the original TOJ daypack, but I liked the idea of adding the leather bottom and the further reinforcing the top strap part, this go around. It should add a bit of durability. We had a couple sendbacks on the green ones only a few years ago, turned out the maker had decided on his own to make the suede a bit thinner on those, and so a couple straps broke and we had to fix them. The other colors were fine. This time around, we’re reinforcing further and doing some reinforcement to them internally where they take stress. Still, they’re good when used within reason.

b) We’ve found two further production facilities for jackets that meet our quality standards. We’ll start spreading out production and lead time will decrease from here on out. If you order now and in the near future, lead time will have decreased pretty significantly. For orders extant, they’ll benefit from a quicker turnout. We had 2 full time facilities, one kinda part-time that we’re bringing up to full time status imminently, and then we have two new ones to make it five. The new two facilities seem ready to go full-tilt, and one is possibly capable of turning out standard-sized runs for us, to create in-stock stuff to instantly ship. More on this in a second.

I’m thinking of doing another ‘hiatus’ but probably not as long as last time - rather, this time I’d treat it as an order freeze so that we can catch up and clear some of the log before tackling new things. I’d still like to make new things, and we have a bit of an archive of samples to release as product, but we need to do first things first. That won’t happen right now, but maybe soon. Last time, too many people ordered in the last few hours of the cutoff. We will probably name a sliding window of a date and maybe just cut things off when we’ve reached a certain number, in order to make sure it doesn’t go on forever. Last time the sheer number of orders made me appreciate those who timed the cutoff and ordered well ahead of closing, because by the last days the plot just went vertical, and one day of orders became like a full month of production.

As for the in-stock items, it’s a new thing for us, but I know what I want to make - the 4th anniversary of TOJ is coming up very soon. We have made a celebratory model most years and I think I’d like to do the same this year. I don’t know exactly what it’ll be yet, but we’ll make it soon and rather than adding to an MTM log, we’ll just run some standard sizes up and sell them as stock. They should fit 95% of people out there this way. Maybe we can get around to making MTM versions of the same at a later date. I am thinking a Baseball jacket v2, and maybe another Harrington variant both in light calf suede for summerweight wear for the Anniversary model, as those models have been well-liked but probably ripe for alternate variants.

Daypack v2

In my haste to catch a flight the other day I overlooked an interior shot. It’s lined in heavy cotton twill, and has two elastic straps on the back panel, just like last time. It’s not a legit laptop compartment, rather I intended for those loops to hold anything to towards the user’s back (including all sizes of laptops) so that the actual backpack can still maintain a free-form shape on the outside and look cool. I hate when these things get overstuffed, they look much better with ‘drape’ and some decompression. Also, I think that way it allows people to kind of choose the way they pack their bag with regards to what they’re carrying, as that’s different for everyone on different days. I think if I was still a campus-going student I’d wrap a jacket or second layer layer like a hoodie or cardigan around my laptop (in a neoprene sleeve) and then stick it behind the elastic loops, and if the thing were to fall or something, it’d get a little shock insulation, at least, and then you can sit around in class maybe give your TOJ leather a break and wear an ‘indoor’ layer instead. No guarantees on shock performance or any of that stuff, it’s up to your own best judgement.

I am not sure if everyone can imagine what I am saying, but yes - there is a provision for holding a laptop, but it’s not a zippered pocket or anything. I don’t want to go too far down the line of making these things be ‘laptop bags’ because they’re not, and if they become known as that, I’d hate for that to contribute to things getting stolen on campus, etc.