You should check http://www.midwestwhips.com/Accessories.html Paul and Lauren have a nice bag in the program now. Well, two bags... They look really good! Paul, Lauren - is this your own design, or is it kind of standard design - like the "usual" whip bags, sold by mike murphy? Would be interesting to check the manufacturer - perhaps we could offer those in europe, too. What do you think?
The small size whip bags are still the ones from Mike Murphy, which we started carrying almost 2 years ago.
The new bags are from a different manufacturer and were also designed specifically for whips.
At one point a while back Lauren and I began to design with the intent to manufacture our own whip bags, but very quickly we realized that for the cost of materials and time to make them ourselves, it wasn't very practical as a small operation. And we weren't in any position to be able to afford to have them mass produced by a factory. Unfortunately it was a costly (in both money and time) lesson learned with the prototype bags we worked up by that point.
When Bernardo came to the U.S. to stay with us for a bit last year, we got to talking about whip bags in general. And I had mentioned how the Murphy whip bag was one of the nicest I had found after seeing many different styles and designs over the previous 8 years while I had been attending/vending/competing at various whipcracking get togethers, conventions, and competitions. And while we were talking about whip bags I mentioned that the only two things that I would change about the design would be to make them also in larger sizes for people who have more than 5 or so whips (as with the amount of whips I tend to take with me to events I was needing at least 3 or 4 whip bags). The other thing would be the addition of a shoulder strap to make it easier to support the heavier weight of carrying more whips. Bernardo mentioned that he would like a larger pocket for carrying a notebook along with pecards, poppers, falls, etc... and that he might be able to find a manufacturer when he got back to Peru.
As time went on while he was staying with us, we attended events, and had visitors and he started looking VERY closely at every whip bag that different people were using, and he started making notes and thinking more and more about designing his own whip bag.
He returned to Peru, and then some months later he told me that he had a solid design worked out, and was getting the prototypes worked up. Once those were made up he tweaked the design until he was completely happy with them, and then let me know that they were ready and sent pictures. And they looked AWESOME! They looked exactly like what I had always wanted in a larger whip bag over all those years! I used the two I bought for myself on our recent trip to Colorado, and I was able to fit over 15 whips in the Large bag, and a good portion of those were extremely large sized whips!
While they are similar to the Murphy Bag, they are much better suited for carrying a lot of whips in one bag, along with the shoulder strap, as well as a larger pocket for other items. Bernardo really nailed it, and has designed an excellent whip bag!
If you are interested in offering them in Europe, shoot Bernardo an email, they are well worth it and at a reasonable price.
MidWestWhips wrote:If you are interested in offering them in Europe, shoot Bernardo an email, they are well worth it and at a reasonable price.
Regards,
-Paul
Whilst I don't doubt thats perfectly true for you in the States here in Europe by the time you add in postage costs, then to that VAT, then Import duty, then the £13.50 POYB fee charged extra by royal mail the price near doubles
Thanks for the info, Paul. I was thinking about all that, but Tony's right with this. The shipping costs, the VAT, the taxes... I think, when such a bag is here for sale, it would be quite too expensive for a plastic bag. Okay, Nylon bag... But too expensive at all. Maybe I'll think about to find a way to produce something like these here. Or - and that would be the best way - to find such a type of bag which already exists. That would bring the price into the lower decks. The very low decks.
I would be happy to measure the bags for you. We just had some family arrive today for a short visit (they will be leaving on Friday), so things are a bit hectic, but I'll try to get the measurements for you when I get up tomorrow.
They look really good! Paul, Lauren - is this your own design, or is it kind of standard design - like the "usual" whip bags, sold by mike murphy? Would be interesting to check the manufacturer - perhaps we could offer those in europe, too. What do you think?
