Traffic Cone Blog

A simple carabiner from any dollar store add length the straps. Buy a quality one from a camping store for extra strength.  In the spirit of K.I.S.S. I've tried to keep the straps of the TCB's One Size Fits Most.  And indeed they do. When the bag is laid flat and the top is opened completely, the strap lengths are cut as follows: Small TCB:  54" (or about 13" exposed length) Large TCB:  56" (or about 14" exposed length) It's better that they're a bit shorter than longer, because it's a real pain to make them shorter later (the join and strap anchoring stitches have to be in just the right place, ends cauterized with a flame and stitched etc etc - all by hand). But if you want to make them longer , it's simple. Buy an inexpensive, stylish black carabiner like the ones sold at the store I worked at*. Or you can get a real el cheapo kind from $2 stores. You simply insert the carabiner between the D-ring and snap hook at the b...

Large or small? Depends on what you want to carry! NOTE! Since 2011, both TCB's now come with a vertical reflective strip . See photo below.  In 2009, I introduced a larger Traffic Cone Bag size. The specs for the new, larger "Guyfromdownunder" (for want of a better term) version, pictured above left, are: 15" wide x 18" deep 3/4" webbing straps Orange pockets are deeper and wider to take larger water bottles (and rolled up issues of Carbon Fiber Enthusiast?) Black pocket is 13" wide x 14" deep - holds an unfolded copy of the New York Times (or Sydney Morning Herald, or Chicago Tribune - you get the idea) The specs for the original, smaller "Galfromdownunder"  pictured right, are: 13" wide by 17" deep Slender,  1/2" lighter webbing straps Orange pockets take regular water bottles Black pocket is 11" wide x 13" deep - holds holds a manila folder or several standard trashy magazines Both f...

David Singer , who designed my  large shelf talker card , displays it and the Traffic Cone Bag in Story. OVER CHRISTMAS, the  Traffic Cone Bag  scored a pretty cozy spot by a faux fire in Chelsea: it huddled with furry footballs, tech gloves, wooden gorillas and other objet d'esire in the curated concept store, Story . Opened in 2011 at the base of a condo with a Mondrian bent, the "how to make retail exciting again" retail outlet looks across at the Chelsea Art Gallery District, the Highline and a clutch of starchitect-designed condos; we're talking Gehry, Nouvel and Shigeru Ban. Story favors local products with a great tale of invention or inspiration, and that's where the Traffic Cone Bag fits in (bedtime reading:  New York, New York: if I can make it there, why make it elsewhere? ) The Traffic Cone Bag in Orange Mode.  I walked in to see how my bag was doing and promptly ended up demonstrating it to a Story shopper - who went ahead and...

CLICK TO ENLARGE: a How-To card with gray silhouettes Retail visionary Rachel Schectman asked me to consign a handful of my Traffic Cone Bags to her Chelsea concept store,  Story . Sweet! Story prides itself on curating locally conceived and manufactured designs, each with its own unique tale of the unexpected. And how more local (and unexpected) can you get than the multiple-personality,  Made in the Garment District Traffic Cone Bag?  Up until now the TCB has only been sold in person and from my informal online store page , helped by a YouTube video and blog. So how do you effectively explain the bag's many incarnations when store staff may be busy demonstrating any of the hundreds of other objects of desire on other shelves? Dave Singer stylin' with his personal Traffic Cone Bag "You probably need a step-by-step card," suggested Rachel. So here it is. I enlisted the help of designer David Singer whose portfolio reveals a penchant for pictograms...

VIDEO: Preston hamming it up with his iPad, Bike Friday and  Traffic Cone Bag Read Preston's review League of American Bicyclists Education Director Preston Tyree has been toting his Traffic Cone Bag since 2010. He uses it to get to and from meetings in safety and sartorial style, and finds it useful for carrying his iPad and keyboard. "It's my iBag!" he proclaims in the above clip, shot during a LAB Bike Ed program I attended in Albuquerque . "The bag is great. It doesn't look like a iPad carry bag so I don't feel so exposed when I am carrying it ... " He's since written  this review of the Traffic Cone Bag on his new blog, Cyclist in the Lane . Muchas gracias, Preston!  Preston stayin' alive, stayin' alive with his Traffic Cone Bag (size large)   VIDEO: Check out Preston's bike handling skills

The new snap applied to the large Traffic Cone Bag Thanks to Serena at Assunta for these - a first look at the new snaps. The orange one goes on the orange side.  It's one small step for a factory in China, one giant leap for the kaizen of the Traffic Cone Bag: these new, engraved snaps featuring a TRAFFIC CONE will soon replace the current plain snap on the small and large TCB's. Thanks to Beijing-based Serena Assunta Store , I was able to get just 1000 of these made, which is considered a very small quantity - the minimum is usually 10,000. I did of course pay a premium for the smaller quantity, but I'm of the "need to have" mentality - though it crossed my mind to empty 10,000 in the bathtub, dive in and pretend I was in that Powerball ad ... So why China, when I've been saying all along, New York, New York, if I can make it here, I'll not make it elsewhere ? As I have learned in this little project, it is almost impossible to get small...

A lot of this went into the large Traffic Cone Bag I've just returned from a fun art scavenger hunt involving 8 countries and pretty well just my Traffic Cone Bag as luggage. Sock by panty details here on my ChelseaGallerista blog .