Imagine something very close to the same size and shape as the current Empeg bag. But with the following differences:

- High quality textured leather - Really thick sturdy stuff.
- Empeg slides in from a clasp closure on top, instead of the current zip-around design. (Think of a binocular bag, and you've got the basic idea.)
- A bit more room in the accessory pocket.
- Memory-foam padding. (Padding can be designed to fit Mk1 or Mk2.)
- Optional shoulder strap, or just a handle.
- Optional color choice: Brown or Black. (Or just about any color you like for a bit extra.)

My girlfriend makes high quality leather purses and other similar items. We're currently building me an empeg bag with those specs. She's cutting the leather for the prototype now.

Based on materials and time, we'd probably have to charge about $150 US, but they would be AWESOME. And they'd last longer than the nylon bags. (I'm on my second nylon bag at the moment.)

Anyone be interested in one?

Trying to gauge how many she might be able to sell.

Pictures of the prototype to come when it's done...

They sound very nice. I would be interested, if available.

Excellent!

The work on the bag continues, the initial results are quite promising. Quite luxurious, in fact.

Pictures soon.

"its not a purse, its European!"

sorry, I couldn't resist!

Definitely interested. Can she color match the leather to the car interior?

Sure! Within reason, of course... Hard to color match *exactly* without having the real car physically present, plus there are limits to the available leather colors, but we can certainly try. Probably will cost a bit extra, though, because it means another trip to the leather supplier. (We got a large quantity of brown and black, assuming they'd be the primary choices.) If you're lucky, it might be something she already has on-hand and she can just do it with existing materials, then it wouldn't be extra.

What color are we talking about? Have you got photos?

Sounds interesting....

I'm thinking light grey to match the car.

Pics are good - especially whilst she's working on it

Does that mean one colour, or the usual 3-colour mix option?

:-)

Dark red and light gray leather may both be possible. We will have to check with the leather supplier once we've made some bags with our existing stock of brown and black.

Ran into a technical issue with the construction of the prototype last night, we're working on making it better. More reports as things happen.

Yup, think I'd be up for one!

Awesome, Rob.

I'm excited about this project. Hope that doesn't jinx it!

This is great news, I'll probably be interested in one or two.

Our goal is to have the interior be either a durable suede lining on some surfaces, and on other surfaces it will be the inner surface of the leather (the soft fuzzy side of the leather). We're still poking at the design and trying prototypes to come up with something that works the best.

Durability is an important goal for us as we design this, it's one of our primary concerns.

Warm up that jet.

Ok, I'd be interested too No need to say, I can't wait to see pics of some prototype

Thaks to you both, Tony.

Excellent. We are still working on getting a good prototype. Found a good solution to one construction issue recently. More to come.

Without meaning to hijack the thread, I wonder what happened to the one and only leather carry case we made... perhaps Hugo has it?

We didn't go into production due to the "European Man Bag" aspect.

Rob

"How very dare you"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hfZqbZtT6E

Update: Second prototype made. Still awesome, but still not quite ready for photos yet. Final details getting worked out. More to come, watch this space.

Static wouldn't be a concern for a leather bag for the empeg I dont think.

longtime lurker here but i'd defintely be interested in 2.

I been using my empeg just in my office but now I'm getting ready to install my spare unit in a car finally. For the 1st time in 4 yrs of ownership I'll actually be using the Riocar ... in a car..

Update: Final (third) prototype completed, looks great.

I have been living with the second prototype for a few months and it's working excellent. There were some specific things we discovered about the long-term live test with the second prototype that we've incorporated into the final design. I'm very happy with the final design. It fits Mk1 and Mk2 players equally, the player is nice and snug inside the padded case, yet it's fairly easy to get in and out of the case with one hand once you get the hang of it.

We're working on getting pictures up, and her web site will be linked from this thread as soon as she's ready to start taking orders.

We're planning on offering a few options for the bag. The clasp hardware can be either black or chrome, and there will be optional d-rings on the side for a detachable shoulder strap. The color options will most likely be as I described above: Brown or black for the base price, and and extra (not sure how much extra yet) if you want a custom leather color.

For those who are thinking of getting a custom leather color to match their upholstery, please keep in mind that the place it's going to be most visible is when you're *carrying* it. So matching the car's upholstery, while clever, might not be what you truly want.

One thing: Remember that she's going to be making these things as you order them, so there will be a lag time between the placement of the order and the time it gets shipped. But her work is pretty awesome and it's worth the wait.

Oh, also, what should we call it?

Her ideas are:
Embag
Ec^2 or Emc^2 (for Empeg carrying case)
or just call it what it is: Empeg Carrying Case?

I'm partial to embag, myself...

We could call it the Fabris Empeg CArrying Luggage, or FECAL for short.

Hm. Susan's leather-bag company is Bansai8 Creations (laugh while you can monkey boy), and her last name is Lanphere, so it could be...

LECH (Lanphere Empeg Carrying Hardware)
BEST (Bansai Empeg Support Transporter)
BET (Bansai Empeg Transport)

Is the price point still around $150?

Final decision not made yet, but so far it seems likely that it will end up in that neighborhood, yes.

So long as its not man bag!

It's such the running joke that I think we COULD call it that...

Nooooooooooooo

i will vote for that too

Bag of holding

Just don't put one bag into another...

I forget what was supposed to happen if you did that. Was the DM supposed to make it explode, losing all your items, or something?

Some pics of the new embag for you all.

Bag is shown with a Mk1 player, but it will fit a Mk2 player equally well.

The padding pictured inside the bag is memory foam with a light blue suede covering it for durability.

Bag is shown with black plastic clasp, but a nickel-plated clasp is also available.

Bag is shown with only the single carrying handle. But for a small extra charge, it will have D-rings on the sides and include a detachable shoulder strap.

Susan is leaving town for a couple of weeks and won't be ready to start assembling bags until she gets back. So she won't be taking orders just yet. I'll post here with a link to the sale page for the bag when she's ready to start taking orders.

I like Six Demon Bag.

heh. Only works if you've got some Earth Wind And Fire albums on your empeg.

You DON'T?!?!

That's a yes from us too...

Light grey still sounds good
Doesn't need to be colour matched - as you say it'll be out of the car most of the time.

The other option is purple though... maybe not.

Nb 3rd version - shouldn't it be RioBag by now <grin>

I like Ec2 - plus it's easier to stitch an Ec2 logo in contrasting thread <hint>
Big lower case e (from empeg) small lowercase c and superscript 2?

Are you coming over for the 10th Tony?

Not coming over for the 10th, I'm afraid. Wish I could.

Light gray: Noted. I think that color *is* available from the leather supplier. The amount of extra charge needed to do a custom color hasn't yet been decided, hopefully that will be quoted on the web site when she's ready to take orders.

Stitched logo: No plans to do that, specifically. Can't, really, leather's too thick to do fine logo stitching. Something like this is more like what would have to be done. The only thing is, those custom leather-stamping dies aren't cheap, and I'm not certain there's enough quantity of possible orders here to justify the cost of the die. Anyway, I much prefer the bag to be clean without a logo, although I'm sure others might prefer the logo...

Mmm... a woodburning/soldering iron could also be used to add a logo -- a possible DIY task for bag owners!

i have seen howe they burnmark cows and horses... the same thing could be used for a logo, just be sure to hold down the bag so will not kick you :-)

That's actually exactly how they put logos on leather, with a heated metal stamp and a lot of pressure.

Leather doesn't really kick that hard, so that's not much of a worry.

So who's going to be the first to mod their bag

I think I'll need a practise swatch with mine....