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duckmaster

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I’d be surprised if they have $50 into each bag. I know they use quality materials and pay USA labor wages, but at the scale and volume of their production, along with their buying power for twill and leather, I don’t see them sinking $50 into each tote.

You forget to to take into account overhead. This includes everything from executive salaries, advertising, distribution, and down to keep the lights on at the stores. All this has to be added into the price of an item.
 
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TinMan3

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You forget to to take into account overhead. This includes everything from executive salaries, advertising, distribution, and down to keep the lights on at the stores. All this has to be added into the price of an item.
Yep in the finance world we call that contribution margin. What’s left over after all the variable costs have been accounted for to cover non-variable overhead and admin expenses. These totes at $55 would have next to no contribution I’m betting. Even if this tote took an hour and a half in total labor to put together your already reaching the $50 mark with benefits included. Maybe they’re way faster than I think they are, but I’d be surprised.

Its part of any large business some items you make money on, others you don’t. You never know, maybe these weren’t selling and this was a welcome error to just move a bunch of stale stock.
 

OtterMeanGreen

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maybe these weren’t selling and this was a welcome error to just move a bunch of stale stock.

Reminds me of the plethora of Navy & Black #70257’s that Filson had on their website for 50% off long past discontinuation.
 

speedy611

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Yep in the finance world we call that contribution margin. What’s left over after all the variable costs have been accounted for to cover non-variable overhead and admin expenses. These totes at $55 would have next to no contribution I’m betting. Even if this tote took an hour and a half in total labor to put together your already reaching the $50 mark with benefits included. Maybe they’re way faster than I think they are, but I’d be surprised.

Its part of any large business some items you make money on, others you don’t. You never know, maybe these weren’t selling and this was a welcome error to just move a bunch of stale stock.

I’ve not been following the sale of these very closely. Assume it’s the open tote?
If so I’d guess 15-30 mins manufacturing time max. The twill is stamped using a die, perhaps 5 at a time. Same for the bridle leather tabs. Sewing is mere minutes for a skilled operator on an industrial machine.
...probably :)
 

GzStudio

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Obviously and error, but, economies of scale is at play here. Huge economies of scale. I can easily see the wholesale cost of this simple tote at $55. Cheaper materials help in this as they are certainly not picking the top of the top from their vendors.
 

TinMan3

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I’ve not been following the sale of these very closely. Assume it’s the open tote?
If so I’d guess 15-30 mins manufacturing time max. The twill is stamped using a die, perhaps 5 at a time. Same for the bridle leather tabs. Sewing is mere minutes for a skilled operator on an industrial machine.
...probably :)
Even with the measuring and cutting and sealed seams? Filson once had a rucksack (I understand a rucksack is very different from a tote) in a catalog where they showed every piece and it was staggering how many individual pieces were cut and sewn for that one item. I mean when you’re doing a run of 1000 yes absolutely you have efficiencies but there’s still a lot of steps involved. I bet they would be able to tell us this when we visit the facility this summer ;).
 

CCF1897

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Was able to get a few days away on a hunting trip. Good to get the bags back on the road.
 

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IVIozartsGhost

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Would you take $70 for one?

Thank you for the offer which is a reasonable one, but my better half has already laid claim to them :-D (she cited another recent bag purchase as rationale that these are now her bags).

Dang that yellow is sharp. I was worried that the color was a little bright for me so I went with the hemlock. I bet once you get a little patina on the yellow it will be on point.

I do like the colors as well. The chessie tan/yellow has an older-school vibe to it, which I like. The leather colors are a little different: the yellow's leather is bit lighter than the green one. Not sure that was intentional or just variation in leather.

I'll be really interested to hear other's opinions on build quality relative to older totes. While I have other totes, none of them are of the older or standard variety (I've one of the newer mackinaw red totes, and a couple of the Nanamica totes as well). For my purposes (and my wife's), our totes have really held up well to significant use. I use my white Nanamica open tote as a grocery getter/farmer's market bag and for beach treasure collecting. Its nice and dirty but still holds its shape well.
 

Close Horse

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Dang, the hemlock color looks great -- better in that picture than in the Filson official photos. Not like the cheap nylon Polo Ralph Lauren luggage, as someone here mentioned. I agreed with that comparison at first.

Anybody having second thoughts about the hemlock?
 

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