After years of hard work I’m finally happy with the progress I’ve made with Import Bible. In 2011 I was able to sell nearly as many shirts as the past 4 years COMBINED! No small feat, but it wasn’t possible without my awesome customers. Lately I’ve gotten great feedback and comments from my customers around the world and it really blows my mind that someone half way across the world is sporting one of my products.

Good design, good quality
Since day 1 of establishing Import Bible I made it my goal to make only the best shirts, which entails two things: good design and good quality. It’s the details that count, since Import Bible has done really well I decided to change-up my packaging and re-order some business cards.

Paper model
If you’re following me on Twitter/Facebook/Instagram, it’s definitely not a secret that I’ve tried to design my paper model from scratch for a long time. My intentions? I plan to have a contest with it with a really nice prize for the winner(s). Hopefully I can finish it up by the second week of December.

In total I made 6 test models, pretty damn annoying

Series 5 update
I won’t go into details but the update to Series 5 is definitely ready and will be released on January 2nd start saving! A preview of the collection is below.

Expenses

Who doesn’t like buying things? Especially when you can write it off as a business expense. Few realize that you have to spend money to make money though, I find that buying small interesting items like books, toys or bike gear really freshen up my mind.

Kusters Odo Takuza, Making Ideas Happen, Steve Jobs biography, Apple Macbook Air and Logitech Performance MX

Having fun

You can’t forget to have fun! If you don’t love what you are doing then why bother? To take my mind off of things I usually play games and there is no shortage of great games this year. Lately I’ve played Forza 4, Skyrim, Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3.

Killing dragons, crashing cars and calling SHOTGUN!

]]> http://importbible.com/2011/12/06/being-busy/feed/ 6 http://importbible.com/2011/09/07/new-york-trip-part-2/ http://importbible.com/2011/09/07/new-york-trip-part-2/#comments Wed, 07 Sep 2011 18:00:43 +0000 david http://importbible.com/?p=5089 I know it took me forever but here is my second set of pictures I took during my vacation in New York City. Its only been a couple of weeks but I already miss the busy city! If anyone has any questions about visiting the city feel free to leave a comment or email me. Hope everyone enjoys the pictures.

One of my favorites places for snacks/breakfast, Europa Cafe

One of the highlights of my trip was Central Park, surreal how the buildings surround the park

As usual we tried one of those "famous" restaurants...

Christ...4" thick pastrami sandwich!

...with a healthy scoop of coleslaw. The sandwich was pretty damn good but I recommend sharing it with someone if you wanna stay awake.

Taking a bus tour through Time Square, it's amazing how busy it gets here

Canal street (I think) a.k.a. fake street

Flatiron

Me and my girlfriend decided not to visit the Statue of Liberty to save some time for other things

Shepard Fairey mural?

Fancy pancy dinner we got an amazing deal on (Group On)

Midnight snack at the famous Magnolia Bakery

The bakery was ridiculous...people were getting pretty upset because it was so packed

Street vendors are on every corner but only a few had these awesome kabobs

Grand Central Station is massive!

Trying out one of the highest rated resturants in NYC, Ippudo

The atmosphere was quite different from what I'm use to, the servers and cooks cheered every time a new patron sat down

Appetizers

Easily the best ramen I have ever had

So good that we came back again the next day for lunch

Heading over the Brooklyn Bridge

Trippy building

No wonder people bike, look at the those parking rates!

Another recommended restaurant Grimaldi's

Unfortunately, "recommended" also means there is at least a 2 hour wait

Wasn't impressed but still pretty good

Top of the Rock observatory

Spotted a Lego store right after we exited the Rockefeller center

Not all the food was amazing in New York, this takes the cake for worst restaurant I tried

Doesn't look to bad except the ravioli is rock hard, the lasagna resembled vomit and the alfredo was traditional (butter and cheese). I complained about the ravioli and the server told me it was "al dente"

bullshit!

One of the last stops of our trip was the Freedom tower, believe it or not this picture shows it halfway done

After a short trip to the bike store I ended up with more than I wanted (isn’t that always the case). Ever since then I’ve been trouble-free, a couple of weeks later I dropped off my bike for its first tune up. Again I gave into my temptations and picked up a bicycle computer when I picked up my bicycle.

List of things I picked up: Lezyne cage, Lezyne pump, Lezyne multi tool, Specialized saddle bag, Pedro levers and Cat Eye Strada.

Ridiculously small air pump that can pump up to 100 psi

My cycling computer that keeps tracks of time, duration, distance, speed and cadence (speed you're pedalling)

I was amazed by the size of the bicycle computer sensor, it's wireless too!

A magnet on the spoke and a magnet on the pedal keeps track of the distance/speed you're traveling

Saddle bag to store all the necessary tools for a flat

The saddle bag stores my tire tube, tire levers and a multi tool

Couldn't help but to switch back to the white tape like my old bike as well!

New York City is almost overwhelmingly busy, full of city natives and just as many tourists. Much like the people living in the city every building, restaurant and neighborhood is unique in their own little way. Seeing so many people focused on making a buck is inspiring.

I’ll let the pictures do the talking now, I feel as if I had hardly scratched the surface during my trip but I loved every second of it.

Our hotel lobby, there happened to be a movie shooting in the hotel during the first 3 nights there

Metropolitan Mueseum

In line waiting to see the Alexander McQueen exhibit, waited an exhausting 2 hours just to get in!

Luke's Lobsters, lobster rolls pretty damn good

But also pretty damn expensive, $22 a pop

Taxi's in NYC are crazy, built in screens for the passengers

Damn good pizza at Capizzi's, cook doesn't look too happy though

Popular chain in NYC, Shake Shack, imagines McDonalds with freshly made burgers and ingredients

This place had a line up 24/7

Traveling around on the NYC subway line was daunting at first but was the only affordable way to travel around the city

Three stores that Edmonton doesn't have! Uniqlo, CB2 and Muji

Visiting one of my favorite brands The Hundreds

Believe it or not a change room sits behind this shelf

One of those brands you hear about, checked it out but was extremely disappointed

The only food truck I spotted in NYC during my vacation

Thinking what I'm thinking?

Thought I would see some high end cars but instead I saw this

Girlfriend demanded we check out fifth avenue. Where we checked out Saks a 10 floor department store. I'll never get the 2 hours of my life back

Being a design freak I had to check out MoMA of course

Jay-Z/Warhol anyone?

Some of the weird and awful exhibit pieces...blow jobs, hay, candy in the corner and paint on the floor

My girlfriend and me spotted this restaurant with a huge line up so we decided to try it out, it's literally a hole in the wall with stairs leading down to the restaurant

Not your typical sashimi

Turns out the place was a highly rated Japanese watering hole that serves cheap appetizers!

]]> http://importbible.com/2011/08/18/new-york-trip-part-1/feed/ 1 http://importbible.com/2011/08/04/swapped-the-bike/ http://importbible.com/2011/08/04/swapped-the-bike/#comments Thu, 04 Aug 2011 15:00:26 +0000 david http://importbible.com/?p=4852 After owning my previous bike for 2 weeks, I quickly discovered how annoying it was own an entry-level bike. On the Specialized bike, to shift up you have to press a lever near the top of the brake handles. This was all good until I discovered that it was impossible to press this lever while holding the handle bars at the very bottom.

I returned the bike and researched about better equipped bikes. In short I had to drop more money to get better quality components on the bike. I ended up settling with the Cannondale Caad10, which has been getting rave reviews for its extremely light aluminum frame.

Instead of pressing a switch near the top to shift up, the lever is placed right underneath the brake handle that you push to change gears! This is easier to do with your hands when on top or at the bottom of the bars.

I also purchased a set of clipless shoes and pedals. I don’t know who came up with the name but basically the shoes “clip in”, allowing you to generate power from both your down and up stroke. They take a while to get use since clipping out is awkward at times, I already had a few close calls falling over.

Image: GHD Photography

As suspected, the employees of CanadaPost started doing rolling strikes across the country, effectively limiting the shipments to about 50% of what they normally do. Last week they locked out the employees and basically shut down the mail flow. As you can imagine I have lots of packages stuck in the system with no way of determining when the packages will be delivered to my customers. Basically my business has been stuck waiting for CanadaPost to get back in gear. Mean while, customers have been emailing me regarding the whereabouts of their packages – not to say they shouldn’t, but as you can imagine I have been spending a lot of time doing damage control.

It quickly became apparent to me that I needed a hobby to take my mind off of things, ever since I started taking Import Bible more seriously and I stopped working at Garage Works I’ve found myself without a hobby. So I decided to pick up a new road bike in hopes of keeping myself busy, staying fit and commuting. I picked up a Specialized Allez Sport from a local bike shop for about $1000 (never knew bikes were so expensive) and have been riding every day.

I love the handle bars on road bikes, they let you sit in 3 different positions. The brake levers also act as shifters.

Prior to getting this bike I haven’t actually tried a road bike so it really took some time to get use to the speed, seat (like sitting on a rock) and skinny tires (felt like I could crash at any moment). It’s much easier to get going on a road bike though and you can get up to some amazing speeds with the bike.

One of the hardest (literally) things to get use to is the seat, its very firm and you will feel every bump.

Trying new things is what keeps my brain going, you would be surprised where I get inspiration for my shirts from. Here’s hoping that I’ll get some crazy ideas while riding.

Having ridden mountain bikes all my life, 2.3 cm wide tires were hard to get use to.

After looking around I came across the Union Street messenger bag from Ona. I never heard of Ona, but the bag was making a splash on the blogs I frequently visited. I was a bit reluctant since there weren’t to many pictures of the bag on the site itself but I decided to get bag since there was several rave reviews.

Ona’s a small company based out Chicago, like most new companies, what set their product apart from the competition was their attention to detail, design and quality. Made from a mix of waxed canvas and leather patches. It definitely doesn’t look like a normal camera bag but it’s padded enough to protect your gear.

Although the Union Street looks like one of those old satchels your grandpa might have, it definitely doesn’t have the weird quirks though. Underneath the leather straps are buckles, which are much easier to attach and reattach on the run.

The shoulder strap is entirely made of leather, it isn’t that comfy but it gets the job done. You can also see the leather handle on the back of the bag as well which is surprisingly really sturdy if you wanna move your bag around with out putting it on.

A nice functional touch, these small leather patches help stop the strap from getting twisted along the metal loops.

The Union Street comes with 2 tall dividers and 2 smaller ones, as you can see everything fits nice and tight in the bag so everything doesn’t get tossed around when you are on the move.

All of the inserts are detachable including the laptop divider, tons of room!

The inner pocket is really nice as well, it has 4 SD card pockets, two larger pockets (size of an iPhone) and a couple pockets for pens. The leather inserts let you get into the pockets without wearing down the canvas. The back of the bag also has a wide pocket but you can’t fit much in there besides a Moleskine book.

Overall I totally recommend this bag to anyone who wants a nice camera bag that doesn’t want that “I’m a photographer” look. It’s a bit pricey at $279 USD but your paying for bag that is better designed and is made from high quality material. You can check out this bag and other bags by Ona on their site here.

I’m just taking a wild guess but somehow I doubt I would see a Lexus LF-A around town so I headed down to the car show to snap a few pictures of the famed car. I gotta say, the car looks much better in person, the car reminds me of a modern day Supra for some reason. Unfortunately the car wasn’t spinning around on the platform at the time so I wasn’t able to get any great shots. If you want to see more pictures from the show, let me know in the comments!

I noticed that this LF-A did not have carbon fibre cannards above the rear lights like I've seen in other pictures.

A better view of the exhuast.

One of my favorite design features.

Not a LF-A but for some reason I really like this car. Possible future car?