42
TOBACCO BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL
MAY/JUNE 2014
I
attended a fantastic Tobacconists of America Association
(TAA) convention in late March and had a great chance to
catch up with lots of good friends. In a survey of the TAA’s
80-or-so retail members, 90 percent reported considerable sale
increases in pipes and pipe tobacco over the last year. Survey
participants who added comments said things like “many younger
adult smokers are intrigued about pipe smoking and the lifestyle of
smoking pipes.”
What welcome feedback! As an industry, we should continue to
appeal to this market segment to keep that (sometimes a bit fickle)
interest alive.
On the Style Front
“Wait…is that a ‘murse?!’”
That’s what my 20-something-year-old kids asked
incredulously—with a teasing laugh to boot—when they first
got an eyeful of my new pipe bag. Soon they
were both fighting to “borrow” it. A murse,
in case you aren’t up on such fashion terms,
is a “man-purse,” apparently a very fashion-
forward accessory sported by male celebs
and hipster types.
My new bag is too casual to be a briefcase—
or even more pompously, an attaché case—and
definitely not meant for a serious job interview.
It’s too big to be just a pipe accessory bag—
mine also holds a tablet and whatever other necessities I need
throughout the day. It’s too stylish to be a laptop case—and way
nicer and grown-up than a backpack. It’s not big and chunky
enough to be a messenger bag—though it can be worn cross-body,
whether you are biking across town or hurrying through the airport.
At the risk of sounding awfully British, maybe we need to go back
to the good old-fashioned term “satchel.”
Whatever we ultimately decide to call it,
it’s a handsome accessory handcrafted in Italy
from cool suede that looks all raw and beat-up
(the wife informs me it’s called “distressed”).
From inside the flap, a burnt-orange leather
lining peeks out—just like on its little brother,
the “4th Generation” pipe case. (You can
check it out for yourself at our new website,
4thgentobacco.com.)
Of course, pipe bags come in a wide range
of shapes and sizes, as do murses. A simple
Google search will turn up a wide enough
range that you’re sure to find the right bag
for you—or to bring into your store for your
customers.They also make great gifts for pipe-smoking pals.
Plus, thanks to the popularity of the murse, you may find them
tough to keep in stock.
TBI
Picking up on Pipes
A new generation of pipe smokers is discovering the appeal.
By Erik Stokkebye
Trendspotting: Blast from the Past
In 1965 the hip item on campus was the slide rule. Kids
who weren’t even taking a math course wanted to be
engineers to validate that K&E slide rule they carried
around on their belts. Ironically, crew cuts and white
pipes completed the outfit. It was
the
fashion. I know
because I was there, and I had a slide rule and a crew cut
and was lousy in math. Ahhhh, those were the days.
