The biggest arguments at the House of Skills usually come when it's time to pick the next series. We usually start with several thousand swatches of fabric and we have to narrow it down to twelve. With so many voices and so many opinions being tossed around, there are bound to be disagreements.
More often than not, there are six or seven fabrics that we all instantly agree need to be in the series and then we all have differing opinions on the remainder. We expend a great deal of effort resolving the differences in fabric preference, pattern preference, color preference and name. We look at the series as a whole and judge the contrast of all the colors. We look at past series and see which fabrics have been winners before. We look at cultural shifts and see what fabrics are trending up and down. In short, we spend a lot of time deciding on which fabrics get made into Myachis.
Interesting then, that one of the most popular series sacks ever produced was not the product of any debates or research at all. Instead, it showed up quite unexpectedly and quite by accident.
The Red Line first appeared in the 3.2 series, but it only showed up at the tail end. Originally we had planned to have two sacks in the checkerboard pattern, the Finish Line and the Starting Line. Both the sacks and the names were suggested by our friend and loyal Maniac, Downtown and they were so cool that they were as much of a slam dunk as any fabric in Myachi history.
But there was an unforeseen problem. At some point toward the end of the production run, the factory ran out of the green and white checkered fabric for the Starting Line.
In the 3.2 series as is true with many series, we made two different types of packages. The "Blister Card" packages are the bulk of the series. These are the familiar cardboard cards that have the Myachi encased in an acetate bubble. If you bought a Myachi from a store, you probably bought it in a Blister Card.
The other package is what we call a POP or "Point of Purchase" display. These are boxes that are designed to sit on the counter tops of smaller stores and just contain a bunch of Myachis sitting in plastic sleeves (diapers) with booklets attached to them. These are also the packages we use for private parties, fund raisers, give aways, etc.
Typically when we split the series like that, the Blister Card portion of the order is made first. It's usually the larger segment and it's always the more time consuming one, so the factory knocks these out and packages them before finishing up with the POP boxes.
I mention all of that because the Starting Line fabric didn't run out until all the Blister Cards were made. More than half of the POP order was fulfilled when the roll ran dry. Desperate to finish the order and get it to our waiting fans (the XM7 was running out fast), they just used the closest substitute they could find.
Now for the craziest part of the story: We didn't even know about the switch until it was in stores. I had a dude swing by FAO who had seen Myachis on sale at the card shop around the corner from his apartment and he asked me what the name of the red checkered Myachi was.
"There is no red checkered Myachi," I answered confidently. And then he pulled one out of his pocket and my jaw dropped.
I looked at the tag that prominently proclaimed it as a series 3.2 and about two seconds later I was dialing Myachi Man. I guess he'd gotten the news from the manufacturer before I did and he explained that a few POP boxes went out with the Red Line instead of the Starting Line. He also explained that all of those boxes had already been sold so there was no way to know which stores would have them and which wouldn't.
Of course, I knew one store that had them.
I called Monk and asked him to cover FAO for me for an hour while I booked to the little card shop to see if they still had any left. After all, there would have only been 3 in the box to start with and I knew one had already sold. I arrived on the upper west side about 30 minutes later out of breath and sweating.
There in a little fishbowl on the counter top I saw their Myachi selection and sure enough there was one little red and white checkered corner visible near the bottom. I reached in and fished around until I got my hands on it and then I hit the register.
This store was one that had actually been in the game a while (State News on 86th near Lexington if you want to swing in and say "hi") so it was no surprise that the woman at the counter recognized me. I'd demoed in the store before and I'd delivered them boxes of Myachis several times as well. Needless to say, she was a little surprised by the fact that I was at her store buying a Myachi.
It was, in fact, the first time I ever bought a Myachi in a store. I bought three from Myachi Man when I first met him and I'd purchased a few bulk boxes in the hiatuses that used to speckle my annual schedule, but I'd never actually walked into a store and bought one Myachi. It was such a novel experience that I kept the receipt and still have it with my collection.
The twist ending here is that we all thought for a moment that the Red Line would be this super rare sack that everyone would be clambering to get their hands on. But it was such a popular (and readily available) fabric that we rereleased it in the 3.2X, the 5B and the 4.0 series making it one of the largest single Myachi runs of all time. As it turns out the real prize for collectors today is the Starting Line that the Red Line replaced.
But if you have a Red Line, check the tag. Odds are you're going to find a 4.0, 5B or 3.2X marker on the back. If you have a 3.2, however, you truly have a hidden gem in your collection; a Myachi worth calling Monk into work and jogging 31 blocks over.
i got a 4.0 redline
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