So far in this series we examined the Calvin and how it changed our concepts of "yummy", we talked about the Cherry Red and how it changed our concepts of fabric choice, we talked about the Tune in With Taylor and how it changed our concepts about marketing Myachis, we talked about the Green Sponge and how it changed our concept of the family of Myachis and, most recently, we talked about the Black Butter and how it changed our concept of what a Myachi should be.
But now we're moving on to the second level of earth-shattering. If we were simply compiling a list of awesome Myachis, it would be hard to find five that outdo the five we've already discussed, but since our focus here is on the most "game changing" Myachis, the ones that made the biggest impact on future Myachis, there are five very deserving candidates, beginning with one you might have seen coming.
#5) The Black Belt
For those who have been in the game for a while, just glancing over the glorious simplicity of the Black Belt evokes images of perfection and desire; this sack is at once rare, unique, classic, simple and unparalleled in jammability. It is a Myachi for all people, regardless of their interest in the game. For the collector it is a 1 of 121 and one of only three officially sanctioned Myachis ever released without a tag. For the freestyler it is unrivaled once broken in... and not too shabby along the way either. Heck, even for people outside the game entirely, the very name "Black Belt" suggests that this sack sits upon the apex of a distinguished pyramid.
And as many great things as I could say about the Black Belt, only one of them is truly pertinent for the purposes of this article. Sure, it was the best jamming Myachi of all time when it was released. Sure, it was a prototype from a very small run that was never released in stores. Sure, fewer than 10% of the Black Belts made were ever actually sold. Sure, more world Myachi records have been set with this sack than any other by a ratio of at least 3 to 1. But none of those are the reason that this sack earned such a high spot on this list. What achievement could possibly outshine the ones listed above?
The Black Belt was the first Myachi ever made in Pakistan.
It wasn't intended to be a world-changer. Heck, it wasn't even supposed to be a sack that many people would ever hear about. We met a manufacturer from Pakistan at a trade show and he said he could make Myachis for us. Of course, we already had a manufacturer that we were happy with so we thanked him politely, but he was quite insistent. So we discussed it a bit deeper.
The one drawback to the manufacturer we were using up to that point was volume. It was a pretty big factory and they weren't interested in doing our small runs. They would only accept orders for 1,000 pieces or more. Now, that was rarely a problem. We were always making way more than 1,000 at a time when we made our series sacks and companies like Dodge, Dunkin Donuts and Sobe were more than happy to order by the thousands.
But that left a big segment of our potential customer base out of the game. This manufacturer was able to make orders of as few as 150 Myachis so all of a sudden we would have a viable option for small run orders; the kind of orders we could get from private events, bar mitzvahs, school fund raisers, church groups, charity organizations and local businesses. It would open the door to a whole new market for us... a market that had been knocking on our doors for years.
Of course, before we broke out the champagne bottles, we had to make sure that this dude could deliver on what he was promising. After a little negotiation, he agreed to make 36 Myachis as a sample to show us his work. Since we were thinking about this as an option for custom Myachis, we had him put the Myachi logo on the front to see how that would work out.
We didn't provide him with the tags and we told him not to bother with the loops on this first run. We just wanted to see if he could make a quality, jammable Myachi for the price he was promising. A few weeks later we got the shipment in and our hopes were raised a notch or two. They were a little bit too small and a bit overstuffed, but they were well stitched and the fabric was awesome.
But Myachi Man is a cautious guy and he wanted to see it on a bigger scale. Before we offered these sacks to one of our customers, we had to be positive that we would be giving them the best possible quality. We asked for a few corrections and placed our first order. Since this was still just considered prototyping, we still didn't bother sending any tags. This time he offered to split it up between three colors so we got 85 Black, 85 Blue and 85 White. This time they got the dimensions perfect and crafted some of the best Myachis we'd seen to date.
With sacks that were so cool looking and so incredibly jammable, it was only a matter of time before a few made their way into the wider world of Myachidom. We hooked up a few long time maniacs with the condition that they break them in and report back to us. Soon after that they were being talked about on the forum and a few were being shown around a couple of the big Myachi schools. Soon after we were inundated with calls asking if we had any Belts left.
Today, more than half of the different types of promotional Myachis ever made were manufactured in Pakistan. We've made countless Myachis for maniacs, birthday parties... heck, we ever made a Myachi to commemorate our long running online forum, designed and paid for by the members of the forum. This one small step in our supply chain has had a long echoing effect that is still being felt today.
Believe it or not, there are still four Myachis on this list that rank higher than the Black Belt for the impact they've had on the movement. To find out what they are, keep checking back with us...
Can you make another youtube contest?
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