Where have we been?

Well, we'd love to share the details with you...but right now, they are still considered *Classified*.
We can tell you that it involved this bad boy...

 ...lots of fast talking, the exchange of currency and a long wait in a small airport hanger that smelled of cigar smoke, perspiration and bad attitudes. Relatively unscathed, a plane touched down on American soil and a much needed decompression period began. Welcome Home.

We're at it again! New stuff! New stuff!

In case you stumble on this entry days after it was originally posted, please take a look at the day it was published before reading any further. Then remember that date should you start asking yourself if we really mean any of this ...

Yes, you read that right: New RDB stuff! Two new products, as daring as anything we've yet dared!

When we introduced our Real Deal Brazil Cuba Libre hat a few months back, followed quickly by our beefy Rio Branco Rucksack, the response to both was even stronger than we'd anticipated (as anyone who got that unfortunate "Item temporarily on backorder" notice when they went to buy one already knows all too well). Which is to say we promptly ran out of both products, and then had to wait on reorders from our sewing team in Brazil! Then, once we got our stock back up, and sales continued to be strong on both items, we started thinking we'd like to try a few more new-item experiments.

That said, it's crazy some of the suggestions we've gotten these last few years, for products we should start making. Most involve clothing items:  duster- and bomber-style jackets, jean-style pants, shirts, vests, even chaps! The problem we run into in all those cases is money, plain and simple: High tarp costs, combined with international shipping fees and all the additional sewing time and resources that would be required of these labor-intensive items, would mean huge up-front expenses that would then translate into what we feel would be exorbitant prices for the finished goods. We're simply not comfortable asking that of our customers. So we've steered clear of making any clothing … until now!

Because it recently struck us: We could fashion a few personal clothes items for those folks who really want to take the Real Deal lifestyle to its fullest extreme, items that would not actually require a great amount of tarp, would involve minimal sewing time and would weigh very little when it came to shipping. Items we could therefore keep relatively inexpensive when it was all said and done!

Items, as it turns out, for the Real Deal boudoir!

So, while we haven't yet established prices on our two as-yet-potential RDB offerings, we have gotten some mockups done, and just shipped to us from Brazil, to share with you, to gauge customer interest before we officially incorporate these products into our lineup. So, Real Deal nation, we present to you our newest planned additions: the Real Deal Brazil Recycled-Tarp Sumo Diaper (first picture, below), and the Real Deal Brazil Recycled-Tarp Battle Thong (second picture, below)! The same rugged heavy-canvas material you expect, with patches, fraying, shifting tarp colors, ink marks, the whole nine (or, more likely, a few inches less, if we're to be realistic here). That same proud Real Deal spirit of balls-out individuality (OK, not balls out, but possibly involving some real cajones, regardless).

We would, of course, be offering each of these in several sizes. We ask only that you would then be realistic in ordering, particularly you male customers, cuz there won't be much we can do with these if you return them should they not, y'know, fit. Seriously. That's just gross to even think about.

Unfortunately, we couldn't get a single person here to model either of these new items in the way they're meant to be worn, so we were forced, in the case of the Sumo Diaper, to create a simple graphic representation, since that item doesn't really look like much all by itself. The point is, it takes a big personality to pull this off, and if there's one thing our fans have, it's personality, for days!

The Battle Thong pictured here is the actual item. Our RDB designer's kind of a geek, but once we saw the finished product, we thought the Star Wars rebel insignia was an inspired touch (until Disney shows up to tell us differently, of course). We told our designer he needed to model it for us; he told us to go to hell. Some rebel he turned out to be.

Frank: "Not just no. HELL no!"

We even tried our PR Guy, Frank, who's usually so lacking in good sense that he'll do anything we ask. But even he drew the line on stripping down and Real Dealing up, falling back on the fact that we don't even pay him. Of course, that all may be a very lucky thing, in afterthought: We're not sure the world is ready for so much of him suddenly so very visible. We honestly shudder to think of it.

So let us know what you think! And if we add these two items, and you one day buy either or both for yourself, you really don't need to send us pictures, at least not if you look anything like Frank. Seriously. Please don't.