For the second year in a row at Caltopia, the line for the Incase booth giving away custom screen-printed tote bags wrapped around the entire building, spilling into the parking lot.

Just as the UC Berkeley event planners like to say, Caltopia really might just be “the two greatest days on planet earth.” (It definitely was for Cal students and friends of Incase, at least!) For the second year in a row, the line for the Incase booth giving away custom screen-printed tote bags wrapped around the entire building, spilling into the parking lot. Friends could be heard screaming to each other, “Whoa, that line’s soooo long!” and “But it’s so worth it, dude!”

Our most popular tote was an illustration of a growling bear by artist Dee Dee Cheriel. Why? Turns out, the bear is Berkeley’s mascot! Really, you’ve never heard so much happy screaming in your whole life over tote bags.

Thanks to all the Cal students and event planners for making this year’s Caltopia so great. And thanks again to Michelle Pullman for being there to manage it all and for being so awesome! Check out Michelle’s interview with Caltopia here (she starts at the 2:22 mark).

To the entire Cal campus community, we sincerely look forward to seeing you all again next year. Have a great fall semester and go Bears!

This past Sunday & Monday, August 23-24th, Incase was at CalTopia screening Tony Mech-illustrated tote bags and discussing our range of Fall 09 products. What is CalTopia you ask? Good question. It is the biggest student orientation fair in the known universe and it happens every year on the UC Berkeley Campus. For two days 37,000 students + their families & friends show up to learn about California schools and sample food and other products. All kinds of stuff…. Mountains of free giveaway products, miles of food, oceans of beverages, piles of pamphlets…. The fair is designed to let incoming college kids know about all the many things awaiting them in the California university system—good and bad.

Our onsite production manager for CalTopia was none other than celebrated rock photographer & epic rager Michelle Pullman (a/k/a The Shellzbot). Here’s her recap of the event. Take it away Shellzbot!:

The Incase booth at Cal Topia was by far the most exciting. The event took place in a gymnasium and many of the vendors worked the crowd with noisemakers and ring toss games. Whereas our booth had a colorful onsite screen-printing activation, a bin-station full of free product, and an excellent group of five fun people to talk to. Kids lined up and waited 2 hours for our tote bags. They were very excited about watching the screen-printing as it took place.

Throughout the two days I overheard people say many times that the wait was worth it. It was a good opportunity for students to get to know each other better before the first day of school. They didn’t stick around to hang out at any of the other booths. Not everyone enjoyed the wait though. One kid curled his index finger at me, urging me over to the farthest quietest corner of the booth and offered to “help me out” (with cash) if I could hook him up with a tote bag. I smiled sweetly and said, “Sorry dude!” The students loved our free bin station and couldn’t get enough, really. Every time they went for the plunge and were thrilled with their new iPhone and iPod cases, Notebook Sleeves and Incase stickers!

At the beginning of our second day we already had a line out the door. Wild. People said they’d heard about our booth from friends that had been there on the first day. Many people asked me about our range of products. They wanted to buy them off of me but I directed them to the Student Store. One girl wanted a Notebook Sleeve from us because she said she liked the simplicity of our designs over other vendors. Several people proudly waved their iPhones at me, already sporting Incase covers! We were definitely the life of the party. The Target people even came over and told us so. They were a little jealous, but they couldn’t help but love us. They got Incase totes too.