Where I admit my fetish for bags

[pphaneuf]

"What, do you have the whole collection?" — tygrbabe, after seeing I had my smaller Frida bag instead of my usual (because of my laptop) Fred Cocotte Equipment courier bag.

Yeah, I'm a yuppie bag-whore. And she hasn't seen my collection of Lowepro photo bags (I own no less than four!).

I like having the exact bag for the occasion and the equipment I'm carrying, and I enjoy attention to detail in the design of those bags. And I have to say I am not impressed at all by laptop bags in general, but most particularly by the appalling almost complete lack of bags designed for compact laptops (like my Apple Powerbook 12").

Dudes, I bought a small, easy to carry laptop. What the fuck would make you think I'd want to carry it around day-to-day with a large, clunky bag I could carry half my wardrobe in? The only non-stupid bag I found was just about exactly the side of the laptop, with no capacity whatsoever for anything else (like, um, my wallet, keys, or sunglasses). I can respect a minimal bag like that, can come in handy, but it's not a day-to-day thing either. I ended up hacking something, by putting that minimal bag inside my Fred courier bag. Pretty decent, but not perfect (the handles get in the way often, a double-zipper is a bit overkill for an internal pocket, and it moves around easily).

Well, turns out these smart bags exist, they're just a pain in the butt to find out about (thanks to Tim Bray for recently writing about that). Crumpler is somewhat well-known, but I've only seen their models for photo equipment or larger laptops in store (they also have one mighty offensive web site, if you ask me (which you didn't, I know, but too late!)). Tom Bihn is a new one to me, but seem to have pretty cool wares. RoadWired also had some decent offerings, but didn't catch my eye as much as the others.

Now, that's fine and dandy, but why do I learn of this, a) when I already got some kind of non-horrible setup (and so making it hard to justify to myself), and b) when I'm spending money on my move to France by the bucket-load? Oh well, nothing's perfect.

Now, if someone designed a courier bag specifically to carry a 12" laptop and an SLR camera, I'd be all over this, but somehow, I'm not holding my breath. :-)

Lastly, before anyone latches on too hard on the subject line, know that I also have a fetish for sunglasses, and a minor one on watches (although I'm skipping out on that one, not just for money reasons, but because of my uneasy relationship with time)... Bonus points if titanium is involved. ;-)

Such a yuppie, I should be ashamed.

Comments

[sfllaw.livejournal.com]

Shame!

[pphaneuf.livejournal.com]

You have the same expensive yuppie courier bag as I do! Okay, you've only got the one. And a Lowepro bag for your camera. And you've probably got something for your laptop, but I'm sure it's an icky bag, not a awesome bag.

Okay, I should be ashamed... :-)

[sfllaw.livejournal.com]

I have a lousy camera bag and many times I keep my camera in my pocket. And I throw my laptop into whatever bag I'm carrying at the time, which accounts for why I've epoxied chunks of it back together. Nevermind that it's scratched everywhere.

[jaramin.livejournal.com]

The price of these bags is obscene, if at least they were sweatshop free or something, they probably cost 20$ each to manufacture. Shame indeed :P

[cpirate.livejournal.com]

I don't think I ever did properly show you my green "courier-esque" bag. It's reasonably small, simple, and has a built-in laptop sleeve. Now, it happens that I could probably put half my wardrobe in there, but that's more a factor of the appalling state of my wardrobe rather than the bag.

[tygrbabe.livejournal.com]

if you decide to part with any ov your Cocotte bags i want first pick, i LOOOVE those!! tho my MEC bag isn't too bad and it's padded and the perfect size for thee ibook.

[dcoombs.livejournal.com]

Dude, my laptop is smaller than yours, and my laptop bag is bigger than yours, and I like the fact that I can cram half my belongings in there! When I was doing a pile of traveling it was great. Although yes, it's a shame my camera isn't one of the things that fits, because that'd be supremely awesome.

[pphaneuf.livejournal.com]

The Cocotte one, I'm fairly sure they are sweatshop-free, as I'm told they are made by these two guys in Montreal... Supporting locals and all, and they're great bags!

For the Lowepro ones, I think they're made in the US, but I wouldn't bet too much money on that. :-P

[pphaneuf.livejournal.com]

It's all about the proper bag for the proper situation. I have a super-tiny bag, and a humongous duffel bag. It's the fact you use your gigantic bag for your day-to-day commute to work that appalls me! ;-)

[pphaneuf.livejournal.com]

Oh, I keep the bags! They're compatible with the power outlets in Europe! :-P

[pphaneuf.livejournal.com]

It's really annoying, because I looked pretty hard for bags that could carry a laptop, and all those I saw were for 15" laptops, for the smaller ones. Lowepro's CompuTrekker, to give one example. And now that I'm all setup, I see the good bags everywhere, gah.

[tygrbabe.livejournal.com]

ALL ov them?! geebus...

[pphaneuf.livejournal.com]

Well, I only have the two Cocotte bags! But it's true I don't use the Frida very much these days, and it is blue... :-)