Same same, but different…
With so many great carry brands in the world, it’s easy to remain completely unaware of a brand that you would actually love.
So taking some inspiration from Amazon’s recommendation engine, we’d like to open up the comments and find those brands that we and our community might be unaware of.
We’ll kick it off with some of the more well known ones, which we’ve grouped into themes like Crafty, 1970′s, Industrial, Action Sports, Bike, and more…
Crafty
Construction that you can see and understand. Materials whose character is celebrated rather than forced into servitude. OK, maybe we’re going a little far, but here’s a few nice and crafty brands that you might like - Makr, Tanner, BillyKirk and Temono
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1970′s
There was something about hippies and flares that generated a decade of real ‘truth to materials’ approaches. A number of brands are rediscovering how nice tan leather and wool can be, while still adapting formats to the carry needs of our modern toys. Brands like Hard Graft, Superfolk, Travelteq & Kuvert
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Industrial Designed
Bag designers are a funny breed. If they come from fashion, they generally design soft and draping carry goods. However if they come from an industrial design background, you’ll generally see more structured and zip based bags… the kind you can easily draw. Think Incase, Alkr, Axio and Belkin.
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Action Sport
When you carry skateboards and snow stuff and haul it all over the world, you generally need a pretty consistent feature set. Add to that the fact that 2 of these brands are owned by the same company, and 3 of them are made in the same factories, and you start to understand the similarities. Here’s Gravis, Burton, DaKine, Ogio.
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Bike
Bike couriers are the new surfers… those relaxed ‘don’t give a f#&k’ crew that we all wish we were a little more like. So it’s no surprise that the bike lifestyle sporns bags that let you live a little more like a courier. These brands all do interesting roll-top packs, single strap bags, and have some street cred. We could list others, but these are our pick – Chrome, Mission Workshop, Sag & T-Level.
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Japanese Street
If you’ve never been to Japan, you’ve never seen the real evolution of the human race. They have technology, systems and a culture that makes the west seem prehistoric, and they usually keep it to themselves. We yap a lot about Porter here, but you should check out some of the more street oriented carry brands… Brands like Master-Piece, Visvim, Hobo and Nike (but not as you know it) are amazing!
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Heritage fashion
‘Authenticity’ is a word that has bounced around marketing circles so much recently that it has itself become somewhat inauthentic. While it’s been circling, it has encouraged a lot of brands with a rich heritage to release re-issue and ‘reminiscent of’ bags, knowing that the cool cats would dig the authentic credentials. Add to that some newer brands that try and give the appearance of a heritage past, and we start to have some fun things happening > Gregory (Japanese range is best), Fjall Raven, Altadena Works & Herschel
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Who did we miss?
What other brand themes should we mention?
Leather
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Interesting post, i’d like to add ‘Archie’s Grobags’ to the cycling category. Great biking bags with incredible attention to detail!
Thanks Alex. While Archie’s site does not show much at the moment, some images from Ms Google reveal that the bags certainly seem to have a lot going on with them. Plenty of features and ideas. Thanks for the share!
What about the real heritage brands that inspired the “heritage fashion” category? Im sure there must been some older companies still making good products (Filson?) And camping and military brands? (Arcte’ryx, Osprey, Maxpedition) They have undoubtedly pushed the technology of bag construction and materials. A lot of useful tech has trickled down from the utilitarian brands into the more aesthetic-conscience consumer market. I have a black Maxpedition Falcon II bag that I think is designed extremely well and complements my civilian lifestyle as good as any bag.
Thanks Matt, totally agree.
And while there’s still loads of heritage brands making bags the same way they always have (which I think is kinda lacking imagination and creativity), it’s been interesting to see the different evolution of real heritage brands. For instance, Filson continue to give a strong nod to their past, while Kelty has moved on almost entirely to the latest materials and constructions (despite being around since 1952).
If you like Maxpedition, have you seen http://www.mysteryranch.com/? It is from the founder of Dana designs (Dana Gleason), who is now making more for military/tactical and the Japanese market. An amazing carryologist.
PS: For anyone reading this deeply, be sure to check out Matt’s blog over at http://mattgrandin.tumblr.com/. He covers some Bike, EDC, Tactical and General carry gear.
Here is a list of bag companies I regard highly: http://mattgrandin.tumblr.com/post/1157177582/top-50-bag-companies-for-active-people
Wow. That’s a serious list!
For anyone interested, I highly recommend following the link and finding a few brands you never knew (or had forgotten existed). Great link.
In the Crafty category, Japanese brand http://roberu.com/ is pretty rad. Camera accessories are their main focus, but wallets and bags are also available. Really nice respect to leathers.