Week In Review ~ 30 June

Taking your pet on holiday? Want to show your Olympic support? Perhaps you’re suffering from that disease where your phone is always stuck to your hand. Maybe you want some insight on carry materials to help you choose the bag that’s right for your needs. Then you definitely need to check out this week in review…

Too often when you open the overhead compartment to store your carry-on luggage, you are greeted with a depressing sight. Bedraggled and bashed backpacks, something that may or may not have been a small rollerbag in a past life, sacks with contents trying desperately to make a break for it out the drawstring opening…but not so with the Hard Graft CarryOn suitcase. There’s no doubt it’s a thing of beauty – even the other bags in the compartment start to look better by association of sharing aura space with this suitcase. It features an adjustable and removable shoulder strap and is constructed using vegetable tanned Italian leather and a full lining of wool felt. The dimensions are 52 cm by 34 cm by 16 cm. This suitcase is suitable as the only bag you’ll need for a short trip (say a weekend away) or as carry-on luggage for longer trips.

With the Olympics just round the corner, it’s time to get into the sporting spirit. Start jogging, take up mountain biking, learn martial arts…or just do ten jumping jacks and flop onto the couch to watch the Games on TV. Alternately, there is a much simpler, less exhausting way to get into the Olympics vibe (plus a good excuse to get a bag) by picking up an O’Hare tote. This unisex tote created by WANT Les Essentiels de la Vie in honour of the Olympic Games is available in six primary colours and is made out of Italian calf leather and certified organic cotton. The tote features a shoulder strap, a hangtag commemorating the Games, as well as interior pockets and a color-contrasting mesh liner. The tote can be purchased at various retailers around the world.

Where you go, your pet goes. Up mountains, down rivers, through forests…and sometimes your pet will make it there through paw power but at other times a road trip or flight may be in order. Now your pet can travel in style and be the envy of all fellow furried travelers in the Tumi pet carrier. The bag has quilted padding which is both removable and washable, along with a leash and leather collar, multiple pockets, and mesh openings at the side and top of the bag to allow for visibility and ventilation.

Are you one of those people who can’t go 5 minutes without checking your phone? Do you feel a strange sort of separation anxiety when your phone isn’t within inches of your eager fingers? You either need to throw your phone in the sea right now and seek an intervention or give yourself up as a lost cause and feed your addiction with the DELTA415 Wearcom™ jeans from Alphyn Industries. The jeans themselves are relatively standard as jeans go, however they come with a built-in pocket that can house any touchscreen device with dimensions up to 3 inches by 5 inches. There is a button hole that allows headphone wires and the like to be threaded from the smartphone pocket to the right pocket of the jeans. And yep, there is no way you would ever catch us wearing these, but who knows, they might rock someone’s boat…

We feature all sorts of bags and wallets, throw road tests at them, and provide insight on the pros and cons, but there’s more to carry than the product as a whole. We decided it was time to give some spotlight attention to carry materials and as such have created a short series of posts on this subject. You can check out the first in the series here.