Week In Review ~ 28 September

We’re in the middle of the weekend with the work week behind us and Monday still on the distant horizon so what better way to celebrate than putting your feet up and perusing what’s been happening in the world of carry. Plus if you have to work on the weekend there’s nothing like a dose of bags to carry you through…

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Topo climbs into business carry

When is a briefcase not a briefcase? When it’s a Topo Designs Mountain Briefcase that’s decided it’s had enough of stuffy boardrooms and demands the freedom of the streets. This bag refuses to be stuck in one mold and with its three-way carry system it promises to behave itself as a briefcase as long as you take it somewhere fun after work, whether you sling it over your shoulder messenger-style or carry it as a backpack. Your tech will be content to doze in the padded laptop section and the variety of pockets keeps things organized.

Taking the aggravation out of adventure travel

There’s nothing that will turn your travels from fun to aggravating faster than having luggage that doesn’t fulfil your needs. The founders of Tortuga Backpacks discovered this pretty quickly during a European backpacking adventure but if you can’t find the perfect travel backpack you just have to make do with second best, right? Well not necessarily. You can create your own, which is how the Tortuga Travel Backpack came into existence, with design expertise contributed by our very own Taylor Welden. The pack, which is available in October, is designed as carry-on luggage to reduce the need to check luggage during your travels (the 44-liter volume should see you through shorter and longer trips if you pack like a stealth ninja). It features front-loading so you don’t have to unpack everything to reach the stuff at the bottom of the bag – plus there’s nothing quite like a beady-eyed security attendant telling you to open your bag when you need to leg it to the soonly departing plane.

Classy versatile carry

Handsome and handy for all sorts of carry-related needs, Winter Session’s Garrison Bag combines ruggedness with fashion-friendly looks to create a carry-all that’s happy to come along for the journey as your carry-on luggage and beats a plastic bag hands down for transporting your groceries home. This handmade bag comes in two versions, a natural 15oz cotton canvas and 20oz waxed cotton canvas combo or a soley 20oz waxed cotton canvas option. There’s three exterior slip pockets (two end pockets and a document pocket), and an interior pocket for keeping smaller items within easy each.

Lugging logs in style

You carry firewood with your hands, you say? Not anymore. Katja Falkenburger’s Felt Firewood Holder keeps your hands clean and splinter-free while hauling wood to your campfire or stocking up your home supplies for those chilly nights that are just around the corner, with a side pocket for storing the likes of matches or a lighter. Nope, it’s not the normal sort of thing we feature but it’s pretty nifty. Plus it’s tough, handmade out of felted wool and something a bit different if you require a quirky gift for the tricky-to-buy-for carry enthusiast who has every bag they could possibly need.

Putting a cycling messenger through its paces

Umming and ahhing over whether to purchase the Timbuk2 Especial Messenger but want to know how it handles? While you might not be able to try before you buy, you can still get a good idea if it’s the cycling bag for you courtesy of our road test. We gave it a friendly shove into the frenzy of our road testing and you can see whether it was able to keep up here.