Weekender bags

Weekender bags

Steve McQueen. God bless him. Apart from having nothing to do with Carryology, unless you count carrying style – boom tish*, a great joke people. Embrace it. Anyway, back to McQueen, nothing to do with carryology. But the image above invokes ideas of getting away for the weekend, packing the car up and bailing…. Good times abound for sure.

So to help you with your spontaneous weekend plans, we have devised a list of weekender styled bags. Bags that won’t look out of place in Monaco, St Tropez or the Great Ocean Road (or Dubbo if you’re that way inclined). Bags that are good for a weekend. A casual weekend…

If you’re hitting the road, wheeled bags, backpacks, briefcases or any sort of work bag bite, unless of course your weekend getaway involves spreadsheets, emails and a PC. No one wants to roll a bag down to their car and fit something that is so formal and bounded by shape. Time to let your hair down Sally and get in your Mustang…

Quick side note….
Do you call them a weekender bag? Or a duffel? I like duffel, but have gone with weekender for ease…

Anyway, a good weekender still needs pocketing for your toiletries, reading material, and holiday artifacts. But it doesn’t need as much carry emphasis – you want that casual feeling, a feeling of carefree and youthfulness. Basically you want to look like you’re from one of those Peter Jackson ads from yesteryear and wheels or backpack straps aren’t cutting it in this picture.

Because it’s less about being ‘optimized’, classic forms and materials generally look better, with coated canvas duffels the pinnacle.

This Tommy Work Bag by Property Of is a classic weekender. Casual yet practical, it would look awesome in the back seat of that Jag you always wanted.

KILLSPENCER is based in LA, doing a kind of new military chic that can slide between work and play. He uses great componentry, durable fabrics, and practical designs. His Weekender is neat.

If you read our recent post on Carry-on bags, you’ll know we formulated all sorts of rules about what a Carry-on is compared to a Weekender. Then along comes Lexdray, and kinda throws all those definitions out of whack. This is their Tahoe Duffle, a bag that mixes ballistic nylon with neoprene, to create something you can imagine a navy seal using on R&R.

Ahhh, Porter. The mainstay of the Japanese businessman, yet still with a street cred that Samsonite would dream of. We love Porter, we love that they are a bugger to find in the west, and we love that they continue to create wonderful bags and carry goods. Enough loving, here’s the Smoky Overnighter, from Seattle based Blackbird.

With every post, we hope there will be at least a little surprise for you guys. This one comes courtesy of the Best American Duffel crew, otherwise known as BAD. They are specialists in the way few brands are these days, churning out bomb-proof duffels in every size you could want. While we’ve shown the #3 SP, our favorite colorway is actually a Japan special (there’s a surprise), but you’ll have to nip over to MAPS online to check it (the Google translations for this are all time).