Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Baggin' It!

I'd been using the same backpack for years, a nice, cheap purple one I bought on a whim in 1993.  I wasn't shopping around for a backpack at the time, I just happened to be in a department store in Beaverton and bought a Computer Shopper magazine that was too big for the backpack I was happily using at the time, so I went to the stores bag section and found one that would hold the magazine, was cheap and I liked the purple.

The original, hard-to-replace, worn out bag...
After that, I used it all the time, I carried it to work every day after that.  I used it as my carry-on bag when traveling on vacations.  I hauled it to India on vacation where it got chewing gum stomped onto one shoulder strap on the Jhelum train from Delhi to Pune...

I carried spare clothes in it when walking to work in the pouring rain, laptops wrapped in multiple plastic grocery bags.  I've stuffed it almost to the bursting point at times.

It was the near perfect bag.  The pockets were arranged just right, everything I put in it was exactly where I needed it to be, and easily accessible without pulling the bag out from under the airplane seat in front of me.  Laptop, books, camera, water, snacks, sweatshirts...  One pocket was just right for any of the diaries I took with me on my travels, plus nice pens.  And the outermost was perfect for travel papers, passport, plane tickets, cash...  And since everything had its place, I could easily take stuff out and put stuff back in while walking through an airport or a busy sidewalk...

But alas, time had its way with it...  And the TSA, too...  The first real damage to it came while boarding a flight out of PDX, when a security agent tore off one of the zippers at the last check before getting on the plane...  Oops...  She apologized, and when I asked if there was anything they could do about the damage, she said yes, but I'd have to skip my flight to file paperwork.  So I didn't anything about it (not with more than 20 hours of connecting flights starting in San Francisco and Seoul before arriving in India...)

Hipstamatic photo with an
octopus toy...
After that I also started washing it in our washing machine and then the water resistant lining inside began wearing away.  And the zippers got worse and worse over time, and the nylon fabric started unraveling and threads got stuck in the zippers...  And the hand strap is getting close to ripping out....  Well, you know, it was a cheap backpack, and it's getting worn out after nearly two decades...

In 2007 and 2008 I browsed around shops in London looking for a replacement backpack, and saw some interesting ones (I particularly liked some stuff at a water sports shop near Embankment, and one of my friends bought a pretty cool bag when I took him there), but I guess my heart wasn't quite into replacing a trusted, old friend because nothing was "just right".

Now in New York City I've been looking for a replacement, and I've tried a bunch out, too...

First I got a nice, green waxed canvas backpack from Brooklyn Industries that seemed good, especially for daily hauls to work and back when I don't need to carry much.  I used it a bit, off and on.  Being small, it's good in a crowd, I don't have to worry so much about bashing other people with it.

But it had some significant flaws...  The wax felt kind of funny on my hands, but not a big deal, not compared to the other problems.  The red flannel lining looked cool inside, but then my iPad, camera and anything else I carried ended up with red fibers all over, which is not good...  And one day I bought a box of Saltine crackers to take to work as a snack, and no matter how I oriented it, it simply wouldn't fit.  The bag just got too narrow at the top...

After that I rarely bothered with it.  For the rainier days I simply wrapped things in plastic bags and tossed into my leaky, purple bag.

Then on New Year's Day in 2011 I had a whim to go look at some bags at the Oakley store on 9th Avenue at 14th Street (don't look for it now, it's closed...).  Oakley has some good sports gear.  I ended up buying the Surf Pack, and maybe I wouldn't have if I didn't have a rip roaring headache that day.

I really didn't use the Surf Pack much right away.  It's quite big, and as I was taking the subway daily at the time it felt too bulky in the crowded trains, like I was using more space than I really needed to.  It has one main compartment, so everything sort of jams into there, without much division, except for stuff like medicines and pens and a small notepad into some of the side pockets.  Really, as the name implies, they intend it to carry a bundle of wet suit gear, not really urban adventuring...

Still, though, it proved exceptionally useful when I was moving apartments, simply because it's big.  I could carry a significant amount of stuff per trip using it, and it was comfortable to haul a heavy load right on my shoulders.  I'm glad I got it for that alone.

On the other hand, when I had something recently that was large and blocky, it wouldn't fit into the tapered top of the Surf Pack, even if the total volume was okay for it.

Shortly after that I got a Wenger Synergy bag that I bought on a whim at Best Buy, where they had it in the section of laptop bags.  It's got lots of pockets, lots of space, a sturdy bottom so it stands up straight most of the time.  It's quite a bit larger in all dimensions than my old purple one.  But the odd thing is, when I was transferring "stuff" between them, the things I always seemed to have in the purple one, with plenty of space for shopping, seemed to take up much more of the Wegner bag.  It seemed like much of the Wegner bag's space was taken up by compartment separators and things like that...

Another major problem with it is that the zipper pulls inside are all solid pieces of metal, without small holes in them like most zippers.  Minor thing, but my mother gave me a glass pendant on a small chain years ago "to ward off the evil eye" and this bag doesn't have a good place to attach it.

Worse still, once I started actually using it a bit, it wasn't all that comfortable.  The arrangement of the back padding just didn't seem to conform to the shape of my back very well.  I was constantly fidgeting and moving my shoulders around to try and get comfortable in it, but no luck.  I think it's made for someone with a larger back than me.

el Cheapo Target
And frankly, I was never happy with the color, the blue, black and silver, with some red highlights and some high tech looking, but useless grommets...  After I bought it I've seen a few people around with green ones, but not many.  I'd rather have that...

At Target one day I picked up really cheap green backpack, but after getting it home and comparing it with others, it's really small, and the nylon makes an annoying crinkly sound.  I haven't even taken the tags off it yet to try it out.  Maybe I will, maybe I won't...

A couple of weeks after that I bought another Oakley bag, Contact that I don't see online anymore.  It's kind of classy looking, and has lots of pockets, while not being too big, so everything is fairly compact.  It has a removable bag on top, with a few pockets, good places to put everything.

Oakley Contact
It's comfortable enough to carry, but is smaller than the old purple one, so I can't fit quite as much as I'm used to.  Its two main pockets are different sizes, which always throws me for a loop, too.  Carrying a camera, spare lens, iPad and a book is really too much for it, they fit, but nothing is comfortable to get in and out without something else feeling like it's in the way.

And unfortunately, it doesn't have a mesh sort of pocket outside for a water bottle, so to get a drink I have to set it down and open it up.

And when shopping, it doesn't have much capacity, especially not if I already have my camera gear in it.  Since a lot of the shopping I do is books, bulky books, that puts a serious crimp in my style...

Recently I ordered a Kelty Women's Redwing 40 from Zappos.  I did a bit of reading and comparison before picking that and thinking it sounded like just what I need.  I figured a women's size might suit my smaller back a little better, and the overall size looked pretty good.  Not to mention the kick-ass green!

The night i got it I figured out how to get the waist belt off it, since I've never really used one of those and wasn't sure I needed it in the city.  Maybe it'll be useful to put back on in cold weather, but in the heat it can't be comfortable.

While I like it, after a few weeks of using it, I suspect it's designed more for hiking out of the city and overnight camping than for city adventures and commuting...  It came with detailed instructions on how to pack it, including putting light, bulky things, such as a sleeping bag, on the bottom, and heavier stuff on top. Plus it's got a lot of straps and harnesses that probably hold it steady while hiking on uneven terrain, up hills and down mountains (and if I tried to use all of them, taking it off would probably be as complicated as getting a bra off my wife...) that aren't necessary on pavement and walking up the steps to the High Line...

Regarding their packing instructions, I can see how they make sense.  When I simply toss in my camera and a lens, the bottom isn't rigid at all, so those heavy item just pull it down and inside the bag they bounce against my butt when I walk, which is annoying.

Due to the floppy bottom and the width, it proved useful in Manhattan at stopping a handball some kids accidentally knocked over a fence.  I was able to swing the bag down at the ground and keep the ball from rolling into the street, then hand it back to them inside the fenced handball court.

Another problem is when riding on the subway, without it being packed pretty full it won't stand up next to me for me to use as an armrest.  When I try that, it just sort of slides away from me along the seat.

It also does have ice ax loops though, so now I can finally buy that ice ax I've always wanted but never had anywhere to put...

I recently ordered the Burton Profanity Pack from Zappos and after about a week of using it I like it.  It doesn't seem to have the biggest capacity, or the most pockets, but for a general use bag, it seems pretty good.

I've carried it to work for a week and there hasn't been any trouble, although it wouldn't hold a larger size Amazon box that I received at work.  It has two mesh pockets on the sides, so I can carry a water bottle in one and a Thermos of cold-brewed green tea in the other.  When loaded with just the camera and lens it didn't weight down heavily like the Kelty bag.  And I was still able to do some light shopping and carry on top of that.

With the camera and lens in the main compartment, I carried the iPad and a book in the narrower laptop compartment, and the book was easy to take out and put back in when I hung out in a park to read.  That was a lot better than the same situation with the Oakley Contact bag.

Certainly with name like "Profanity Pack" it puts a bit of a grin on my face whenever I put it on...

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