Shoulder Bag

Waterfield Design Sling

by Julie on May 4, 2007 · 12 comments

in Gear

For the past 8 months, my everyday gear bag of choice has been a custom Bagaboo messenger bag. That bag ended a long personal quest for the perfect bag… That is until I saw Waterfield Design’s latest creation, the Sling. Actually, I didn’t really pay much attention to the Sling when I first saw it show up on Waterfield’s site. Then they contacted me to ask if I would like to review it. I said sure, but still was not totally excited about it. Then it arrived and my mind instantly changed.

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Ah… bags. Yes, it’s an addiction. Got a million of them in the attic, many gathering dust. I buy them, use them, find something better and then move on. My requirements for a gadget bag are simple: lots of pockets and/or compartments, have rough dimensions of 10-12 inches long, 7-8 inches tall and 4-6 inches deep. The CityWalker and Europa Field bags are both excellent examples of the kind of bag I love. I use the Europa to tote my Fujitsu P1510D laptop to work every day, but for my travels this year I decided on a new bag. A beautiful, black and compartmentalized bag from Victorinox called the Travel Companion Horizontal Tote.

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Canvas, Cordura, Leather, Silk?

No, there is nothing wrong with your RSS feed, you are reading a review on silk gear bag. Yes, it is indeed possible to have a practical bag made of silk.

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Tom Bihn Cafe Bag

by Julie on December 13, 2006 · 3 comments

in Gear

Whoo hoo, it’s time for another gear bag review! Yay! Yes, there really is cause for excitement this time. Why? Because I think that I’ve finally found my around-town / out-for-lunch gear bag! I’ve been searching for the perfect small bag that I can stow inside my everyday bag (right now that is a custom Bagaboo messenger bag) and then take with me when I go to lunch. My criteria has been a bag to carry my wallet, phone, a pen, sunglasses and a few other things as necessary. My quest has brought me to the Tom Bihn Cafe Bag.

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Vaja 15″ Messenger Bag

by Julie on October 26, 2006 · 13 comments

in Gear

At least once or twice throughout the years, I have mentioned to John Hindaly of Vaja that it would be fantastic if they would consider adding a line of gear bags. All this time, I’ve been waiting patiently for them to create one of their masterpieces… I’m happy to say that my (and your) wait is now over. Vaja has just announced 3 new gear bags. A 15″ wide messenger, a 15″ vertical messenger and a slim messenger bag. They sent me the 15″ vertical messenger bag tonight. I’m honored that Vaja chose The Gadgeteer as the first review site that they’ve sent a sample to!

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You guys probably know by now that I’ve turned into a messenger bag junkie. It’s not like I need to be admitted into a 12 step program for this addiction, but I can’t help but want to try every mess bag that I can get my hands on. The latest one in my possession is the Z Messenger from Zitteli.

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Women seem to be able to wear men’s clothing without catching any flak about it, but men…just try on that blouse and see what happens. Ouch. This is true as well of bags…women can walk around with a briefcase, and kiss other women, and nothing could be seen as further from normal. Let a man walk around with a women’s purse, though…and we won’t even continue the parallel metaphor, and you could wind up being beaten up and left to die on the pavement.

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The concept of Yin and Yang has been around for centuries. A simple
definition would be that “Yin and Yang” is a term used to describe
interdependent opposites, such as male and female, light and dark,
or hot and cold. The Tom Bihn Imago marks the first time I have
seen this principle of complimentary opposites used to describe a
messenger bag…well, one that didn’t have the well known black and
white symbol plastered to its front, anyway. And yet, there is a
very good reason for the company to have chosen Yin and Yang to
describe their new bags.

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When Darcy, the VP of Marketing at Tom Bihn, wrote asking if I
would like to take a look at their new Aeronaut Maximum Carry On
Bag, her offer couldn’t have come at a better time. My family was
in the process of getting ready for our California vacation, and I
was in the midst of a bag quandary. I was planning on bringing the
usual heavy load of travel electronics, along with a Fuji laptop
and my new (and as yet mostly unconfigured) DualCor cPC. As I
started gathering all of my gear together, it was quickly becoming
obvious that my regular bag was not going to comfortably handle the
oversized load.

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Bagaboo Messenger Bags

by Julie on August 14, 2006 · 18 comments

in Gear

My daily gear bag for the past 9 months has been a Timbuk2 messenger bag that I designed using their Bag in a Box kit. This is the bag that actually turned me on to messenger style bags in the first place. Even though I’ve been happy with the Timbuk2 for quite a while now, I still find that I’m always on the lookout for one that has more pockets, better features, materials etc. Guess what? The Timbuk2 is going bye-bye because I recently discovered Bagaboo Bags.

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Ok boys and girls, gather round because it’s time for another gear bag review! I am a total gear bag freak, so I never tire of trying new ones. The latest one to grace my shoulder is the Ducti High Voltage Messenger Bag. If you’ve not heard of Ducti, they are the same company that brought you the now famous duct tape wallets. The High Voltage Messenger Bag isn’t made of duct tape though, it’s a multi-pocketed canvas bag with an urban style.

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I have always loved pockets. At six, I swore off jeans as their pockets couldn’t hold the quantity of stuff that I wanted. Although I have since taken jeans back up, albeit after a decade long protest, I continue to be fascinated with ever better means of storage. Not long ago I stumbled upon the [...]

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Being a gadgeteer, we all know too well the dilemma of not having a third hand to carry the numerous gadgets we simply must not leave home without. Some of us barely get by not forgetting our wallet, glasses, watch and car keys. We must have our cell phone, iPod, PDA, all of the latest [...]

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If I were looking for a casual backpack or messenger-style laptop bag, the selection would seem endless. With a budget of $100 I could have my pick of fabrics, sizes, pocket types; a near endless sea of options. But if I needed a laptop bag that would look good when I was wearing high heels [...]

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It’s no secret that I love items with a slight militaristic flavor, and it is common knowledge that olive green is one of my favorite clothing colors. That’s why when it was offered, I was eager to review the perfectly colored and fabulously styled MEDIUM Design Group Deployment Messenger Bag. At first glance, the Deployment [...]

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A couple of years ago I was flipping through one of the catalogs I regularly receive, and I saw a backpack that was made out of an Asian-motif silk brocade. The bag was pretty, feminine, had lots of pockets – and had it not actually been a diaper bag complete with changing pad, I might [...]

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Yeah, yeah, another gear bag review. Well, every gadgeteer must also be a bagateer as well! How else do we carry those wondrous bits of technology around with us on a daily basis? I have gone through an amazing number of bags in the search for the perfect bag to take my gadgets storm-chasing with [...]

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Not long ago, Julie and I were looking at the Crumpler site, each with a different bag in mind. In my ongoing search for the "end-all be-all hold-all" gearbag, I was looking for something with lots of pockets that could organize my stuff neatly on overnight or weekend trips. Julie was still caught up in [...]

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One of the first things that happened after walking into Seattle’s Edgewater Inn for Mobius 2005, was that I ran into Jason Dunn from Thoughts Media at the check-in desk. "Nice Skooba," he said as he pointed to the model he was wearing and then pointed to mine, "I bought the same one for my [...]

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Bumbakpaks Urbanomic Hamptons Bag

by Julie on November 11, 2005 · 3 comments

in Gear

You’ve got to love a bag from a company named Bumbakpaks. Come on, it’s just fun to say. Bumbakpaks, bumbakpaks, bumbakpaks. Ok, now that I have that out of my system, I can tell you about their Urbanomic Hamptons Chocotango bag which the company refers to as a messenger bag. But to me it looks [...]

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