Bags

It is one of the biggest ironies of the current digital age. While our information may effortlessly reside in a persistent data cloud accessible from anywhere, all the mobile stuff we need to access that cloud needs an earthly place to stay while we are out and about.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.