New Bags!

We needed new bags. After so many years at work, our old ones were starting to rip, leak, and smell, well, to be blunt, terrible. So we started looking to purchase

It's not an easy thing to replace a messenger bag. It's the only piece of equipment as important as the bike you ride. It carries the packages, the tool kit, spare tubes, rain gear, a change of clothes, and countless other items (mostly old rusty change and soggy ATM receipts) deep within its crevasses.

Our first concern was comfort. The work bag lives on your back more than 8 - 10 hours a day. If it's not comfortable how are you going to carry the packages?

Next up was waterproofing. What good is a messenger bag in New York if the packages get wet in the rain? Or snow? Or sleet? Or David Letterman shooting you with a firehose from the marquis at 1675 Broadway?

Finally was size. Being a small crew means we often have to load our messengers up with what would be considered an impossible amount of work at any other company. We only hire the strongest of riders, so we have no reason to doubt a courier's ability to load up + knock out 15 runs in an hour. Sometimes much more. The biggest limit in this regard is not time, but volume. How much can the messenger carry?

We looked around at our options. With the trend of "messenger style" spreading beyond college campuses and into mainstream style there are now hundreds of messenger bag companies.

We immediately ruled out any company that wasn't owned or founded by a former bike messenger. That narrowed our search field from 100s to about 2 dozen. Then we eliminated anything that wasn't made in America. No matter how small, we make every effort to support our local economy. If we don't buy American, we'll be saying Bye, America!

Ultimately, we really had no choice but to go with our old friends at Freight Baggage. Based out of a manufacturing space in North Beach, San Francisco, Travis & company have spent years on the road, refining their design into one of the pinnacles of messenger bag-dom.

The bags are giant. I could easily fit my 75 lbs rottweiler in my bag (if she'd sit still that long), with space for her toys, food, and bed. The bags roll-top design completely seals out water, and is probably air tight enough that I feel confident I could use it as a flotation device in event of an emergency.