Where can I find a reasonably priced, stylish, rugged, and roomy messenger bag?

July 23, 2008 9:33 AM

Where can I find a reasonably priced, stylish, rugged, and roomy messenger bag?
posted by meta.mark to Shopping (18 answers total)

Well it depends on what you mean by "reasonably priced." With messenger bags, you definitely get what you pay for. I can personally recommend WaterField bags. They're not exactly cheap, but the quality is outstanding and they last forever.
posted by radioamy at 9:38 AM on July 23, 2008 [1 favorite]

Army Surplus stores may have what you are looking for. There's also Ebag, and um...well, I'm selling one on ebay right now, heh. NO PRESSURE.
posted by rokabiri at 9:43 AM on July 23, 2008

I've had experience with a few different sized bags from Timbuk2. They're fairly rugged (one of them is a few years old already and still looks in perfect condition. As radioamy mentioned you do get what you pay for when it comes to choosing a quality messenger bag, so you should try and see if perhaps spending an extra couple of dollars is in the budget.
posted by disorder at 9:56 AM on July 23, 2008

Yeah, depends on what is "reasonable" to you. I'd recommend the expensive-but-worth-it Mulberry.
posted by fire&wings at 9:58 AM on July 23, 2008

I can only vouch for the ones that I own, Tom Bihn's ID and Large Cafe Bag. I also have a Chrome Metropolis. They each kind of match different criteria though, but I do like the bags very much.
posted by apeiam at 10:05 AM on July 23, 2008

The Acme Made Clyde is far and away the best I found after a pretty extensive search.
posted by nicwolff at 10:17 AM on July 23, 2008

I like Timbuk2, too, and you can get many of their bags for 1/3 to 1/2 off at Sierra Trading Post.
posted by cushie at 10:27 AM on July 23, 2008

Everyone seems to like Chrome's bags.. I shall find out soon enough how good they are, too.
posted by majikstreet at 10:30 AM on July 23, 2008

Where are you? I have a Kipling nylon messenger bag that is light, waterproof, expandable, has lots of pockets etc and I paid £25 for. Now I mainly use an Ashley Jones leather satchel (£80) as my job isn't as peripatetic and weight isn't an issue. Both are "reasonably priced, stylish, rugged, and roomy messenger bags".
posted by goo at 10:35 AM on July 23, 2008

Around here Cocotte is well thought of, and they don't come from a third world sweatshop either.
posted by zadcat at 10:48 AM on July 23, 2008

I've been very happy with my Chrome bag: very well-designed for biking, comfortable, very waterproof, and roomy, with a good selection of pockets. I consider mine pretty stylish - though naturally you may have different tastes - and with the help of the laptop case inside, my laptop survived when I got hit by a car (!). I've used it every day for a year, and it barely looks used at all.
posted by ubersturm at 10:56 AM on July 23, 2008

Maybe check out Freitag. I have a wallet of theirs, it's cool looking and practically indestructable since it's made out of a recycled truck tarp.

If you get a Timbuk2, make sure you're OK with the label...
posted by maniabug at 11:11 AM on July 23, 2008

I was looking for the same thing and got a number of good suggestions from friends and strangers.

They can be seen as comments on this blog post of mine:

http://www.sindark.com/2008/06/18/seeking-a-messenger-bag/
posted by sindark at 11:17 AM on July 23, 2008

This topic has been discussed to death here.
posted by mkultra at 11:54 AM on July 23, 2008

Nth-ing Timbuk2, especially the computer messenger bag, a combo that's hard to do right. Mine's bomb-proof, and more stylish than its owner.
posted by turducken at 12:23 PM on July 23, 2008

My Chrome bag has held up absolutely perfectly since I bought it ~ 3 years ago, and it's been through a lot. The one thing that annoys me a little is that the fabric it uses gets stained pretty easily by grease/oil/tar, so I have the entire bag covered with little splotches from biking on wet roads. I don't know if there'd be a way to avoid that or not.

I'm half-waiting for something terrible to happen to it so I can justify getting a BaileyWorks bag, though (prices went up $30 between 3 years ago and now, it looks like.. rough break). The Chrome bag turned out to be a little flashy for my tastes (and I massively underestimated the number of people that would try to poke the seat-belt buckle). Also, with heavy loads, it really digs into my shoulder after a few hours, and I'd love to be able to switch shoulders.

Still a great bag, though. So much nicer than biking with a backpack.
posted by devilsbrigade at 1:21 PM on July 23, 2008

3rding Chrome. Comfy, stylish, rugged (very nice waterproofing) and very roomy. Reasonably priced depends on your definition of the term. I get a lot of compliments on mine and I love the buckle - I've never had someone try to poke it, though other people say it's a problem.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 3:47 PM on July 23, 2008

Depending on whether it meets your idea of "reasonable", Bailey Works.
posted by PandaMcBoof at 11:49 AM on July 24, 2008