Studs Up

Over the past few months I developed an obsession with luggage and various types of travel accessories.

So as I’ve been traveling more and more recently for both business and pleasure, I decided to upgrade all my gear. After a long search I decided to move to an all-carry-on system. This led me to search for the prefect carry-on laptop bag.

Enter Tom Bihn. A proprietor of bags with a deep cult following for decades. The bags are made in the US out of the very best materials and excruciatingly designed for maximum convenience and function from the waterproof zippers to the internal hooks for your keys.

After a few weeks of daily browsing, I decided on the Western Flyer. I carry a LOT of crap when I travel, including a Wacom tablet, Beats By Dre’s, and an external harddrive. Another hallmark of Tom Bihn are the deluge of accessories available to you that fit perfectly with every bag. I picked up the Absolute Shoulder Strap, Horizontal Brain Cell, Freudian Slip, Snake Charmer and a couple of packing cubes as well.

The first test for the bag came in the form of New York Comic Con a couple of weeks ago. It was my first time attending (for work) and I figured I would need my laptop in addition to room for the various SWAG I might pick up during the all-day convention.

Included for the day were my laptop, Beats By Dre’s, a couple of notebooks, thermos of coffee and a program for the event. Everything fit without a problem and the Absolute strap was as comfortable as expected.

During the course of the day, I picked up a bunch of flyers, documents and bought two books and a hoodie from the Penny Arcade booth. I decided to put my new bag to the test and cram it all in. Keep in mind that the claim from Bihnites was that, even when stuffed to the maximum, the bags somehow maintained their original shape without becoming bulky.

Results are below:

As you can see, despite looking over packed in the first photo the whole thing zipped up quite easily and ended up looking exactly as it did to begin with. Same width, no additional bulk or bits sticking into my hip. Quality.

However the bag was now heavy as hell and I had no interest in struggling with this thing on one shoulder. Luckily (well, no luck was involved actually) the bag comes with two hidden shoulder straps and can convert into a backpack in about 5 seconds. So I Transformer’d the hell out of it and…

Perfect. The straps even come with the chest strap which, while incredibly dorky, takes a load of weight off the shoulders. Attention to detail, right? I did have to adjust my coffee thermos to make sure it was upright in backpack-mode, but that wasn’t particularly difficult.

Even as the bag was stuffed, everything inside was easy to get to. The  mouth of the bag unzips very wide so it’s convenient to get at your stuff and the strong YKK zippers make sure everything gets closed up nice and easily.

I couldn’t stop smiling all day at how well the bag held up to every teeny demand I may have had. I’m not bothering to use it every day because I want to save it for the times when I have a real travel challenge on my hands.

Can’t recommend it enough and I’ve got my eye on an Aeronaut now. Mmm…