Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Ultimate Cool Man Bag

After a long search, I finally found a man bag/murse/gadget bag that fit my criteria for a perfect portable utility carrying device. Since a couple of my friends asked, and the general voyeuristic masses on the internet love to see this stuff (and I include myself in that category), I thought I'd share my find.

My general criteria was:

Requirement 1: Manly looking...shouldn't look like a purse! :-)

Requirement 2: Not as big as a messenger bag...not as small as a pouch. Must be able to hold a wallet, Blackberry, Grail diary, small Moleskine notebook, pen, bullwhip, Sony Cybershot digital camera, Dell DJ.

Requirement 3: Over the shoulder only. I'm not secure enough to carry a clutch!

Final Decision: A WWII Mark VII Gas Mask Bag! Just so happens that this is the bag that Indiana Jones had in the movies (although in reality it wasn't yet invented in that time period). If Indiana Jones used it, then it's good enough for me!!!



Unfortunately, finding the real deal at a good price is hard, at least here in the States. I checked out some military surplus stores, but to no avail. I found some on eBay, but they were pretty tattered and dirty. Well, proving once again that you can get anything on the internet, even if it's just a replica, I found a guy in Singapore who creates these new. Doesn't have quite the cachet of the real thing, but it gets the job done.

Manly and functional! :-D

Also cool that I ended up paying around $30 total rather than the $150 I was going to spend on the runner up. I'll include some pictures in a future post. Now if I could just get my autistic daughter to stop telling everyone that "my dad bought a purse!" :-)

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posted by Chris Blatnick @ 9:16 AM

15 Comments:

By Anonymous Ben Langhinrichs, at 11:07 AM  

I hate to be the one to tell you, Chris, but even with the manly bag, nobody is going to play Strip Go Fish with you.

By Blogger Joanne, at 12:11 PM  

Does your speedo match your
m(anp)urse?

By Blogger Vitor Pereira, at 12:16 PM  

Never thought you would be into this military type of things.
If you need something more heavy duty let me know. I have some of these laying around, I think it would go along with your bag just great. ;-)

By Blogger Phil, at 12:29 PM  

Hey, I thought what was said at Shula's, stayed at Shula's! ;-)

Nice bag Chris!

By Blogger Pedro, at 1:30 PM  

What's wrong with the ILUG bag? ;-) I'm about to leave for vacations and I'm taking it with me so I can carry wallet, camera, cellphone, my nintendo, my son's nintendo, maps etc etc :-)

By Blogger Chris Toohey, at 2:03 PM  

This is why I got the Jack-Sack:

http://www.dominoguru.com/pages/10172006110105.html

By Anonymous Gregg Eldred, at 2:52 PM  

I think that our blogger dinner may reach "Hall of Fame" status. :-D

By Blogger Chris Blatnick, at 9:56 PM  

@Ben...LOL! You almost made my drink come out my nose! :-D

@Joanne...Wouldn't you like to find out! haha
(Editor's note: Joanne is a good friend, so I can say that to her)

@Vitor...Yes, I like military stuff. I play paintball and there are some great uses for the old military stuff for carrying equipment.

@Phil and Gregg...The bag could play an important role in the musical. Hmmm...have to dwell on that.

@Pedro...The ILUG bag was really cool too, just a little too big for my purposes.

@Chris...Jack is cool, but he's no Indy! ;-)

By Anonymous Patrick Kwinten, at 2:45 AM  

real rockers like to wear tight leather!

By Blogger Bruce, at 8:48 AM  

Have you been hanging out with Julian?

By Blogger Curt, at 9:28 AM  

I'm partial to the Lotusphere bag. I gave away my 2006 bag and it was hard to part with. I forget which year (it's at home) but the LS bag was small and I hated it. The last couple year's bag has been great. Like displaying my "colors" to the world too. You'll have to get a patch for your bag.

By Blogger Rob Novak, at 2:41 PM  

My fave LS bag as '96, when they really spent money on leather satchels. Did I just use that word in a sentence? Kool

By Blogger Keil Wilson, at 2:55 PM  

Chris, you ever play airsoft? I never got into paintball but a buddy of mine got me into airsoft a while back and I love it. Check it out...www.airsoftnebraska.com

By Blogger Chris Blatnick, at 3:44 PM  

@Keil...Airsoft is cool and my son has a gun but I don't. It's very similar to Paintball (as you know)...it just doesn't hurt as much! :-D I'd probably get into it too, but I don't need *another* hobby to spend my money on! haha

By Anonymous Colin, at 8:47 PM  

I had a similar idea... then I dug out the gas mask and bag my Da had given me, it once belonged to my Granda, and its a mark VI!!! seriously close in looks, in great condition and its genuine!
Anyhoo... yup its manly.
Col

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