Journal

What is a weekender bag? A weekender is the bag sized for two to four nights away. Big enough to skip a suitcase, small enough to carry down a station platform without a taxi on the other end. The shape is wide, soft-sided, opens down the middle like a book, and sits upright on its own when you set it down. Most...

Are Canvas Backpacks Good for Daily Commuting? Yes, with two caveats. The canvas has to be the heavyweight, waxed kind; and the straps and base have to be cut from something tougher than the panel. A pure canvas backpack with cotton webbing straps is fine for a gym bag, not for a 13 inch laptop in a British winter. A hybrid canvas...

Messenger Bag or Backpack: Which Should You Carry to Work? The honest answer is that neither is universally better. The right one for you depends on what your Monday morning actually looks like: how you get to the platform, how much you carry, whether your back or your shoulder is the weak link, and whether the British weather has agreed to behave...

Holdall, weekender, duffel: three names for bags that look similar in a shop window and behave differently on a trip. If you have ever stood in front of the travel section wondering which one you actually need, this is the guide for you. None of the three is better than the others; each is built for a different kind of escape, and...

Buying a canvas backpack is easier than buying any other kind, because canvas does most of the deciding for you. It is tougher than nylon, lighter and friendlier than all-leather, and it improves with age instead of sagging. The mistakes people make are not about the fabric; they are about fit and size. This guide walks through how a rucksaBackpacksck should sit,...

Some men are easy to buy for and some are not. The not-easy ones tend to share one trait: they claim to need nothing, and they mean it. A bag gets past that answer because almost every man carries one every day, and very few of them own one that is actually good. Waxed canvas and leather make it a better gift...