Imagine being so scared of what people think of you that you refuse to use a backpack even when you need to carry a bunch of things.
I travel for work professionally. 99% of the time I’ll travel exclusively with a backpack to carry my essentials, or honestly just carry everything if it’s a <3 day trip. Its very hard to yank a backpack off someone when both straps are on, it’s very ergonomic, it frees my hands to hold my phone/boarding passes/passport/food, etc etc.
Backpacks are the objectively superior travel and everyday bag, honestly.
And where do you put your clothes ?
You change your clothes, right ?
…in the backpack?
How can you fit your EDC and your clothes in a single backpack ?
(I’m genuinely asking)
Get a bigger backpack. I also assume they’re talking about 3-4 day trips at most, so “clothes” is just shirts and underwear (maybe a pyjama). Add a small wash bag (pro tip: get those small refillable airplane bottles for shampoo/soap/conditioner) and you’re good to go, with plenty of space for a laptop, charger, phone charger, wallet etc.
Oh, ok
I just found it weird since fitting my clothes for 4 days would require a large hiking backpack and taking that everywhere would be kind of annoying
If you tightly roll your clothes before packing them, then stuff them into a ziploc to do the poor man’s vacuum seal, you can dramatically reduce the volume of your clothing.
Source: I moved everything I own with a 2002 Honda civic across the country and still had room for a passenger.
Edit, The US specifically. Anyone can hang out in an overfilled car for 5 hours. This was an 18 hour trip.
For a 2-3 day trip i don’t need many clothes. 3 sets of underwear, socks, and work polos don’t take much space and easily pack around my laptop and hand tools. I’ll usually re-wear my slacks.
Any longer and I’ll pack more into a carryon, especially on plant visits where I need steel toed shoes and PPE, but usually use the hotel laundry to cut down on total bulk.
You know what you can also carry inside a backpack? Bags. And inside those bags? Even more bags. Basically, you can carry infinite carrying capacity in your backpack! 🙃
I put a bag of holding inside another bag of holding, and I’m not responsible for the resulting black hole eating through the kitchen.
Actually, it just creates a pocket dimension. They should update those dnd rules /s
I just never stopped using them since childhood. Why would I give up on it? It’s ergonomic, it relies on strong spinal muscles allowing one to carry heavier weight, keeps one’s hands free and unloaded, doesn’t press against one’s neck like shoulder bags do, and is very hard for someone malicious to take off someone.
The only downsides I can see is that I cannot keep it in sight, meaning I should mind my surroundings not to hit anyone, and it can also be opened without me noticing (although Bobby bags solve this in particular).
I admit: I get Bag Envy when I see something that looks durable and has a plethora of pockets. My bag is weak and puny, but this bag I see before me is epic.
Am I the only one?
No, always. I have a really good waterproof 12L bag with the rollup top clip thingy. It will survive any rainstorm. It just doesn’t have pockets and that’s objectively more useful to me than being guarded against something that will happen maybe twice a year.
The bag envy is real
When I was in middle school I was too lazy to go back to my locker between classes so I just carried a stack of 8 textbooks with me everywhere I went. If they had fit in my backpack I would have done that, too, but my family could only afford the cheap ones.
I got a detention for using my backpack full of books as a lethal weapon. I have the English anthology in there and that’s a big book, it does some serious blood force trauma damage. It’s an awful book though.
Apparently that started a trend so the school introduced a rule that said that all backpacks must be put in lockers at the start of each day. Which was stupid because the lockers weren’t big enough for that. So everyone was forced to carry their books to and from school by hand.
Blunt* Force Trauma
I’m young enough to not have been allowed a backpack in grade school. My locker was in the opposite corner of the school and I would always be late if I went back to my locker, so I carried 7 binders with me everywhere…
And what is that non-dork carry instead? A suitcase like a wannabe businessman?
A fisherman vest with all those pockets?
Personally I’m on Team Satchel, Team Messenger Bag… and also unironically think fanny packs should come back.
But yes. Mobile storage compartments that are wearable?
Pretty good idea, generally.
While we’re at it: GIVE WOMENS PANTS REAL POCKETS
Fanny packs are back in Germany for a few years now, but nobody wears them like a fanny pack, they were them across the chest.
Aren’t those crossbodies then? Uniqlo has a really popular line of them, and they’re pretty if you don’t need to carry that much
It’s an evolution of the fanny pack.
I’ve never been to Germany, but… I am glad that at least somebody, some people agree with me.
I’ve worn a fanny pack like that before, sort of like a very small messenger bag, but roughly over one side of my chest… it was a social faux pas, for some reason, despite being incredibly practical.
Oh, I have a laptop bag that reminds me of a messenger pack. I carry it around my shoulder, pretty neat for my S10 FE+
I debilitating affliction if you’re a manybagger like me. You’ll then have a backpack for every occasion.
I feel like the X axis isn’t necessarily the IQ, age suits just fine.
How is this even a discourse?
THEN CALL ME A DORK
Op is not german
As a 40-something dude, I need a new backpack. Its got holes in it near the zippers and has seen about a decade of daily use. Backpacks are awesome.
Edit: current one is a Targus, any suggestions?
Modern ones ain’t too shabby. Back around some time between 2014-17 an old L.L. Bean backpack I had for a really long time died and now I have a basically all black backpack that is pretty nice and easily blends in, in terms of not being something that looks as actually dorky or somewhat childish as that old blue backpack that had a grid pattern on it.
