Howies: Help us create the über bag!

Er, how many of the people railing against cheap made in China clothing have bought (relatively) cheap made in Taiwan frames and components? I'm all for ethical and responsible purchasing, but does that necessarily mean that everything made in China is the product of sweatshop labour and is inherently bad? If of course you know the details of Howies/Timberlands manufacturers and know them to be sweatshop operations, then of course I stand corrected.

I have no interest in defending Howies or Timberland, own none of their clothing and have no immediate plans to buy any.

I have bought a couple of people (who would have a coronary if they knew how much I spent on my Pac Designs bag) made in China Timbuk2 bags and they were indistinguishable from the San Francisco made bags and made their owners very happy. It goes without saying I’d never swap my Pac Design for one of these and kind of like that it was made by a cottage sized operation in Canada. I see it as a matter of horses for courses and just don’t feel the need to sneer at those whose choices are different from mine, yes tell them why you think they’re wrong, but why the need to be snide?

Back to the question at hand, what might make a better mass market courier bag? I agree that one big central compartment, possibly with a single divider is better than more smaller compartments. I also like a Velcro closing rear pocket to take a cushioning pad a la Pac Design. This better than bags like the Crumplers that have more complicated permanently sown in padding as it seems to work better and you can take it out and wash it if it gets sweaty and smelly, which it will. The bag also needs to be made out of Cordura with an extra reinforcing layer on the base. The cam buckle on the Timbuk2 works fairly well for tightening the strap, if you made the strap a one piece affair with the cam buckle at one end that threaded through a simple buckle on each side of the bag and passed underneath the bag instead of being sown to it you could change the swing of the bag by simply unthreading it and rethreading it the other way around. You could still have a cross strap that clipped to a D-ring either side of the bag and into a fastlock buckle on the main strap.

I also like the nylon organizer affair that the Timbuk2 bags have sown to the inside of them, though I’d like it to be simpler with a few less pockets, just one full width pocket, with one half width pocket and some pen holders. I’d like a bigger front pocket than the Timbuk2 and one that was “3D” rather than just flat. If we’re looking for the ideal and something innovative I’d like the front pocket to be modular, to have a removable zipped tool pouch that I could pull off the bag if I need to get at stuff to work on the bag and that could be replaced with an optional 1.25 litre bladder in the summer (with simple routing on the bag to take a hose over either the left or right shoulder). This would of course mean either not breaking the bike in the summer or sticking the tool pouch in the main compartment (taking up space) when using the bladder.

One final suggestion would be to decorate the flap with as bigger flexible electroluminescent decal as economically viable (see http://electroluminescence-inc.com/decals.htm ) That would light up and flash so increasing visibility. I’d suggest something simple like borrowing the, “Luv Yr Bike” logo, appropriate sentiment and you could make a donation to them for every bag sold, worthwhile thing to do that'd also offset your lost brownie points for manufacturing in China. How’s that then? If you use any of this can we have a batch of freebie preproduction bags to play with/give feedback on?