The Elephant in the Room - Man Purse

[Edward]

A slimmish leather briefcase with a shoulder strap would probably be ideal... I'd suggest though that if you're gonig for something that's not designed for the specific purpose of being a laptop bag, you look at getting one of those slipcases designed for laptops - basically a padded textile cover that slips on and zips round - offers it that little extra protection if it's sitting loose in a bag, but wouldn't be seen on the outside...

 

[LocktownDog]

I use old saddlebags. Books in one compartment, laptop in another.

Richard

 

[John in Covina]

2 different leather bags

http://www.duluthtrading.com/search/searchresults/42004.aspx?feature=Product_2&kw=leather+bag

http://www.duluthtrading.com/search/searchresults/35621.aspx?feature=Product_4&kw=leather+bag

 

[Fast]

To bag or not to bag?

I have three different briefcase/bags. I use a padded sleeve (in my case Eagle Creek) and slide it into whatever bag I want, or need according to the weather. It was especially useful when I had to use my leather backpack for 4 months of last year.

Carpe Diem
Fast

 

[cooncatbob]

I just scored this bag off the bay, it's one of the seller smaller bags. He sell larger bags that will hold a lap top. Just search under "leather messenger bags.
Bob.

 

[Edward]

Nice bag, CCB! If I'm gonig shopping or travelling any distance / time, I'm rarely without one of my manbags - can't beat them as a place to load in snacks, a book or newspaper for the tube, or pretty much anything else that wouldn't fit in your pockets, or would kill the line of an outfit.... lol I have about four I've picked up over the last few years (two of them presents, two high quality conference freebies). None of them are exactly Golden Age looking, though - I think once I have the bigger wardrobe issues seen to a bit more, I might look at picking up something along those lines myself. Oddly enough, I recently saw an old-style leather school satchel similar to a design I first started school with in late 1979, not long before they went out of fashion and became replaced by modern style sports bags. You know the type - buckle-fastening just like that bag, this one had, in addition to the shoulder strap, two shorter side straps for carrying it backpack style. I'm not exactly sure why this tempts me all of a sudden, but.....

 

[dostacos]

I gave my youngest son a "Indy" bag and he carries it daily, of course he also has been known to wear a kilt to church youth outings too he felt carrying his bible, wallet etc in his pants was uncomfortable [small bible, cargo pants] and of course impossible when he wears the kilt. He had been using an old mess kit bag which was just a little bit too small he either is immune to the comments or does not get any.

My Indy bag always has a camera in it so it is a CAMERA bag besides if my wife has a small dressy purse she will need me to carry her junk too

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Question, if any of you know it (and probably a number of you do):

What kind of bag does Josh Bernstein, the handsome fellow on Digging for Truth, carry? It looks, I think, like a squared-off briefcase or maybe a battered messenger bag, but am not sure exactly what it is.

Whatever it is, I like it, and like the way he wears it -- kind of like a gunfighter would wear low-slung holsters.


http://www.crypthunter.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/jblrg.jpg


karol

 

[Edward]

Whetstone - great looking bag, wish i had the sort of skills to produce something like that!

At this time, I have no less than four separate manbags, of which I am very proud. The term "man purse" is not used in the UK - here a purse is something much smaller, a lady's equivalent of a wallet. Ladies here carry handbags, hence manbag. I find it tremendously convenient - especially in the Summer when I often end up with fewer pockets due to a drop in temperature. Also, if one is wearing a blazer, a separate bag helps to stop all the extra bits one might carry around from distorting the line of the jacket.

At any one time, mine might include:

- whatever novel I'm reading at the minute
- newspaper
- magazine
- pen, shopping list
- possibly some lunch
- it's not been unknown for me to have an extra sweater in there (one of the bigger bags)
- bits and pieces of shopping I buy while I'm out
- sometimes a camera or mp3 player; phone is always on me (I did for a while have a belt holster for the phone, which was very handy - must get a new one). Wallets and keys I keep chained to my belt, or I will lose them.

I've even been known to use a man bag as an overnight bag if all I need is a change of shirt and underwear.


My laptop gets carried around in a modern purpose-specific backpack type thing, alas. Not my first choice nowadays, but the office chose, paid for and provided it so I can't complain about that. I also have one sitting new and unused at home that is a black nylon and leather shoulder strap number - a conference freebie, and one that I will probably use to replace the backpack in due course.

Alas none of my present manbags have a vintage look - I have two in modern canvass, two in modern nylon. I do intend however to acquire a few more vintage-looking pieces - as well as an Indy style bag and maybe a more detailed vintage style canvas bag, I also would like to have a couple of leather briefcase style shoulder bags - black and brown, naturally - for both wetter weather and wear with a suit (present bags don't really look right at all with a suit, too informal).

As to briefcases, I do have a modern style Samsonite solid briefcase. Useful in some circumstances, though I don't often carry it - I find the lack of a shoulder strap (thus leaving both hands free) limiting.

Someone mentioned the security issue of carrying a bag while "abroad" - I find wearing the bag's strap underneath your jacket helps on that score.

I think folks who use terms like Murse or Man Purse or anything of that nature are just trying to find ways to keep men from using anything practical by frightening them about their own level of masculinity.

IMO men who feel the compulsion to behave in this manner need to question their own sense of masculinity and why they feel it so threatened by another guy carrying a bag.

 

[ThinkandDrive]

Does anyone have any photos of the J Peterman Counterfiet Mailbag? (http://jpeterman.com/product.asp_Q_pn_E_1005_A_c_E_6_A_seq_E_70)

My hesitation in ordering from them is just that I can't actually see the product before ordering. The catalog is pure joy to read, and I'm sure the products are terrific. But I'm concerned about the "artistic license" that may occur when they're sketching the products.

 

[scotrace]

I have not seen the bag, but they occasionally show up 2nd hand on eBay, and in these listings you can see real photos of it. it looks every bit as nice as the drawings indicate, if a bit stiffer.

You might want to watch for one to come up. They seem to go in the $100-150 range.

 

[woodyinnyc]

I never carried any sort of bag until I moved to New york City. Prior to that, anything that would fit comfortably in my pockets got left in the car. Sunglasses, camera, book, etc. Now that I don't have a car, more trouble than it's worth here, I needed some way to get all that stuff around. However, I usually refer to it as the trunk or the glove compartment, instead of murse or man-bag, since that was where it all used to reside. I actually have amassed quite a colelction of them , all with different purposes. Now that I think about it, that kind of worries me.

 

[big kahuna]

I use a "European mens carry-all" daily...

It's made by Tumi, and contains my wallet, sunglasses, work credentials (and badge), cigars, lighter, knife, phone, etc. Sometimes, my PDA or Ipod.

Being a large guy, I rarely carry my wallet in my pocket as it cuts circulation off when I am wedged into a standard car seat or office chair.

My coworkers always joke that a man my size can wear a tu-tu and probably receive no comments.

Since carrying a "man bag" for the past few years I find it to be a needed daily accouterment.

 

[Kentucky Blues]

To school I carry a leather briefcase/messenger bag/laptop case. On adventures, I carry the same bag as Indy, and sometimes when I'm just out and about too. And it's a satchel. And it is worn on my left side with the strap over my right shoulder and across my chest/back, unlike how I see most women carrying their purses. A man purse it may be, but I only am disgusted by the term when used as an insult (most of the time ). It's convenient, and I don't care what people think. I guy has to wear what he wants, not what others want. I see it perfectly fine to carry a man purse, as the name implies that it is a purse that carries a man's things. It's only weird if the man is wearing a women's purse... though really, I can't say I have a problem with it, to each his own. But yeah, I carry something from time to time.

 

[Mid-fogey]

Look here boys...

....Simplify. Carry less junk dadgummit. Next you'll be carrying a compact and calling it a european sumpin or other.

 

[Diamondback]

Sorry, late to the party as usual.

You have to have someplace to stow your gear - digicam, iPod, Nintendo, book, Moleskine, cell phone, snacks, smokes, gum, pens, sunglasses, pistol...

Let's see:
Camera: don't carry one
iPod: built into laptop
Nintendo: ditto
book: I usually keep a tech-journal or two in the briefcase
Moleskine: ???
cellphone: #1, chest pocket; #2, inside jacket pocket
snacks: since I'm usually not far from fast-food, debit card solves that
smokes/gum: non-issues
pens: briefcase, chest pockets
sunglasses: on face
pistols (plural): Will use vertical shoulder holsters--if you're gonna carry a weapon, the rule is "keep it on your person at all times", according to my education anyway...)

Anyone remember how back in the 50s the prediction was how the future would bring us 5-6 hour work days and we'd have all this swell leisure time?:rage:

Yeah! And whatever happened to all those robots that were supposed to do all the work for us?:rage:

Men always need to be prepared to STRIKE unencumbered.

I'll bet a 25-lb. briefcase upside the head would be adequate to STRIKE with, as you put it...

With which we use to STRIKE you with, when you call us women folk.....

lol Well said, Miss N...

Here's my usual cargo-carrier:

Granted, the 17" laptop almost fills it by itself...

 

[Fast]

Pocket man

If a purse, by any name is found beside my dead body, I was murdered.

Men had pockets and women did not. They had purses. Civilized people didn't carry everything they owned in large, bumpily overstuffed bags. One's "stuff" stayed home.

Pens, pocketknives, wallets, pocketwatches for some, key/watchfobs, billfolds, a comb and the handkerchief pretty much covered it and left the dresser top for the pockets every morning and came back out at night.

If one carried briefs (papers) one kept them in a brief case, so as not to hand one's business associates crumpled papers.

That's how dad taught me to do it, and so far, it's still working out.

Carpe Diem
Fast

 

[dostacos]

the only man-purse i own is a sporran. snip.

that is the bag my son wants.... he currently uses one of my MKVII bags and NEVER leaves the house without it mine usually has my camera in it among other things

 

[Edward]

....Simplify. Carry less junk dadgummit. Next you'll be carrying a compact and calling it a european sumpin or other.

lol If only photo bucket was up I could show you photos from the nights when my manbag has indeed included a compact and lippy.

 

[Twitch]

I guess I'm lost in the nomeclature distinction here. A "purse" bag for a man is not a briefcase or satchel or a laptop case, an equipment bag or a fanny pack. In the 1970s mostly black men used a dealy-o that hung over the shoulder and was 6" wide, 7" tall and relatively flat when empty but could expand to about 2- 2.5". Most adjusted the strap so that it was short and the bag hung in the armpit or slightly below but not down to the waist.

They carried personal items only- comb or fro pick, cigarrettes/lighter, wallet or cash, keys, gum and little else. If a fanny pack waist-worn rig had been invented and widespread then it would have been used as a better mousetrap. No computers, Ipods, cell phones, calculators, water bottles, books, pens, energy bars and all the crapola people have listed here.

It think if all the "men" have so much junk that is absoluetly necessary they should get the "old lady" tenement-style 2 wheel pull cart.