A Blog About Bags
Trends repeats itself, whether it’s fashion, music or subculture.
Recently, a “certain bag” is hot again in the alt cycling community in Tokyo.
I’m really not sure what started this boom. Everybody just started to bring back messenger bags in the mix all of the sudden.
A local vintage clothing store near my house even held a pop-up event, focused on old messenger bags.
The name of the event was “One Shoulder”.
(USPS bag with a Ricky Powell signature. R.I.P.)
(Old Timbuk 2 custom order booklet)
(Max and Jag hyped for the event)
As a 27 year old dude who recently got in the bike industry, I didn’t get to see bike messengers when they were in there peak in the streets of Tokyo. All I see today is Uber Eats delivery men/women on mama-charis. I also had never used a messenger bag until I started riding.
This is an old Timbuk 2 bag I got from the event. It’s not a messenger bag in the traditional size, but I liked how they could fit in the 137 Wald basket.
I’ve also been using the “Shtak” messenger bag hand made by Jag, Blue Lug’s bag designer/creator. The one I have is the 2021 version. The Shtak Bag is a bit different from “The Messenger Bag” which we have in our regular selection. They are order made with Japanese canvas and doesn’t have any pockets or straps. It’s a solid messenger bag for daily use.
We started taking orders for Shtak on the global webshop from 2021. Pretty sure we’ll take orders again around summer again this year. Hope ya’ll can part in the online event as well.
These two were my first messenger bags I bought, and I’ve been becoming obsessed with them. They’re really useful in terms of the capacity and how I can quickly have access to my stuff.
I know there are people out there who’ve been a messenger bag user since day one and still bike messengering today (huge respect to you), We have some one like that here too.
Kaneyan, the world famous Blue Lug bike mechanic. You can read about his love towards messenger bags HERE. It’s a great read.
When we look at what the cyclists outside of Japan is up to lately, we can see something interesting…
Via Riv bikes
Cameron Falconer from Falconer Bikes with the legendary “Zo Bags”
Will from Riv with a Space Age bag (which I will talk about later in this blog.)
It looks like this messenger bag boom is not something that is happening in Tokyo Japan… I don’t know, I might be completely wrong and people have been constantly carrying them, but seeing the people who we look up to, with a messenger bags was just like pouring gasoline into a campfire. We now REALLY wanted to bring back these bags in our lives.
Our crew member Tani has been wanting a new messenger bag, but he was worried that the bike he rides these days do not match with messenger bags.
“I always feel like messenger bags looked cool on people who rode track bikes. I haven’t ridden a track bike in decades now and the bikes I own now is far from a fixed gear bike. Not sure if I should get a messenger bag…” he says.
I totally agree. I thought the same way until I saw the people in the pictures above and the people around them.
“Looking at Will and Cameron, I started to think I was overthinking. It doesn’t matter which bike you ride to carry a certain bag. These guys are riding Riv bikes, road bikes and MTBs and they look so sick!”
Tani’s concerns went away, but now he was struggling to decide what brand he should get. After digging around, he came across a new bag company based in San Francisco.
Space Age Bags by Max Shapiro.
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This is Max, he operates and produces all the bags by hand.
He’s also close friends with Will and Adam from Calling In Sick Magazine. You can often see them riding together. They’re such a sick squad, they always get us hyped to go out and ride.
The way Max and his homies ride around on asphalt and trails, completely made us forget about the stereotypical way of carrying a messenger bag.
Tani and many of our staff members got extremely intrigued with Max and Space Age Bags, and Tani decided that he’d get a messenger bag from them, and use it until completely worn out.
We got in touch with Max and said he’d be able to make some bags for us, and now you can get them here at Blue Lug!
“Sling Shot”
“Rat Pack”
“El Barto”
“Zine Holder”
“Booster Pack”
“Jet Pack”
They are all now live on our online store, along with many more cool goodies.
Space Age bags has a nice “throw back” type of vibes, while having a modern function, design and details.
Of course, you could carry them while riding on a track bike like the traditional way.
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Or, you could just throw them in Wald baskets, the new generation way.
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Click HERE to see all the selection we have right now.
Go and support his website too ya’ll!
Peace.
-Colonel-
