Leather and Messenger Bags
Photo by Álvaro Serrano on Unsplash
For the past fifteen years, messenger bags have been my tote of choice. I’ve always preferred a cross-body bag and I need compartments over one large space to feel organized.
My preference is the leather messenger bag, but sitting here scrolling through pages of leather bags, I realize that I’ve never purchased one. I’ve always gone with canvas. What has stopped me from purchasing the bag that I would prefer?
I started purchasing canvas messenger bags in the early aughts. I needed something larger than the repurposed bags I was currently using. In the early 2000’s I bought small clutch purses that were repurposed from Capri Sun drinks. There was an eco-friendly website that I liked back then and I somehow felt that buying a $20 purse made out of recycled goods translated to eliminating commercial vessels dumping metric tons of waste into the ocean. All I really accomplished was walking around in my twenties holding a purse that had the Capri Sun logo on it.
When I started taking my laptop around with me I switched to the messenger bag. I wanted a quality leather one that would last for years and I researched it. At the time I narrowed it down to a company in Ireland that had been in business for over a century and prided themselves on each of their bags being unique.
Something happened in between the idea and the purchase because I ended up buying a canvas bag instead. The canvas bag would morph into similar canvas messenger bags over a span of ten years.
I attended a trade show where the booth across from me was an upscale boutique bag company that sold messenger bags in felt and other materials. Every day I worked that show I would cross over to the bag booth and take notes on what my next bag would be. This research with this particular company would last years. Every season I chose a new bag from their collection and even went so far as to have conversations with the owner, but I never committed.
Every time I would decide on a bag and every time I would choose a different canvas one. There was the year I purchased a vintage one that was a repurposed medic bag from WWII. It lasted for six months, but a natural tear that had been there prior to my birth started to become an issue and I had to change it out. There was the year that I went with an olive color that matched my beloved olive jacket and that bag stayed with me for years. The latest bag is a greyish green one that has the right amount of compartments with the right amount of space.
I have my eyes on a leather one again. To give you a time table, the last time I eyed this particular leather messenger bag was 2013. The style is the same, but the pocket may have changed. I’m noting to myself that this will be my next bag purchase and I wholeheartedly believe it. If I end up with another canvas bag it will be because somehow the choice is out of my hands and my mind won’t allow me to remember how the final decision was made.
Why is this important? I’m not quite sure. I just know that my browsing history this past week has been consumed with researching quality, leather cross-body bags. I’m rooting for me to choose one of them and go with it. The worst case scenario is that I don’t like it and a year later can return to the usual canvas messenger bags that I historically choose.
A little truth? My messenger bags never wear out or get old. When I want a different one, the old one will get folded and put into the closet. There was a time when half a dozen perfectly good messenger bags that were slightly different in color existed in the back of my closet. Ashamed of their waste I have taken to using them as make-shift grocery bags to fill things in if someone is visiting.
The look on their face is usually quizzical, but I ignore them and shove the messenger bag filled with whatever into their hands. Let the burden of purposely using it be in their hands now.
I think the issue for me comes down to change. If I get the leather messenger bag that I have been thinking about for over a decade, what does it say about the world? I’ll either be the person that finally got the bag I wanted or I get a bag that I don’t end up vibing with. Then I end up back with my canvas bag.
The choices aren’t hard. The research is enjoyable. The reality is that I don’t need a bag right now, but it’s a nice thought. That is to say, I’m halfway through a half-hour pilot and I will most likely finish it this summer. What I do with it will be mulled over in the same fashion I approach my purse.