geoffss said:
if you can and get a Chrome bag.
They are made local to me (SF,CA) and are the best darn mess bags i have found. the Timbuk2 bags, in my opinion are for people who dont ride bikes much or just want to look stylish and extreme. some of my friends have those, and they ride em low too, and they slip on them all the time. the padding is minimal and can slide up and down the strap.
the Chrome bag has a large shoulder strap, contoured and well padded to fit your back and chest really well. they even make right and left hand models. the cinching mech is fast and easy to release with the large "d" ring. the flap folding system turns the bag into a nearly waterproof bag. plus its made with "dry bag" material. Aaaaand, its made in the good old USA.
just my opinion,
geoffss
No one knows where Chrome bags are made anymore. They will only say "USA" if you ask them, the location in SF has no production facility, bags are trucked in and they stopped making them in Denver long ago. This mystery is turning Chrome off to the messenger community in SF and elsewhere. It's no big deal if it's Mexico or off-shore like all the Chrome label clothing, but they still claim they are made in the USA but are ashamed? of the how and where of it. The how question is How can Chrome sell at that price when BIG companies like Timbuk2 admit they are tempted to go off-shore and are off-shore for everything but the messenger bags (some assembly may be offshore) The Where question is clear, but Chrome isnt'.
Timbuks are smaller and nowhere near as complex as Chromes but the Chromes are only a touch more in cost. Messenger bag companies like Reload and others sell bags that are cooler to look at and made of nicer materials than Chrome and customized too but the basic design is simpler, yet because they are made in the USA by craftspersons at the same location as the store they are more expensive(if you get it custom, a bare bones REload is about the same as a Chrome). The (REload) big ones hold more than a Kremlin, Kremlin has more measurable volume but the tear drop shape means less fits together in the bag. Except for Timbuk2, all the USA made by hand Messenger bags (and there are many, most of which are much cooler than Chrome, and run by ex-messengers) All these bags cost more than Chrome...yet they'll all tell you where and how they produce their bags, not Chrome. Does it matter if the sweatshop is overseas or in SFs chinatown? Does it matter that several people have seen the bags being off-loaded trucks at the same time as the made in China clothing?
It wouldn't matter if Crome came clean, but even many messengers are suspicious of them now, and won't have anything to do with them. Even ones that like the bag get pissed about being lied too, or shunned right after the sale. Or sold a "seconds" bag at a messenger event and being told the event was why they were getting a good deal.
Hell, The North American Courier Championships this year refused Chrome as a sponsor because of the underhandedness Chrome dealt out at the World Champions last year.
If all you want is a cheap bag, get a chrome, if business ethics, and "made in the USA labels matter, keep hunting.
I bought a chrome bag at a messenger race in 2002...it was a "factory second"...I tried to get a new buckle or get the one I had sewn back up, and they wouldnt, no warranty on "factory seconds"....dude lied to my face (chrome rep) which is why I've asked enough people to think that where there is smoke, there is fire. they're chumps. From now on if a messenger didnt make it, I aint wearing it.
