münster fixed gear – radkultur extraordinaire

There is something going on in the bag biz. Messenger bags are everywhere and most of all those little companies really work well and produce great bags. Messenger bags are mostly near perfect for what they are, but what about people who don’t like to carry things this way? A backpack helps, but there are a lot possibilities to develop a backpack for a urban rider. For me the MASH backpack is great, it offers a lot and there are many great ideas in this bag. But the lack of waterproofness is a huge contra for me. Maybe they will release a V2 sometime in the future…

Until then there is not much available in this section. Ortlieb Messenger Pro (or Velocity) is a great and quality bag, but its not really versatile and pretty inflexible. Some messenger bag companies offer backpacks aswell, never had the chance to test one of those monsters, but i’m not sure about them. Mostly these are just really really large bags, where you can put a dwarf or two in, but they don’t seem practical for someone who don’t want to carry just big and pretty much stuff.
Some might notice that i really like bags/backpacks and so i revisited the website of Mission Workshop from SF some days ago to check out what they have to offer.
This company is fresh in the biz you say? Not really, the founders of Mission Workshop also started Chrome Industries back in the 90ties and have a lot experience. With selling Chrome they wanted to start something different and create something new.

“What we’re really trying to bring with this company is to take it to the next level. People who live in an urban environment who don’t have a car spend a lot of time outdoors. We wanted to make a bag that basically would fill that kind of that need. If you live out of your bag you generally need lot of versatility and very large expansion capability,” Kyzar said.

They made new and interesting approach with their backpack construction. Never seen something like that and they obviously put a lot work and thoughts in the development of these backpacks. They got two backpacks The Vandal and The Rambler. Both feature full waterproofness and expand their volume with just one zipper to nearly twice the size.

Also they got many pockets and details to fit every need and help to organize everything you need to carry around with you.
Check out the following video to get a idea of this backpack style.

Grocery Run – Vandal Cargo Backpack from Mission Workshop on Vimeo.