Sorting through a pile of old links on my desktop, I find this story at O’Grady’s PowerPage about a new Crumpler store in New York, which will do custom builds of their already-barking range of bags. I’ll confess to being somewhat jealous that this service isn’t (yet) available in the UK, even though I already have two Crumpler bags and very likely don’t need any more just now, thanks.
Short review; they’re brilliant bags. Longer review; I have a cycle courier bag of theirs (a Seedy Three), and one of their laptop bags (a Whack-o-Phone). They’re both extremely well-designed, superbly made, and have stood up to ridiculous levels of abuse in the time I’ve had them. Plus there’s this whole ‘ah, you know‘ thing that goes on between two Crumpler owners when they pass in the street. It’s like Mini drivers waving at each other… only with shoulder bags.
There’s a bonkersly-large range of bags, all with baffling names, and never available all in the same place to look at, dammit. Computer stores sell (some of the) computer bags, camera shops (some of the) camera bags, and bicycle shops… what’s that? Oh, you’ve spotted the pattern, huh? OK. Check online at the mad, confusing, oh just face it irritating as hell Crumpler ‘corporate’ site, or maybe this UK-based online retailer makes a bit more sense. I bought my Whack-o-Phone from an Apple shop, but the Seedy Three came direct from the UK importer, following an extremely amusing conversation with one of the staff as she unpacked her colleague’s example to give me an idea of how big the thing was. And what he was having for lunch. And exactly how far through Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas he’d got.
Highly recommended. There might be better bags around, but Crumplers would beat them up, then go out and get hammered before picking up a Fendi and taking her back to a swanky hotel.