I need a new laptop bag. I’ve been carrying my Lo & Sons Seville (pictured above) to and fro across the country for at least 26,000 years (at present count), and it is indeed a great travel bag – two of my good friends have bought one as well, and both are fans – but it’s time for a new one, and I’ve decided that a tote no longer makes sense for my particular needs.
Totes are great. They are sleek-looking and functional, and if I worked in an office and carried my computer back and forth every day I think I’d be fine with one, but my computer bag must be lugged through airports and stashed in teeny-tiny underseat compartments, and when I tend to have one arm occupied by a four-year-old and the other one occupied by two cartoon-covered backpacks (that, of course, both children swore up and down they would carry themselves, mmmmhmmmmm), assorted Einstein’s bagel bags, and one VERY IMPORTANT pink bunny that MUST NOT BE DROPPED, having a tote bag strap constantly falling off of my shoulder (causing the tote and the laptop within to bang onto floors and walls and strollers and make me want to cry)…
It’s not ideal.
So I’ve been researching, and have discovered that an interesting development has taken place within the bag industry: more and more, niche retailers are working to fill the needs of the “active” working woman: one who maybe bicycles to work, or needs to carry both a laptop and gym sneakers, or – yes – hauls herself and her children through airports more often than might be logically advisable.
Here are the best styles I’ve found. Alternative suggestions are welcome – and I’d love to hear which of the below is your favorite.
