DENVER TOTE, CANVAS, “INNOVATE 2019.” Passed away Tuesday evening on the 15 bus, when the left handle gave out somewhere between the pharmacy and my stop. It was about seven years old. It had never been washed. It is believed to have been carrying, at the time of death, a laptop, two chargers (one working), a banana, three receipts from 2023, a paperback I have not opened since June, and my keys, which it kept as usual in the one place no one could find them.
A private search of the bus floor was held immediately after.
Early life
The tote was born free, literally, at a marketing conference in a hotel ballroom where it was handed to me full of lanyards and a stress ball shaped like a lightbulb. Nobody expected it to last the week. It outlived the job, the lightbulb, and two apartments.
Career
It worked as a laptop bag, gym bag, grocery bag, beach bag and, for one memorable month, a cat carrier (short trip, very calm cat, not recommended). It had no pockets, no zip and no opinions. Everything went in. Very little came back out on the first try.
Colleagues remember it mostly for the sound of me digging through it at the office door while the badge reader beeped.
Cause of death
Officially, a handle. Unofficially, I’d say it was the weight of everything I refused to decide about. A bag with no sections lets you skip the question of what you actually need to carry, and I had been skipping that question since 2019.
Survived by
A Bellroy Laneway Crescent Bag 7L, in River Rock, one of the two new Laneway colors this season. $99. It arrived Friday and has already done more organizing than the deceased managed in seven years.
It is a curved shoulder bag in recycled nylon (half of it made from ocean waste, according to Bellroy) with a wide zip that opens the whole top, so I can see inside without the excavation. Inside there’s a zip pocket, two big slip pockets, a key clip (my keys have an address now), and one pocket that pops out when you pull it. Out back, a quilted zip pocket fits my e-reader. I wear it high under my arm on the bus and slung across my back when I’m carrying groceries.
Seven liters is not a tote. The laptop does not fit, and that’s fine: the laptop now lives at the office, which is where it was needed all along. If you really can’t give up the big-bag life, the same bag comes in 12L, and a tiny 2.5L for people braver than me.
Also survived by
A Laneway Sacoche ($75, in Ink), which I didn’t technically need and bought anyway, for dinners. It sits so flat against my side that I forgot I was wearing it and nearly left the restaurant without paying. (I didn’t. The waiter was very understanding.) It has a hidden back pocket for your phone and cards that sits against your body, which after the bus incident feels like the right place for them.
In lieu of flowers
- Bellroy is currently throwing in a free Owl Charm ($35 on its own) when you buy a bag. Mine is clipped to the Crescent. It is the only mourner who seems happy.
- Shipping to the US was free, and the Crescent came with a 6-year warranty, which is six years longer than a conference tote ever gets.
- All five Laneway colors are listed at the same price: River Rock, Ink, Sea Kelp, Fig and Fawn. I went for River Rock because it’s the color of every sidewalk I walk on. Fig is the brave choice.
Arrangements
The tote has been cut down to become a shelf liner. It would have wanted to stay useful, and to be honest it would have wanted to be a bag again, but the handle is not coming back.
If you’ve got a bag like this in your life, the one you’ve never cleaned and never unpacked, the Laneway collection is here at Bellroy. That’s an affiliate link, so I may earn a small commission if you buy, at no extra cost to you.
The banana, sadly, did not make it either.