Remember that beleaguered, overstuffed backpack you dragged through high school (but hopefully not college) like a sack of existential despair—the one you tattooed with your name, the logos of favorite bands, and all those other totemic words and symbols with which your ever-evolving identity was associated at the time? The number of wisecracking buttons like “Have a Day” and “Is That Your Face or Did Your Neck Throw Up?” stuck on it was enough to make a voodoo doll shiver. And there was that Dark Side of the Moon patch half-assedly sewn on the side, sort of askew? Yeah, that’s the one…
Well, kids, that pretentious little accoutrement has just been reborn as a stylish, multifunctional bag from the modern masters of the urban attachée;, Timbuk2. A new spin on the classic bike-courier satchel—featuring a center panel of untreated #10 duck canvas surrounded by black Cordura panels—the Artist’s Canvas Messenger ($90; ) is a sharp and smart personal billboard upon which you can doodle, draw, paint, or otherwise graffiti to your heart’s content. But maybe you won’t come off as a seethingly misunderstood and hierarchically marooned adolescent this time around; maybe this time your self-expression will be a little more focused and refined.
After you’ve made your mark forever on all that intimidating empty space, you might want to seal the deal with a spray fixative or waterproofer; otherwise a rainstorm could potentially turn, say, your happy, horn-tooting clown into the sinister, ax-wielding Punchinello who haunts my dreams.
And though the bag’s trademark waterproof interior features a pocket perfect for tucking that ubiquitous iPod into, for anyone on a bike about town it’s much more convenient to have that sucker handy to cue up playlists, adjust volume (so you don’t get run over), and so on. So the perfect accessory is Timbuk2’s iPod Case ($20), which wraps securely to the bag’s strap, obviating the need to slide your sack around and unbuckle the flap every time you desire a change in audio. Everybody knows it’s much, much nicer when you can instantly satisfy that hankering for Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols after perhaps a wee bit too much Dark Side…