My EDC Challenge...and solution?

[bradnd99]

I wanted to share my EDC challenge of the past few months and what I've done to "solve" it. I say "solve" because while it works, its not so elegant.

My EDC needs change throughout the week. My old approach was modular: EDC, Gym Bag, and Laptop Bag. The reasoning for this was that since I didn't take the gym and laptop bag, it would minimize what I carried each day. The reality is that I often had 3 bags. When i got the umpteenth comment of "Wow so many bags," I decided it was time to consolidate.

In my EDC (a Co Pilot):

• Work iPhone
• Badge
• Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones
• Glasses, in Case
• Sunglasses, in case
• Pens
• 2 Moleskine Journals
• iPad Mini wth Logitech Keyboard

The CoPilot handled all of this with ease, felt compact, and in style.

In my Gym bag (a cheap Target C9 bag that started to rip after 6 months):

• Gym Clothes
• Size 12 shoes
• Small Dopp kit with Body Wash, Moisturizer, Pomade, etc.

My Laptop bag (an incase city brief style) is something I only occasionally bring to and from home:

• 15" MacBook Pro work laptop
• Laptop Charger brick
• Ethernet cable

I don't think my load is that big, but what I wanted to do was consolidate everything. I have a Synapse 25 with cache, so I centered on that as my new EDC. The problem was that I didn't want to bring my Synapse 25 to the gym because it was too big and unnecessary to drag all my EDC stuff (and potentially my laptop) to the gym and stuff it in a small gym locker.

I'd used my Synapse 25 on business trips to carry my EDC and Laptop, so I knew it was a great solution. My heavy work laptop feels like nothing when in its cache and in the Synapse.

The challenge was the gym bag..... and I decided that I needed a bag-in-bag solution. Unfortunately, all the TB options didn't seem like a solution (as much as I would have liked them to be).

I took a trip to REI and found the Flash 18 pack: REI Flash 18 Pack - REI.com. It is big enough to store my gym shoes vertically and my gym clothes. It has a small mesh bag built into the upper part of the bag which is a great place for a consolidated Dopp Kit.

The Flash 18 fits inside my Synapse. When I have the laptop, it fits a bit tighter, but fits nonetheless.

Now, time for some pictures:









The verdict? It works, but its not as elegant as i would like. Unfortunately, I don't know what the exact solution is, but I'll keep working on it until I find the answer. I do like the functionality of having a smaller gym bag that fits into the larger backpack, but I do feel like my Synapse looks huge when carrying a full load.

The obvious first step is to get a smaller work laptop, but that isn't an option right now. If I were to get a 13" laptop, a Pilot would be in play but I'd then go back to 2 bags.

[moriond]

Have you considered the Night Flight Travel Duffle? This might work as a gym bag and EDC. There are some good videos on the product page showing multiple uses, and the items you list would fit easily in that bag. I've been reading the discussion in @haraya's thread: http://forums.tombihn.com/questions-...ng-flight.html from people who like the NFTD. This isn't a solution that would work for me, mainly because I wouldn't use the other kinds of functions that work well for this bag enough to justify buying it, and as an EDC, this just sticks out too much for me to carry it around unless I have occasion to hold it in my hands, rather than use a shoulder strap. But I'm shorter than you are and with a smaller build, and I don't have enough additional uses for this bag (and wouldn't carry it in a car, so it would only be worn or used when traveling.). It might work quite well for you. It has twice the volume of your CoPilot, so you don't load up your Synapse. If the bag suits your usage profile, it might be worth looking into. Looks really nice, but for me, particularly in urban environments, it sticks out too much from my side to work better than a CoPilot. I actually prefer more body-hugging bags, which is why I really liked the new Daylight Briefcase (for minimalist carrying use) and the Parental Unit among the new bag debuts. In some situations, I even feel the Pilot sticks out a bit more than I'd like in urban transit situations, and I'm sure that wouldn't be true if I were taller or had a larger frame.

YMMV

moriond

[bradnd99]

I thought about using the NFTD as a gym bag but it won't fit my shoes.

[AVService]

I can't really see how using a pack inside a pack will be anything but more full than you want?

I use an Eagle Creek Shoe Bag sometimes for the Gym load you describe and it is perfect as it carries what you want but is only that big too. They now have them in the real lightweight fabric too unlike the one I have and it would be even more minimal inside the Synapse.

Maybe the answer is something for the Gym trips on the outside of the Synapse instead?

I think the Smart Alec is designed for that kind of flexibility in the first place but having never seen one in person I am just going by what I have read.

It can be a challenge for sure to get capacity and retain flexibility but if you keep at it,looking for something better it will likely become obvious at some point too.