Makers Bag vs Icon

[bchaplin]

Does anyone have both the Makers Bag and a review version of the Icon? I am interested in how they compare, and I believe others have the same question as well. I had a Makers Bag in the past and remember it as being very large, though it has similar dimensions (height and width) to the Icon, which seems smaller.

(Sorry if this is already answered elsewhere in the forums; if so I can delete this post.)

Thanks!!!

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PS: I might have answered this for myself. The actual usable width of the Icon is smaller than the Makers Bag (as is the depth). But if someone has comparison photos that would be great.

[Sstj315]

Does anyone have both the Makers Bag and a review version of the Icon? I am interested in how they compare, and I believe others have the same question as well. I had a Makers Bag in the past and remember it as being very large, though it has similar dimensions (height and width) to the Icon, which seems smaller.

(Sorry if this is already answered elsewhere in the forums; if so I can delete this post.)

Thanks!!!

---

PS: I might have answered this for myself. The actual usable width of the Icon is smaller than the Makers Bag (as is the depth). But if someone has comparison photos that would be great.

I would also love to see comparison photos and hear thoughts on these 2 bags!

[moriond]

Yes, someone else asked this in the thread on the debut items and I was going to do a visual comparison when it’s light here of the bags they asked about:small Cafe Bag, Icon, and Maker’s Bag. But let me give you a verbal description, based on bags and sizes you’re familiar with, along the lines of the discussion that was going on over at Ravelry yesterday. I said “My mental picture of the Icon is the carrying experience of a Little Swift that was made into a crossbody bag”.

So, one of the things I could place into the Little Swift was a Small Western Flyer Packing Cube filled with clothes. If I stick this into a Small Cafe Bag (6 liter capacity), the cube sits about 2” above the edge of the SCB (maybe 1.5” if I use the back edge of the reinforced edge that runs higher at the back, if you look at the side view of the Cafe Bag — of course, you can’t close the flap. If I take that same Small Western Flyer Packing Cube filled with clothing out of the Small Cafe Bag, and slip it into an empty Maker’s Bag, I can also put a completely filled Small Laundry Packing Cube from the Aeronaut 30 beside it and I can put a completely full Side Kick on top of that Western Flyer Small Packing Cube. Seen from the side, that Maker’s Bag looks like a huge rectangular block that towers over the Icon and the Small Cafe Bag, because you’re right, it’s that 6.9” depth that gets you the 12.5 liter volume.

For the Icon, you could put that same WF Small Packing Cube of clothing vertically into the top zipper opening to the main compartment, then because clothing is somewhat smooshable, you can rotate that to a horizontal orientation (the way I’d fit it into an open Little Swift). I could also put my 11” iPad Pro into the 7.2 liter Icon the same way (drop it vertically into the top zipper opening in front of that Western Flyer Cube and rotate it into position, then insert the iPad Pencil into one of the two inside pockets that run along the right side of the bag, where the shoulder strap end also gets fed in.

The Icon doesn’t quite have the 8.2 liter volume of the Little Swift because it doesn’t need quite as large/deep a base with reinforced Ballistic Nylon rand to stand open and upright (bucket fashion) when it’s being used as a crossbody carry. But that’s my mental model. And if you lay a Medium Cafe Bag Freudian Slip on top of an Icon, the sides run along the stitched seems that bound the Icon zippers and the top and bottom edges match the top and bottom of the bag. That also tells you that, much like the Little Swift, you can use a Small Cafe Bag FS in the Icon, but a Medium Cafe Bag FS is too large. Oh, and a 16 oz Zojirushi bottle fits nicely inside.

HTH

moriond

[moriond]

For people who are not familiar with the (now retired) Little Swift mentioned above, here’s an early review with pictures posted by @peregrina of the LS in Hemp that I carry. And here’s a picture from The new Freudian Slip colors thread of lasr year that shows the Small Cafe Bag Freudian Slip (Cloud 210d) and Medium Cafe Bag Freudian Slip (Grass 210d) with my Little Swift.

It’s still too dark to take pictures at my location

[DWSeattle]

Throw the Daylight Briefcase into the comparison with the Icon as well. It is lighter and just a bit more volume than the Icon.

[moriond]

Throw the Daylight Briefcase into the comparison with the Icon as well. It is lighter and just a bit more volume than the Icon.

I'll have to go back and shoot different pictures. The Icon really has a different feel to me from the Daylight Briefcase. But for now I'll make the SCB Maker's Bag Icon comparison that was requested yesterday.

First, this is my best attempt at color accuracy for the Logic Blue Icon.

In the comparison pictures that follow the Logic Blue will not look color accurate.

In the 12/2 debut: news + stock + more thread, @Sstj315 asked:

I am intrigued by the Icon as I find the MB too large for EDC. Can anyone who has both take photos comparing size, depth etc.? FWIW, I am petite at just under 5’ 2” and don’t want a huge bag. I have a SCB and use it currently as my EDC, but was looking for something slightly larger for an upcoming vacation. And bonus if anyone has all 3 and can take comparison photos! Thanks in advance ��

For background, I'm 5' 3.5" (161 cm) tall, and wear petite small clothing. I like bags like the Daylight Briefcase (DLBC) and the retired Imago for their ability to be carried close to my body and to provide easy access to contents from different positions while I'm wearing the bag. I've also carried the (retired) Little Swift since it's debut in 2010, and will use that for some intermediate comparisons.


Here's a comparison picture of the Icon in Logic Blue, a packed Western Flyer Small Packing cube of clothing above the Icon (actually lying over my Hemp Little Swift), a Small Cafe Bag in Original Halcyon/Ultraviolet in the upper right, and some reference objects to the right of the Icon in the lower right corner: a 16 oz. Zojurushi thermos (that can be carried in the Icon or in the Little Swift), and one of the new A5 Ghost Whale Organizer Pouches with Island zippers. A (retired) Field Journal Notebook Organizational Insert overlies the A5 Ghost Whale Pouch. (We used these as mini Freudian Slips in the Daylight Briefcase, and they can be transferred/attache to an O-ring in the Icon.)

Here's a comparison picture with the Maker's Bag in Aubergine to the left of the Icon, and with the Hemp Little Swift now shown above the Icon. To the right are Ghost Whale Organizer Pouches in Sea-Pine and Nebulous Grey

Above the open Maker's Bag are the same Western Flyer Small Packing Cube filled with clothes, beside an A30 Small Laundry Packing Cube filled with clothes


The Western Flyer Small Packing Cube placed into the 6 liter Small Cafe Bag looks like this:


The cube sticks out of the top of the bag.

Going back to the Maker's Bag, both the Western Flyer Small Packing Cube and a filled A30 Small Laundry Packing Cube easily fit in due to that bag's depth


You can even easily add a filled Side Kick (Nebulous Grey 525d Ballistic Nylon) on top of the Western Flyer Packing Cube and slide it in:


Now, let's put that packing cube into the Icon by inserting vertically into the top zippered opening:


… then rotating it by 90 degrees into place:


You can even add an 11" iPad Pro the same way:




But compare the depth of the two bags (7.2 liter Icon vs 12.9 liter Maker's Bag)



That depth is why the Maker's Bag feels so huge on you.

[moriond]

I have to break the posts up because there is a maximum number of photo uploads per post.

Here's the comparison of the base of my 8.2 liter Little Swift with the bottom of the 7.2 liter Icon:


You can see that the Little Swift has a wider base (at the maximum size of the oval 1050d Ballistic Nylon "rand" to support the base). That's because that bag is designed to stand up open as a knitting bag (among other things). But when the Icon is carried as a cross-body bag, you don't need that extra width at the base, so the 7.2 liter volume of the Icon is a bit smaller than that of the 8.2 liter Little Swift, but larger than the 6 liter Small Cafe Bag, and not as large as the 8 liter Cafe Bag. It also doesn't have as much of a drop as the vertically oriented Cafe Bags, which makes it more comfortable to carry if you are petite (under 5' 4").

For completeness, here's what that Western Flyer Small Packing Cube looks like in the Hemp Little Swift:


I know that views of the Icon (turned inside out) were shown in another thread. But here you can see the way the inside pockets look:


This is the right side of the bag (the side where the shoulder strap feeds into a "hole" so that there are no ends dangling). I can put the pencil for the iPad Pro (or a ruler, or pen) into one of those inside side pockets.


Here's the two inside pockets at the front of the bag.


The back side of the main Icon pocket has O-rings on each side.


You can see one of those O-rings at the left side of the opening, where I've place my 16 oz Zojurushi SM-KHE48PT mug at the right (the side where I can slide my iPad Pro Pencil 2 into the pocket). And you can tether the mug to the O-ring at the right.

A few other comments since you have the Small Cafe Bag. A number of people who need to shorten the Shoulder Strap on the Small Cafe Bag ended up having to cut off the shoulder pad. That particular problem is gone with the Icon shoulder strap design, because there's no sliding buckle for adjusting the strap length that winds up in the middle of the shoulder strap (so you can't slide the shoulder past it if you want to make the strap much shorter). Instead, there's a different locking mechanism for the strap where it joins to the bag at the right, and the excess strap length feeds into the side of the pocket. I find this slightly awkward if you need to feed a large length into the side of the bag, and asked if there was a recommended way to do this (I took the small Tom Bihn ruler that is included with all Swifts and the Field Journal Notebooks and pinched the strap against the ruler while feeding both down through the opening). But it's true that you generally won't make changes after initially setting your preferred length.)

I also found that the slight curve of the zippers also made the zipping/unzipping motion easier for me to do and more comfortable while wearing the bag in various positions, as well as making the effective opening larger. Your mileage may vary on this (= you may have a different experience/conclusion).l

HTH

moriond

[wormie]

Thanks for all the great pictures! They are very helpful!

[Titus]

Can anyone post pics of the Icon with a Copilot? I have a copilot that i really like, and they seem like a similar size. Just trying to see if i would use them differently.

[Sstj315]

I'll have to go back and shoot different pictures. The Icon really has a different feel to me from the Daylight Briefcase. But for now I'll make the SCB Maker's Bag Icon comparison that was requested yesterday.

First, this is my best attempt at color accuracy for the Logic Blue Icon.

In the comparison pictures that follow the Logic Blue will not look color accurate.

In the 12/2 debut: news + stock + more thread, @Sstj315 asked:


For background, I'm 5' 3.5" (161 cm) tall, and wear petite small clothing. I like bags like the Daylight Briefcase (DLBC) and the retired Imago for their ability to be carried close to my body and to provide easy access to contents from different positions while I'm wearing the bag. I've also carried the (retired) Little Swift since it's debut in 2010, and will use that for some intermediate comparisons.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]23722[/ATTACH]
Here's a comparison picture of the Icon in Logic Blue, a packed Western Flyer Small Packing cube of clothing above the Icon (actually lying over my Hemp Little Swift), a Small Cafe Bag in Original Halcyon/Ultraviolet in the upper right, and some reference objects to the right of the Icon in the lower right corner: a 16 oz. Zojurushi thermos (that can be carried in the Icon or in the Little Swift), and one of the new A5 Ghost Whale Organizer Pouches with Island zippers. A (retired) Field Journal Notebook Organizational Insert overlies the A5 Ghost Whale Pouch. (We used these as mini Freudian Slips in the Daylight Briefcase, and they can be transferred/attache to an O-ring in the Icon.)

Here's a comparison picture with the Maker's Bag in Aubergine to the left of the Icon, and with the Hemp Little Swift now shown above the Icon. To the right are Ghost Whale Organizer Pouches in Sea-Pine and Nebulous Grey

Above the open Maker's Bag are the same Western Flyer Small Packing Cube filled with clothes, beside an A30 Small Laundry Packing Cube filled with clothes
[ATTACH=CONFIG]23723[/ATTACH]

The Western Flyer Small Packing Cube placed into the 6 liter Small Cafe Bag looks like this:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]23724[/ATTACH]

The cube sticks out of the top of the bag.

Going back to the Maker's Bag, both the Western Flyer Small Packing Cube and a filled A30 Small Laundry Packing Cube easily fit in due to that bag's depth
[ATTACH=CONFIG]23725[/ATTACH]

You can even easily add a filled Side Kick (Nebulous Grey 525d Ballistic Nylon) on top of the Western Flyer Packing Cube and slide it in:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]23726[/ATTACH]

Now, let's put that packing cube into the Icon by inserting vertically into the top zippered opening:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]23727[/ATTACH]

… then rotating it by 90 degrees into place:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]23728[/ATTACH]

You can even add an 11" iPad Pro the same way:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]23729[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]23730[/ATTACH]

But compare the depth of the two bags (7.2 liter Icon vs 12.9 liter Maker's Bag)

[ATTACH=CONFIG]23731[/ATTACH]

That depth is why the Maker's Bag feels so huge on you.

Moriond, wow, I can’t thank you enough for all of your wonderful comparison photos! You have helped me (and I’m sure many others) visualize the Icon and I just hope there will still be some left on debut day when I am able to get online. Now I have to decide on color (s)!

[Kirri]

Those photos are wonderful! @Moriond

I'm still curious about the comment that the Icon is like a small swift with straps as that is my dream bag!! However what I love about the swift is that it stands upright waiting to receive things.
I have a medium cage bag, which I prefer to carry when walking around as opposed to driving, but it flops to the floor. Wouldn't the Icon therefore be more like the cafe bag in that sense?

THANK YOU!!

[Lia]

Ohhhhhh I was not tempted by the Icon until this thread. It would be a perfect theme park bag! Water bottle, wallet, and a sweater/scarf in the main compartment, glasses and phone in the outside pocket. It's a lot like the bag I use now, but that's falling apart because it's a cheap piece of crap, and the Star Wars thing just opened at Disney World... Hmmmmmmm...

[BWeaves]

The inside out photos are very helpful, since it's hard to see into the bag.

[moriond]

The inside out photos are very helpful, since it's hard to see into the bag.

I'm adding a whole set of pictures that I shot earlier this weekend to answer questions I got on Ravelry about holding water bottles, iPad Minis, small yarn pouches, etc. in the Icon in this same inside out mode, and then putting said items inside the Icon. I'll just preface this the comment that the pictures were taken in response to some of those questions from different users (about wanting to see this with a small cafe bag Freudian Slip inside, another about wanting to see this with a water bottle and yarn stuff sacks, etc.) so the combinations are driven by trying to put many of these together.


This followed the discussion of showing the Icon as a Little Swift turned into a crossbody, over-the-shoulder bag (that would also work for a unisex design) and shows my Hemp Little Swift next to the Logic Blue Icon with a 16 oz Zojurushi mug and Small Yarn Stuff Sack in Wasabi


This is my Hemp Little Swift overlying the Icon, and the outline profile of these two empty bags is very similar. To the right, beside the 16 oz Zojurushi mug, is a Small Cafe Bag Freudian Slip in Cloud and below it is a Medium Cafe Bag Freudian Slip in Grass holding a Kindle Paperwhite (in its case, but with lid open) in the left mesh pocket and some BOSE QC20i earbuds in their case in the right mesh pocket. Both FS versions hold a Field Notes Notebook, and pens. Those are Lamy Safari fountain pens in the Small FS left pockets and a Quark Mini Flashlight. In the Medium FS there are highlighter markers and a Satechi presentation remote with Tom Bihn ruler in the top pockets. (The back pocket of the Small Cafe Bag FS can hold an iPad Mini in a case, which I put in when I loaded this into the Icon in later shots of the FS in the bag)

When you overlay the Medium Freudian Slip on the Icon, it matches the area between the two vertical seams at the sides, where the shoulder straps are attached.

Here's the Small Cafe Bag Freudian Slip overlying the Icon. You can see where it would be inserted through the top zippered pocket. The curved zipper design appears to do a number of things. They make the effective opening for inserting things into the bag larger. The top zipper at the front gives access to the main compartment of the Icon. There's a similar zipper at the back of the bag symmetrically placed at the same point for a back pocket that's sewn on the back side of that back main pocket, so the back pocket starts at the same top point, and runs down the length of the back wall of the main pocket. This facilitates sharing the space between main pocket and back pocket in the same TARDIS like fashion that between compartments according to their contents that we've seen between the pockets of other bags, like the Synapse. Finally, my impression is that in addition to making the curve of the bag more comfortable to carry underarm cross-body when the top is narrower closer to the armpit and top of your arm, the sewn curved region of the zipper also helps to control the shape of the bag when you add items that bulge (like a filled 3D organizer pouch to the back pocket), and this, in turn, makes the bag more balanced in helping it stand upright when placed on its base, in contrast to the experience with Cafe Bags.

For comparison, here's one of the (retired) pocket inserts for the Field Journal Notebook with Frixion pens in the pen pockets, postit flags in the bottom pocket, and a Field Notes Notebook in the backside zippered pocket. We used this as a "Mini" Freudian Sliplet for the Daylight Briefcase and other bags by clipping it to O-rings through the 3-ring holes, and I would consider this a more convenient size to put into the Icon. (There are other small organizers from different vendors like Maxpedition that forum users showed in use in their Travel Cubelets that might also work).



These are different views of the 16 oz Zojurushi mug and Small Yarn Stuff Sack attached to O-rings in the inverted Icon. The Zojurushi mug is secured with a hairband looped through the O-ring.

This is the side of the bag under where the bottom of the adjustable strap feeds in at the right side of the Icon in the earlier pictures, where there is a locking mechanism just above it. There are two pockets here (this is where I stash the pencil for the iPad Pro if I'm carrying it; knitters could use this for crochet hooks, or other needle sets, in addition to using the two large interior pockets on the reverse of the front of the bag (which you can see in the earlier inverted bag pics, before this post).


For reference, here's how I would attach the FJN pocket insert (aka mini FS) to an O-ring. It takes up only a small amount of space. Similarly, you could attach a Medium Yarn Stuff Sack (@aedifica mentioned knitting with one in her Icon), depending on what else you have in the bag. Because I'm trying to show all these configurations, including how a Small Cafe Bag Freudian Slip fits inside with the Zojurushi Mug, I can't show that in this photo sequence. Hopefully, one of the knitters who received this bag can show this.


Here's the loaded up Small Freudian Slip shown next to the Zojurushi mug against the inverted Icon.


The Icon, no longer turned inside out, is holding the loaded Small Cafe Bag Freudian Slip, the Zojurushi mug, and the Small Yarn Stuff Sack. I've also inserted my Kindle Paperwhite in its case between the Stuff Sack and the Freudian Slip.


Here's the Icon zipped up

Side view of the Icon standing up.

Since I don't personally use the yarn stuff sacks for knitting, I went back and put in my iPad Mini in it's case into the back of the Small Freudian Slip, and then put an Ibex hoodie (the Midnight Hooded Indie from @NWHikergal's post) in to the back pocket, and I put glasses and my (Nik's) wallet into the front pocket.

Since we haven't had good views of the Icon used for knitting, I took all these out (including the iPad Mini), and took shots of what the open main compartment looked like with the Small Yarn Stuff Sack open, and standing up:



HTH

moriond

[tress29]

The inside out photos are very helpful, since it's hard to see into the bag.

And they show the quality of construction that we love in our TB bags.