Laptop Bags Take Home Office Mobile

By Jeff Zbar 
www.chiefhomeofficer.com

When Tony Calcao used to travel with his laptop, the bottom of his case would look like a rat’s nest of cables, cords and “power bricks” or transformers – stashed haphazardly beside his laptop, camera, magazines and other assorted contents. Fed up, he designed his own case. It has Velcro dividers to turn the interior space into “modules” for better organization. It has an “escape hatch” to quickly fetch the laptop for client meetings or airport security screenings. It has a water bottle pouch on the side. The strap even doubles as a belt that can be outfitted with the bag’s removable carriers for his iPod, phone, pens and small note pads.

“It looks like Batman’s utility belt,” said Calcao, a creative director with Coconut Grove, Fla., ad shop Crispin Porter + Bogusky, who helped design the agency’s rubber and nylon “Buzz Bag” ($135). “If I’m on a photo shoot, I’ll have what I need without having to lug my laptop bag.”

If technology is the tool of business, the accompanying cables and accessories are its bane. Laptop bags often become cluttered and unruly. Cords and cables become entangled with accessories, like peripherals, headsets, USB drives and the like. Worse yet, a search of popular manufacturers of laptop cases and attachés often yields little in organizational solutions or accessories.

Some are left to improvise. Some use small toiletry bags to stash their cables. A select few manufacturers have devised their own solutions. Targus offers several overnight bags with removable pouches for adapters and accessories. Case Logic’s portable hard drive case (model HDC-1) can double as an accessory case that can fit within a larger laptop bag. The Logitech Kinetik backpack brings a semi-hardshell design to laptop management, with pockets to control bricks, cables and peripherals, and a cool design, too.

Leather bag maker Ellington’s Cable Pouch ($12) can carry various cables, cords and other accessories – things that tend to go “hither and dither” in a larger laptop case, said Andrea Bales, a dealer sales coordinator. Its translucent cover gives users a view inside, and its small size allows it to fit within a larger laptop case.

“A lot of things we develop come out of ‘this makes sense,’” Bales said, who had used “gift-with-purchase” cosmetic bags to hold her computer accessories. “The pink crocodile clutch doesn’t cut it in the boardroom.”

Some designers have taken Calcao’s more intuitive approach to laptop case design. Case Logic incorporates “smart organization” that offers easy access compartments dedicated to storage, a spokeswoman said.. The company’s XN Backpack and XN Vertical Messenger Bag (both $69.99) feature a padded area for up to a 15.4-inch laptop, a matching USB shuttle, and several zippered compartments.

Best known for sunglasses, Oakley’s Standard Issue Vertical Computer Bag ($125) messenger-style bag features multiple pockets, cord management compartments, document slots, and fabric that blocks radio frequency waves to protect Bluetooth enabled PDAs and mobile phones. And like Calcoa’s design, some Oakley bags offer removable and adjustable Velcro pockets.

Just as important as how the bags handle computers and accessories is how the perform. Messenger bags and backpacks hardly resemble laptop attachés, minimizing their attraction to thieves convinced a laptop is inside. They also serve both life and work, with pockets for the wireless phone and access holes through which to string the MP3 player headphones.

“People carry their bags in different ways,” said Tony Zentil, a product manager with Oakley, whose bags – like its FlakPack backpack ($70) includes cable management design and is a favorite of Baby Boomer executives and Gen Xer alike. “College kids want a messenger style. Executives want something that supports a more professional look.”

Since the '80s, Jeff Zbar has been a writer, speaker and spokesman on all facets of working from home and entrepreneurship. His columns and blogs have appeared via Entrepreneur, Success Magazine, Home Office Computing and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, and he has been a small business expert on national television and radio. Learn more at www.chiefhomeofficer.com.

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