Backpack or messenger for commuting

Start with the weight

A 16-inch laptop with its charger is about 2.4 kg before anything else goes in. Add a water bottle, a folder and a change of clothes and a commuting bag is routinely over 4 kg.

Past that, one shoulder is doing work it was not built for. A backpack spreads the same load across two straps and a back panel, and the difference shows after twenty minutes, not two.

Then count how often you open it

A messenger opens on the move, one-handed, without being taken off. If your commute means a ticket, a phone, a book and a pass, that matters more than the weight does.

A backpack has to come off every time. On a quiet train that costs nothing; standing in a full carriage it is the whole argument.

The bicycle settles it

On a bike a messenger rides across the back and swings on corners unless the strap is stabilised. A backpack sits still. If you cycle even two days a week, that is the answer for all five.

What we make, and which is which

Our backpacks run 14 and 26 litres and take a 16-inch laptop. The messengers run 6 and 7 litres and are sized for an 11 or 12-inch tablet, which is the honest use for a flap bag carried on one shoulder.

If you need a 16-inch laptop on one shoulder, a briefcase is the shape that does it without the swing.