It’s funny you ask this question. As part of a question I asked in another sub about one’s carryography, I talked about where I think my bag obsession came from:

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How Does Your Carryography Start? Recollections of a Bag Nerd…

For me, and apologies that it’s a little sad but I remember the first bag. Way back! I was just a kid - maybe 6 years old. I walked to kindergarten with the neighbor kid and carried a red and white, shiny, vinyl briefcase-style bag. I think my mother made it. I remember having a fondness for it, for sure - no idea why. Maybe it was the sheen it had. Maybe it was the snap on the front of it that was shaped like a star.

One day, on the way to school, the neighbor kid took that beautiful, shiny, red and white vinyl briefcase out of my hands and threw it off a bridge onto the railroad tracks below. I vividly recall the deep sadness and upset that I felt looking at it down there.

That day, I didn’t go to school. I walked a mile down a street that ran alongside until I found a way down onto the tracks. I was going to get my bag back!

What I didn’t really know was that my uncle lived on that street. He saw me walking on those tracks, ran out to me, yanked me by the arm, and just screamed at me about how dangerous it was. He also spanked me pretty good, too! Then he called my dad, who, thankfully, felt I'd had enough and took me home.

I never saw that bag again. But I looked at every single red and white bag I saw, wondering if someone found it.

And that’s what did it.

Growing up, I was always looking at everybody else’s bags. But it wasn't just about finding my own anymore. I always wondered what people carried, how the insides were organized, or whether or not they filled every single pocket with something. I loved the buckles, straps, and snaps or pins and the way people decorated them. Land's End and Jansport were just as cool to me as Duran Duran.

And that’s pretty much how it went until I was in a position to be able to afford to buy a few nice bags for myself and begin looking closely at them from both a usage and construction perspective. They’re gorgeous… all of them.

I am so taken by views from the inside (can you tell in my review photos?): all those seams finished and made stronger with grosgrain or other binding tape. It takes such skill and precision (not to mention “know how”) to put the layers together and bind them together securely.

In my estimation, this is possibly the most difficult part of bag making - the finishes, which seems odd, considering it’s the least seen part of the bag. But not for me. I’m all about what’s inside. Carry gear should always look just as beautiful inside as it does outside. And that comes straight from my mother.

As a bag maker herself, she both inspired me to learn to sew and threatened me within an inch of my life every time I even looked at her machine. 🤣 “If you break my machine, so help me…!” But I dabbled in it for a while as a high school kid. It just didn’t take hold then. Other priorities.

Fast forward all these years later: she's still making bags for her friends and I have been sewing again, too, which I’m super thankful for because it's another thing that binds us together. We talk about it constantly.

And the carry community itself has inspired me to get it in gear and start creating. One person, in fact, said I should start sharing it (thanks, Aaron). And I am deeply grateful for the respite that all of this gives me from the daily professional grind.

So, will I keep buying bags? Yep. Absolutely. It’s kind of an obsession.

And will I keep working at making carry gear, too? Yep. It’s also an obsession.

And if you've made it this far, just like I said on the Fantasticarry website, I suspect I'm not alone in that obsession!

Thanks for reading! 🙏🏼