Are messenger bags dead?

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Up until earlier this year, I was a messenger bag die hard. I loved my Timbuk2 bags for being bomb-proof, and they would go everywhere with me on and off the bike. Way, way back in the day I would use a messenger bag to commute a hilly 18 miles to get to high school loaded with heavy textbooks (do textbooks still even exist anymore?).

But when I started up the Marin to SF commute earlier this year with regularity things were different. I started with a messenger bag, but the back sweat, pain, and general lack of comfort was too much to ignore. I finally, after all these years, switched to a backpack and I am glad I did. It certainly doesn't have the fashion (relative term here) of a messenger bag, but for longer rides it's a must. I find the asymmetric nature of the messenger bag to just be too much of a toll on my body over time.

So is the messenger bag dead? Maybe it will never fully go away, but I think it's heyday is over. Heck, even Timbuk2 had made the switch - the first messenger bag on their homepage is listed #16, behind a whole suite of backpacks. And spines everywhere are rejoicing.

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