Favorite travel gear/premium brands like Crumpler, Bellroy, etc.

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lathiat

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Hi Folks!

I'd love to hear what favorite tools or brands other AFFers have, I've also discovered a few "premium" or what I sometimes like to think of as geeky brands over time that seem to consistently make good quality and nifty tools (sadly often at the expense of the contents of your wallet.. if you have any cheap finds those are good too!).

I have a thirst for acquiring such goodies, so please share your wisdom!


I'll start with 3 of my favorites that I use every day, and travel with me everywhere.

#1 - Bellroy Leather Wallets
This wallet is my absolute favorite, because of the way it stacks most of your cards into a single pocket with a pull tab my wallet has never been smaller despite the 15 cards I carry in it. It also has a very durable coin pouch which seems to me unlikely to ever break which has always been the first thing to go on my previous wallets. They have a huge range but my favorite is the old note sleeve, sadly I don't like newer design so much but the old design is rapidly going out of stock. Maybe I need to get a spare!
bellroy-note-sleeve-wallet.jpg


#2 - Crumpler Backpack
I've had my current Crumpler backpack for over 10 years. Slim and light but stores a lot, with a huge sized zipper that only just recently started to unstitch from the bag after countless times stuffing more into the bag than I had any right to. Lifetime warranty though, particularly on the zipper.. so I'm engaging that right now and find out what happens. In any case their new Dry Red No. 5 looks like a great replacement and I will likely purchase one shortly, hopefully they'll give me a discount as an option on the lifetime guarantee.

DR5002-X06150_2015_02_04_0871.1.jpeg


#3 - Handgrey KNOX Bauhaus K50 Key Carabiner
I've used a Carabiner to hold my keys for years, since having a Carabiner to chain your wallet was cool. After breaking several hinges, I discovered this item which is cut from a single piece of titanium including the spring mechanism - best I can figure this thing is never going to break. For bonus points it doubles as a bottle opener without taking up any extra space on your keyring. I also recently picked up their titanium key ring which does not require the sacrifice of even a single nail when attaching or detaching keys (the layers slide over each other horizontally, relatively effortlessly.. genius). If you want some of them cheaper, they have been on massdrop.com quite a bit lately.



Handgrey-KNOX-Keychain-1.jpg

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Re: Your favorite travel gear and favorite premium brands like Crumpler, Bellroy, etc

A crumpler for the ipad....but a Gladstone for the rest :mrgreen:
 
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Re: Your favorite travel gear and favorite premium brands like Crumpler, Bellroy, etc

Sorry, lathiat, I loath 'premium brands' (why would anyone pay 20% - 50% more for the exact same item, but with a particular label on it?) but am very happy with my Bellroy travel wallet. Keeps the passport straight and more secure than in top pocket..
 
Re: Your favorite travel gear and favorite premium brands like Crumpler, Bellroy, etc

Sorry, lathiat, I loath 'premium brands' (why would anyone pay 20% - 50% more for the exact same item, but with a particular label on it?) but am very happy with my Bellroy travel wallet. Keeps the passport straight and more secure than in top pocket..

Glad to hear you like the Travel Wallet! I was looking at one myself just recently though cannot find stock of the Grey or Charcoal.. everyone seems to love brown!

On "premium" brands, maybe I need to find a better term like 'nifty' brands. There are many brands that are premium on price but not much else... but others that seem to offer something that is actually better in both longevity and usability (for me both Bellroy and Crumpler fit that bill).
 
Re: Your favorite travel gear and favorite premium brands like Crumpler, Bellroy, etc

The Bellroy Travel Wallet is my goto wallet for overseas travel.

My backpack of choice (and we now have four - my three sons and I all have one each) is the Eddie Bauer distributed Travex® Pack | Eddie Bauer backpack. My backpack has done four US and one Europe trip and I've loaded it with up to 10kg of "stuff" ranging from cameras to CPAP machine: it's brilliant. Comfortable and so far shows no sign of wear.

On that page there's a link its product demo video. I especially like being able to dump watch, phone, fitbit, wallet, etc in the little front pocket and the laptop sleeve makes it so easy to pull out the laptop: both necessities for passing through security nowadays.

EDIT: A Crumpler FUG (pity they're not made any more) for my ipad as well.
 
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Re: Your favorite travel gear and favorite premium brands like Crumpler, Bellroy, etc

I was looking at one myself just recently though cannot find stock of the Grey or Charcoal.
Not even from their online store?
 
I'm very happy with all of my Bellroy wallets - good designs, good quality
 
I use a Crumpler camera bag (on of their Million Dollar Home range) and love it. I can even put my phone and purse in and do without a handbag if I want.
 
Simply love my Bellroy Travel Wallet. Had for over 2 years now and still as good as new, easily the best all round wallet ive owned. And i use it daily and dont find it too big at all.
 
I love my Bellroy note sleeve for every day use and had been looking into their travel wallet for future trips so nice to hear that people are enjoying them! Key wise I was gifted an orbitkey last christmas and find that to be quite handy and in terms of backpacks I have herschel supply co's little america(15 inch laptop size) as I'm a graphic design student that occasionally requires A3 sized items and that backpack can easily handle it which also conveniently makes it great for several days worth of clothes when I'm travelling.

However I do believe that samh004's bag collection is 90% crumpler :p
 
I'm a minimalist when it comes to what I carry every day, so I love my Bellroy Low Down I bought recently:
Low Down - Slim Leather Wallets by Bellroy

It's a bit smaller than the note sleeve and I prefer the horizontal layout. I had seen Bellroys advertised before, but assumed they were stupidly expensive, so was pleasantly surprised when I looked into them. I will invest in a Bellroy travel wallet soon as well.

I also like my orbit key, although, since I installed digital locks at home, I probably don't really need to carry it, but it does serve as a good keyring for my car fob and it means I always have a bottle opener with me.

It's unfortunate that it's necessary, but I recently invested in an Apple battery case for my 5S which certainly helps, particularly when travelling:

iPhone 6s Smart Battery Case - Apple (AU)
 
Another Bellroy fan. Have had the slim sleeve and travel wallet for over four years now and they look like they'll last more than another four. Crumpler I'm not so sure about. I have a bunch of Crumpler bags from the Dry Red range. The number 3 (2 wheel cabin luggage) and 5 (backpack). Both are coming apart in a couple of places, though it looks like it's mostly a cosmetic issue rather than a structural one. I haven't had a chance to take them into the shop and see about a warranty replacement, but it makes me question the 'premiumness' of the bags. I do love everything else about both of them though. Are Crumpler really a premium brand, or are they just a well marketed one?
 
I'm a big Crumpler fan. Using the Dry Red series #5 back pack, which is perfect for me when flying. Also have the #2 shoulder bag. Which when O/S its great for day to day.

Crumplers are expensive, but I've looked at the Bellroy range before and always thought they were too much $ for what you got, Maybe I'll look for a sale somewhere.

Also recommend my Mountain designs dry towel. Perfect for travel. A lot of dry towels are about the size of a handkerchief, but these are about the half the size of a regular bath towel. Dries in about 15 minutes in a hotel room
 
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