I first started regularly carrying messenger bags from everest.com back in 2002. I edc'd all sorts of stuff in it. That was back in the day when I was working telecoms and would find myself in fairly remote locations in eastern Washington. I also had one specifically for hunting, which was equipped somewhat differently to suit my needs on the trail. I had a couple friends who also bought into the messenger bag routine. Occasionally we referred to them as possibles bags as well. Most of eastern Washington is what I call Hayseed territory; most agricultural interspersed with minor municipalities, nothing even closely resembling metropolitan (anyone who would consider any part of Spokane to be metropolitan must live out in the sticks). Anyways, I reckon anyone who saw us with our messenger bags over a shoulder probably figured it was man-appropriate, something akin roughly to John Wayne slapping a saddle bag over his shoulder on his way through the desert or some such.

When I forsook my eastern Washington life for a trip to the sandbox, I left the messenger bag hanging on the doorknob to the reloading room and grabbed a backpack to convert into a bug-out bag which was routinely edc'd. I re-equipped at the PX and off the internet for the environment there, and upon my return home, I loaded the BOB into the foot locker and now it resides on the shelf, roughly equipped with most of the same BOB supplies, but adding a few more goodies as I encountered them over the years. When I got to New York, I decided that, since I had to tote my laptop to and fro, I would get a stout shoulder bag/briefcase that would accomodate my laptop and a whole bunch of edc items, thus ending up with a 30 lb man-purse of sorts, but I doubt anyone would actually mistake it for a purse per se. That Swiss Army bag went with me to Brisbane, Florida, and now here in Denver. Unfortunately my company upgraded my laptop and now the bag weighs more than my shoulder will tolerate, so I swapped out my bag for a slightly larger case with wheels and a telescoping handle, which I drag around behind me day in/day out to and from work. I still have it stocked full of most of the same edc stuff (fak, tools, supplies) as I have had more or less for the past 5 years.

As my social life picks up, and I am starting to get out and play more and more here in Colorado, I will most likely load up one of my daypack-style backpacks with appropriate gear and supplies to tote with me up in the hills, out to the shooting range, or just bum around town.

I still have my old messenger bags, and they still have gear in them, but I just haven't really felt much like throwing one over my shoulder again. BTW, I think messenger bags of the type I have are far superior to toting fanny packs around. I never got used to strapping one of those around my waist. I had one back in the 90s, mostly for my pistol CCW, and it just never felt right.