You’ve probably seen the Progressive Insurance commercial where ‘Flo’ mistakes a ‘European shoulder bag’ for a purse. I don’t use a ‘murse’, but there are times I need a shoulder bag. I use a faux military surplus one when I do. (One has a red logo that’s supposed to be a Swiss-style cross, and others have red stars or other emblems. The other I have is unadorned, is larger, and has interior sections and loops for pens and pencils.) Surplus stores carry these and surplus or reproduction/styled ‘map bags’. I just call them ‘satchels’.
Are ‘European shoulder bags’ used by many men in Europe? Or is it just a marketing thing so American men can carry purses with plausible deniability? If they are a popular accouterment on the other side of the pond, in which countries are they popular?
Israel is not Europe, but I can tell you they are very common here. I bought one within a few months of moving here - it’s just so much easier than carrying a wallet, phone, MP3 player, keys, pens, change, etc. in all my pockets.
I also took it back to the U.S. last year when I went for a visit. If people stared at me, I didn’t notice it.
Can we have a link of what exactly is being described, because this sounds like it could be anything from a satchel (very common, especially amongst students) to something an effeminate lager drinking football player would wear but no other man would be seen dead with?
My brother, just back from a trip to Italy, said they’re popular there. Here, not so much. Record bags and laptop bags are common enough for similar purpose.
Dutch men usually have a bag with them, but a larger bag. They have laptop bags, (also carried by professional women)documentbags or, if they are still students, small backpacks like these. But not the smaller kind of man-purse, usually.
I’ve got one like this that I use every day - I commute to work by train and I use it to carry a book, an insulated mug of coffee, maybe a pair of gloves - that sort of stuff. Probably about a quarter of my fellow male commuters have some kind of shoulder bag.
About another quarter have some kind of small backpack.
I’ve seen that commercial and those bags are not common at all at least in the bits of Europe that I’m familar with (the North and the East, less so the South and Scandinavia) and would probably be mistaken for a purse there just like they would be in the US.
I carry around a shoulder bag fairly often, when I’m not using my backpack. I used my shoulder bag today. It’s not all that unusual to see guys with shoulder bags reasonably often here (Melbourne, Australia).
However, my bag is a black canvas satchel. I suspect that the makers of the TV ad simply used a purse and called it a “European shoulder bag” (a term I’ve never heard before) because to many Americans “European” is a euphemistic synonym for “effeminate”.
Adding a data point for Scandinavia: I haven’t seen the commercial, but males carrying something that may easily be mistaken for a woman’s purse? Not common. Not common at all. I’d rather say “quite uncommon”.
Unless, of course, your social circle consists mainly of gay men in drag.
ETA: OTOH, small backpacks like these seem almost de rigeur and is sometimes worn even as an accessory to a suit and a tie (yeah, I know… :rolleyes: )
Googling the term, I see things which in Spain are considered handbags/purses; you won’t see a man carrying one covered in LV or decorated with flowers, but the ones a man may use are just “unisex”. Some of the ones Google gives me are just old fashioned portadocumentos (courier bags) or the slimmer varieties of computer bag; those are professional accoutrements, no more masculine or feminine than brooms or electric drills.
Middlebro (the construction foreman) uses one that’s almost identical to one of mine, except mine is black nylon and his is brownish/green denim. They’re both small, with long straps that can be regulated one-handed and lots of compartments. Last I checked, I had boobs and he had not.
