I’ve gotten really fed up with all this junk around I take with me. I’m a minimalist kind of guy but it’s still gotten silly.
I’ve got a big mobile phone, my wallet full of stuff (not money), my keys, my sun glasses, a receipt for my dry-cleaning, a little medical thing.
Two pockets are not enough. I look like I have two huge cubic testicles growing out of my legs.
I finally understand why some men keep loose change in their pocket. My new smaller wallet is no place for coins. It’d be just as thick as my old one if I did that.
It’s a real shame that social mores don’t allow men to carry small bags.
I’d get one with a picture of Arrakis on the side!
I think this is why men used to wear three piece suits - more pocketses. After the age of 3 pieces, my father used to carry a briefcase with all that sort of stuff in it. That’s about as respectable as it gets, no?
Here in the US, at least in the big cities, men carry bags all the time. Usually backpacks or “messenger bag” styles, although sometimes just generic totebags.
Men do get bags. In his old book The Russians, Hedrick Smith rifghtly noted that men’s briefcases served the same purpose – hauling home the goods that men stumble across that are on sale.
The “briefcase” my wife got me is a shapeless cloth zippered thing.
If I go to the library, I carry stuff in a backpack or a cloth bag.
None of these are all that different from handbags, except that they’re less stylish, and don;t have as many internal compartments.
One comedienne once said that Men liked barbecuing because “they’ll cook if danger is involved.” Maybe you could persuade them to carry their stuff in ammo boxes.
Half the men in this area carry bags like this, my husband and a few friends included. A few co-workers of mine carry even smaller, leather bags. They almost look like a large wallet with straps.
In 1999 I bought a fake Pierre Cardin bag at a market in Hong Kong. I don’t know what you’d call it, but it’s slightly larger than a handbag, it’s firm but soft-sided, has a removable strap and a handle, a main compartment, and a couple of smaller ones. I guess it’s kinda carry-on luggage. I carry it everywhere, and it’s nearly as good as new.
It’s a size that I can just about comfortable fit a plastic supermarket bag in it, if I push and shove a bit. I love the thing - I’ve never had any comments that it’s effeminate.
Round my way, no one has a briefcase. I’ve not seen any for as long as I remember. I’d look like I was trying to copy them city folk and that’d be almost as bad as being a nancy with a handbag!
Any attempt to have a bag, no matter how unlike a handbag it may be, would be seen as a man having a handbag. Unfortunatly my part of the UK is about five or ten years behind the rest of Country in social development.
I did wear a suit until recently, which not only allowed me an extra pocket, but I could also wear my phone on my belt and keep it hidden.
However, summer is here and now so it’s shirt and tie only now.
I want a handbag. I just can’t risk it.
I’d get a student-sized black one myself, but a backpack basically screams “I just have more crap than will comfortably fit in my damn pockets, aight?”
If you’re afraid of looking girly, use one of these in a leather model. My wife has a black one and it’s completely asexual, in my opinion. They come in several sizes, as well.
In the early or middle 1970s there was a brief attempt in the U.S. to popularize handbags/purses among men. It lasted only a few months. One of my co-workers started carrying one and we all made such fun of him that he stopped after two or three days. They weren’t called “purses” or “handbags”; they had a more macho name, but I forget what it was.
I have a small shoulder bag that I carry most of the time when I go out. The main compartment is large enough to hold a paperback book and a few other items, and there’s a small pouch in the front which carries my cell phone and a few other small things. It may not look particularly macho but I don’t much care.
Vests. Get yourself a nice vest or three. Not a fly-fishermen / safari kind, but a nice leather western looking vest, or a fleece one. In mine, I carry:
-cell phone
-Dell Axim 51 V PDA
-cannon digital camera
-3 pens 1 mechanical pencil
-sunglasses
-car keys
-4 medical type vinyl gloves (in case kid has a “biohazard accident”)
-gum
-starbucks card & couple of other store loyalty cards
when I get home, it just goes on the back of a chair. When I go, I just slip it on. No constant unloading / reloading. All I carry in/on my pants are my wallet and multi-tool.
When I’m with the kid, I carry a black swiss-gear backpack that has a more extensive kid-related kit, and often, some Tylenol and a book for me.
I just always feel that when I carry a backpack that someone’s going to ask me for a note from my mom that it’s ok for me to be out of class during the school day. Doesn’t stop me - I don’t have a car, so when I go to the shops to buy groceries I usually carry a rucksack. For work I usually carry a messenger-style soft-side briefcase on a strap, but I usually go almost everywhere with a laptop so I can explain it that way. And it is damn handy for commuting.
But I think the problem is when I am not at work and not doing a ‘proper’ shop and especially when wearing casual clothes, especially shorts - then a handbag-style bag would be quite handy for 2 phones (work and personal), ipod, sunglasses, smokes, book, and other bits n’ bobs, but I guess I am not secure enough in my masculinity so will continue to just have bulging pockets in that situation. I just bought a belt pouch for my blackberry so that should help a bit, although I do feel a bit like a dork.
Baloney. You just have too much stuff in your pockets.
Unless you’re a daily rider of public transportation, or have little kids, most of the stuff that you carry around with you can stay in the car.
Dry cleaning reciepts? In the glove box.
Store loyalty cards? In the glove box. Or use your phone number at the PIN pad, if they let you do that.
Sunglasses? On your face, or in the glove box.
Ipod? Copy the files to your computer. Or get a phone that plays music.
This is, like, the second time in a week I’ve posted this, but here’s what I carry:
[ul]
[li]Smokes & lighter (soon to go away)[/li][li]Money clip with bills and four cards[/li][li]Keyring with little pen knife[/li][li]Blackberry Pearl (phone, email, calendar, music, crappy camera). Basically the same size as a Razr.[/li][/ul]
Everything fits in the front pocket of my jeans. I don’t wear baggy jeans.
Personally, I can’t stand having something that I have to carry around with me at all times, either in my hands or over my shoulder. I guess I just really like having my hands and arms free. If I’m carrying something, I feel like I’m tied to it, and by extension to any location where I happen to set it down, say, for the purpose of sitting. It’s a psychological thing as much as a physical comfort thing.
So I generally try to keep it minimal - cell phone goes in a jacket pocket, wallet goes either in jacket pocket or pants pocket. If the weather is nice and I’m not wearing a jacket, the cell phone goes in a nifty cell phone holster on my left hip, which has the added benefit of providing a fashionable balance for other holster on my right.
If I absolutely must carry something else (say, laptop or books), I just use a messenger bag, which everybody knows is really just a unisex purse.
