Maker:
Year:
Retail:
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Rollacrit
June 2024
$175
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In the early 2010's ThinkGeek was the retailer for nerd stuff - where you could get everything from D20's that lit up when you rolled a 20 to a mini-cabinet that turned an iPad into a tiny arcade.
One of my favorite items was a bag. Yes, a bag.
They sold a bag called the Bag of Holding, named after the Dungeons & Dragons magical item that was bigger on the inside. This real-life version was was a burlap satchel/backpack that was full of pockets, perfect for carrying... well, everything you needed for a Dungeons & Dragons campaign. There was space for books, pens, pencils, a laptop, adapters, dice, everything.
I got one and carried it everywhere. It was especially useful living in Chicago where the pedestrian nature of living in a big city made it especially useful. I wore it so much that I wore it out, with pockets in desperate need of patching.
Sadly, ThinkGeek was bought out by GameStop in 2015 and killed. Long story, but it was essentially smothered with a sack full of money. So, sadly, there was no way to get a replacement bag... until recently.
Rollacrit, a small company founded by a former ThinkGeek marketing employee, launched a Kickstarter campaign to make a replacement Bag of Holding. Though knowing of the fickle nature of Kickstarters, I jumped at the the chance to get an updated replacement to my trusty bag. For $125 ($50 off the retail price of $175) I put my money in.
Now, here we are a year later and I have a Rollacrit Bag of Holding in my surprised little hands.
Let us compare the old to the new! It's the same size and roughly the same appearance as the original Bag of Holding, but there's a lot of little improvements everywhere.
Let's start with the strap. The old strap was a one piece of black nylon-like material with a little pad on it for the shoulder. The clip on metal attachments on both ends for the strap did their job but were tiny and never felt terribly sturdy. The newer strap has a durable silk-feeling D20 printed fabric that looks a heck of a lot better. The strap also has a much chunkier metal clip on both ends that is a definite improvement. You don't ever feel like this is going to suddenly come unclipped, sending a pile of Monster Manuals to the ground.
Speaking of unwanted openings, this newer bag has buttons. That's right, riveted tight buttons that keep the flaps locked. Owners of the old bag may remember that it did not have buttons but magnets to keep it together. I can't tell you how many times I lifted the old bag upside down only to have the magnets fail and all manner of junk come spilling out. The new bag with buttons make that far less likely to happen. The buttons are solid metal and have a good hard snap to them.
Let's go back to the arms for a second. The back has the two backpack-like straps as the old one has but these are also improved. They have the two rings you weave the nylon bottoms through like the old ones but these rings are a little rounder and making for a tighter more secure fit. They are also attached to the bag in a reinforced stitching that does not look like it will get unnecessarily loose with wear. With the corners below them now rubberized for your protection. Also if you are going for the backpack configuration over the satchel strap, it's likely you have a very heavy load inside the bag itself, so better straps.
Now to the most important part - pockets. This new Bag of Holding has the same configuration for pockets so if you have a familiar setup with your old bag (for example: laptop in the big zippered pocket, adapters in the small front pocket, random bits everywhere else) you can easily have that same configuration with the new one.
You will be happy to know that they made improvement with every pocket, even adding more pockets to the pocket. There's 21 total pockets! Also many of the new pockets have the same silk-like lining with the same D20 print present on the strap which is great.
One notable addition is a small zippered pocket at the back. Inside you will find a detachable waterproof bag (I believe they call this the "secret" pocket) which is a good size for, say, a phone and accessories, or all the travel toiletries you would need for a short trip. I never really had problems with the old bag getting wet - the burlap was thick enough so that you would really have to douse it to get anything inside exposed to water.
Also new are two adjustable side sleeves, which are useful for holding cylindrical items, like umbrellas, water bottles, or maps to dungeons. I didn't even realize the old one lacked these, but now that they are there, I don't know how the bag didn't have them before.
Sleeves. Bags insides bags. Buttons. It certainly seems like Rollacrit looked at the old Bag of Holding very carefully and said "How can we make this better?" I like when a company makes a serious effort to improve on a product instead of just making a minor change (I'm looking at you, Apple). It makes you think that they might actually use this bag themselves, and want it to be better for them and yourself.
So, have they succeeded? I think they have. They took an already great product and made it greater.
Now, can you get a burlap satchel for cheaper? Yes. Yes you can. You can probably go to a thrift store and get a large canvas bag for $30. However, that second-hand surplus satchel won't bring you as much joy. You won't get one with as much thought put into it. You won't get one that's planned out for functionality. You won't get one that has as many quality components. You won't find one with as many pockets. You certainly won't have the admiration of other nerds, which, in the end, is all we really care about, right?
The bag is not yet available for the general public, but with the initial crowdfunding venture wildly successful and a quality product out there in people's hands. I imagine it won't be long before people can buy this on their own.
--Shaun Clayton
June 26, 2024
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