Nothing cements your relationship status with a new hobby like buying a special bag for it.

Hiking? Cycling? Photography? You bet there’s a special bag designed for just that. Getting into a new thing and accumulating gear for it is a joy. An important and underappreciated subcategory of that enjoyment is finding a special bag to hold all of those gadgets. Finding and using that perfect bag – with all the right compartments, hooks, and snaps – is its own particular delight. And it’s high time we gave it the recognition it deserves.

There are some purchases that just can’t hold up the hopes we have for them. Who among us hasn’t stood in line to check out at Uniqlo thinking “These are the wide-leg jeans that are going to change everything for me,” only to put them in the donation pile six months later? But a special little bag has always been able to support the weight of my expectations, even when they’re sky-high. I’ve never regretted buying one, but I sure as hell have regretted hauling around a bunch of equipment in a bag that wasn’t right for the job.

Don’t get me wrong, a good general-purpose bag is a great thing to have. Peak Design makes some popular backpacks along these …

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