I was rereading some old posts and realized that it was just over twenty years ago I got the bag that I now use as my Bag O’ Tricks(tm). At the time, I opined that the build quality seemed very good and that time would tell in terms of resilience. Well, twenty years has come and gone (ah, youth….), and I’m still here and so is the bag. Both a little worse for the wear, but still capable of carrying on as needed.

The bag is Tactical Tailor’s Three Day Bag. TT has undergone some changes since then and this bag is one of their ‘legacy’ products. There’s a newer version, and maybe I’ll get one just to have an extra. (Interesting to note that my ODG color is not offered.)

How has the bag held up over these two decades? Well, in spots its a bit dirty but who cares about that? Gear is meant to be used, my friend. It has gone on hunting trips, airline flights, been bounced around in trucks, and carried by me almost every work day for the last twenty years. In fact, even though I am at work sitting at a desk staring at three monitors worth of spreadsheets it is sitting behind me in the corner with all my ‘just in case gear’.

In the two decades I have had exactly two problems with it…both were my fault. I got careless and caught a fastex buckle in a closing truck door and broke the buckle. Fortunately a replacement fastex buckle of appropriate size can be found easily. Other than that…this thing is fully intact and ready to roll. No stitching has come apart, no seams have torn, no zippers have failed… other than some dirt and grime it’s in almost perfect condition.

I know that I’m not alone in having a bag like this, full of items and gear that might come in handy in a crisis, among survivalists. Some are more discreet, some less. Over the years I can tell you that I have learned that there are some features or qualities that are very much worth having.

A good, rock-solid carry/drag handle on the top of the bag is a must. When that bag is wedged in a vehicle with all your other crap crammed against it, you want something where you can grab and yank as hard as you can and pull it free from the pile. There have been times where I’ve been out hunting and had to clip a carabiner to the handle to affix the bag to a length of paracord to haul it up a cliff. More often than not, I clip (with a carabiner) it to a tie down in the back of the truck to keep it from flying. And, speaking of flying, sometimes you need to wing that sucker up to or over something…and grabbing it by the handle and swinging it like a hammer is sometimes the best way to hit escape velocity.

One of the things I liked about my ancient Dana Design (now Mystery Ranch) pack was that every closure had a secondary method of securing it. Any zippered part had a strap or two going over it so that if the zipper failed you could use the strap to secure things..at least, thats what the guy who designed the bag told me when I bought it from him back in the ’90s. Keep an eye open for that sort of engineering.

While the pack has webbing to attach pockets, I’ve always tried to avoid adding stuff to the outside of the bag. Ideally, I like the bag to be narrower than my shoulders or hips so I can get through doorways and other spaces in a hurry.

Straps need to be at least double- or triple-stitched.

All these features come down to build quality. Every manufacturer makes an ‘assault pack’ or ‘three-day’ backpack and they all usually have the same features. What sets them apart is the build quality. Don’t be afraid to reinforce the gear yourself. When I was a kid I used to have some cheap Jansport (remember them?) backs and I’d reinforce the strap and webbing attachment points with a speed stitcher. That stitcher, by the way, should be in every survivalists tool cabinet….its a handy little geegaw.

The TT bag cost me $110 twenty years ago. The newer version is around a hundred bucks more but, jokes on them, my bag seems to be a buy-once-cry-once that will outlive me.