Off-body carry is a thing. For some, it’s the only option. So if you’re going to tote that way, why not do it in something well-designed and functional? Hence the Man-PACK from, well, Man-PACK. They have two sizes and array of colors that won’t ever be let it be mistaken for a hipster messenger bag. Ever. Their pitch after the jump . . .
The Man-PACK is an ergonomically designed sling style vertical messenger bag made of heavy duty canvas. Designed with the modern male in mind, it that can be worn three ways; over one shoulder, on the back, and on the front of the body. The strap is adjustable and has a quick release clasp. There is also a collapsible beverage holder.
The Classic 2.0 is the new and improved Classic version based on feedback from customers including. A padded pocket for tablet PCs or concealed firearms. Molle webbing to secure carabiners, tactical gear, and sunglasses. A larger cell phone pocket with magnetic button clasp. And larger pockets with new layout.
About Man-PACK
Man-PACK was founded in 2011 by Aaron Tweedie introducing a single product, the Man-PACK “Classic” edition. Designed by Aaron Tweedie, the Man-PACK Classic launched in 2012 online at Man-PACK.com
Man-PACK’s mission statement is “To make men more prepared, like a Boy Scout.”
For more information, please visit http://www.Man-PACK.com.
Actually while I would never off body carry, unless forced to, I do like the looks of this bag for a host of other reasons. For those of us walking a lot with a laptop, having it sit in the small of the back makes it much easier to carry. All the pockets including the one for a cell phone, keys, etc is a nice touch. No digging around for anything. For those reasons a lone I can see this bag as a WIN!
…and then your purse get’s stolen…
Not for me!
It *is* a purse. Good grief.
The pack as a whole looks good. However I will never understand the need/desire to carry off body
I ride a motorcycle and am waiting on my ccw in the mail. I have concerns about inside waistband, due to my weight making it uncomfortable and my bike seating angle causing my shirt to rise up near/over my belt line. I’ve been looking at options,and until I can afford a custom shoulder holster to house my firearm, I am considering purchasing a ccfp. Concealed carry fanny pack. There. I said it. anyways,this is just one scenario that a bag like this would come in handy. Let me know if you can think of any other options for me.
Mare’s leg in a scabbard.
Care to
Elaborate?
I strongly advise against any messenger-type bag for riding a motorcycle. These things can shift, sometimes unexpectedly, under heavy maneuvering. The last thing you need is to be hitting the brakes and having your single-strap bag come flying around your body to slam into your arm.
When riding always use a backpack or bag that won’t shift around. Even better, use something that mounts to the bike itself. That way if you have an off-bike excursion you won’t land on something that’ll crack your spine. I did an entire semester in college (textbooks and everything) commuting around using only a tied-down (not magnetic) tank bag.
I only ride pedal bikes, but I have the same concerns. Fast corners and heavy braking are the worst. The rotating weight of the bag even makes light cornering feel weirdly unbalanced. Unless the bag is cinched up very tight, it will shift around during maneuvering. Once cinched tightly between your shoulder blades, it loses the easy access benefit for concealed carry.
I don’t think that the New York hipster messenger crowd ever put more than a few pieces of paper in their bags. Maybe I’m just carrying too much heavy stuff in my bag. I just don’t see any benefit from using that style of bag while riding a bicycle. Besides, two-strapping is cool now, right?
Messenger bags were made for quick access rather than stability. Also most of what bike messengers carried was papers or rolled drawings. For heavy loads or long runs a backpack is way better, and saddle bags on your bike or motorcycle are optimal. As far as concealed carry on a motorcycle goes, my best advice is wear a jacket, you get crash protection and a cover garment. A long touring or enduro style will hide a lot.
There is nothing wrong with magnetic tank bag. I have been using expandable Joe Rocket for years commuting and sport touring and it never shifted (up to high triple digit speeds, I mean like 175 MPH).
That does not mean I would “carry” in it.
I ride a motorcycle every day, and carry a pistol for work. My SR9 rides in a Blackhawk serpa. My pistol on my person, my carry bag for non gun stuff.
If you end up with a fanny pack, go for something in blue, red, or any color but black/coyote/camo – you don’t want one that shouts “tactical cool!”
I like in hand walmart bag carry over this. It’s a lot cheaper also! OK, so I don’t really carry like that but I think it’s funny.
Besides Target will ask you to leave!
I use a bag like that as a car bag. Has a medkit, survival supplies, tools, pop tarts, rifle & pistol mags. Other crap. I’d never put a firearm in it, as seen in the screen cap from the video the model is pointing the pistol at his own lung. Beats not having a gun at all, but if you have time to get to your bag and get a pistol (especially in my car-bag scenario) I’m going for the long gun in the trunk.
Keep a pistol on your hip for immediate threats… home, work, everywhere.
Looks like a tactical diaper bag.
Not a big fan of the euro-vibe I’m getting with this one. I’ll pass.
Could be worse…
LOL in the video thumbnail is he literally pressing the muzzle of the blue gun directly into his chest?
Yep… Mr Man-bag points it directly at his heart with finger on trigger. sigh.
Yup, some one mentioned that in the YouTube comments and he “tried” to defend himself. (Psssst, someone should tell him the video clearly show otherwise…….)
“…Pay attention to detail and you’ll see I never touch the trigger. And yes it is a blue gun, and further you try to do that presentation smoothly in 1 min 25 sec…”
As a backpack, it looks decently useful, although I’ve never really cared for the single strap bags.
As a holster, it combines the weakness of off body carry (security) with the weakness of an underarm holster (flagging oneself and others during the draw). And the design looks very asymmetrical, so as a holster, it completely ignores 11% of the market. The much smarter and better looking 11%, I might add. 😉
ManPACK sounds vaguely lewd. Not that there’s anything wrong with it.
Coming next in the line: Giant-Sized Man-Bag. I mean, Pack.
IT’S EUROPEAN!!!
Well that does it for me. A big old No to this product.
Sorry. That’s a joke from Seinfeld. I don’t know where these are made.
Marketing Department:
Repeat after me … it’s not a murse, it’s a man-pack.
For the man who needs a purse… err… murse… no its a manbag? No a “manpack” for the man who hasn’t yet come out of the closet.
Not digging it.
I have a maxpedition monsoon pack in my car. (I stow my Sig 2022 in it as a back up) I carry a 1911, as well as an IFAK, water, and other essentials to get me home if need be. Otherwise the less I have on my body the better.
Calling it manly doesn’t necessarily make it so.
Everyone knows a real man sticks it to his back with holiday tape after walking around barefoot on broken glass.
I have a camera bag like this that I used on a 5 day bicycle tour. There is a supplemental strap that keeps the bag from swinging around in front of you as you ride. Deploying the SLR camera is quick enough, but not light’nin fast Quix-draw. Given that your situational awareness is high when riding, it is quick enough. If I really felt I had to “slap leather” I would not ride in that part of the world or I would stop and ready for immediate defensive measures.
I have not been in elementary school in a real long time. Longer than I care to admit. At age 10, how a boy carried his school books mattered. If you carried them under your arm, you were a guy. If you carried them in a briefcase, you were a pu**y. If you carried them in front of you with two hands, like a girl, you were a qu**r. And so there we all went with these ridiculous loads of books and school projects under one arm, rain or shine, falling out on the street, because we were neither pu**ies nor qu**rs. That is what this whole off-body carry discussion reminds me of. If you are not carrying a full size .45, .357, or .44 OWB and preferably open, you are a pu**y. And if you even think about off-body carry, you are at a minimum dangerous and most likely qu**r.
We say that we want more people to be comfortable with guns. That means becoming more tolerant or inclusive, choose the PC term, about the carry method. Suppose you are a guy who works in a larger city as a salesman, financial analyst, IT professional, insurance agent, whatever. You live anywhere from NYC through Texas, along the East or Gulf coast. It is hot and humid all summer, and depending on where you live, that is 6 months or more of the year. You wear business casual with a tucked shirt, it is way too hot to wear a jacket, and the law, local custom, or your employer will not permit open carry, printing, or anything that smells of visible firearms carry, and IWB during the summer is just uncomfortable. Let’s also say you don’t want a pocket gun. You carry a company laptop, notebooks and contracts or other paperwork, a smartphone, and maybe lunch, tools, a personal laptop or tablet etc. every day in your job in some sort of backpack or case. Why should off-body carry of the weapon in a messenger bag or man-pack not be an option, so long as the item has a shoulder strap so that it is hard to steal? Yes, you have to control the man-pack, but you have to control a laptop case and everything else that is in it, as you will be fired if you lose it. The comment about the male model pointing the mock gun at his lung? First he is a model so maybe he does not realize, and second, can you tell me appendix carry is any less risky? The solution to both these issues is having a gun with a safety, or at least a long trigger pull, or maybe you don’t leave one in the chamber. Please let’s be more tolerant of the millions of potential gun owners and 2A supporters who are in this situation. Like dissing women who carry in a (suitable) purse, it serves little purpose except to create divisions where we need to have unity.
My main criticism of this man-pack is that like most fanny packs, it screams “gun” to grabbers and police, unless you are 25 years old where the fashion statement works. There would be a great advantage if more men and women alike carried laptops and such in various types of messenger bag so that similar bags used to carry handguns would simply blend in. One of these days, someone is going to figure out the right combination of safety, convenience, and style that a “man-pack” of some design will be acceptable CC wear in the city, where the need for personal protection is the greatest, and the opportunity for other types of carry is limited.
WAY TO SAY IT PAUL!!! I have already pointed out the schoolyard-bully taunts one finds on this site from people who simply refuse to accept that off-body carry is a choice. So many people have gravitated from “A WAY” of carry to “THE WAY” and have relegated people who carry in bags/murse/purse/packs/satchels as either a pu##y or a qu##r.
If YOU don’t carry off body, don’t label those that do as somehow having a third eyeball on their forehead. It is no more amusing to me as decrying how non-white people are getting access to firearms and are spoiling it for the rest of the nation.
That being said, I carry off-body because of a disability and am left handed (not a disability). I usually carry in a small backpack that is on my front because I am physically unable to place it on my back. It provides immediate, unobtrusive access and spreads the load to both shoulders. And despite the girlie-screams of the proto-FUDDS in this article about the “horrors” of off-body carry, I will continue to do so and will continue looking for options of such style of carry.
This guy was on Shark Tank trying to get a shark to buy into his product. Needless to say, they all passed.
They guy has very poor gun handling skills. Muzzled his shoulder several times, finger in trigger guard. Not the way to impress CCW folks where I am from.
Could be better thought out. Did anyone else notice that the concealed carry pocket opens down when the bag is on the back?
Forget to zip, or catch that zipper on something and you’d be un-concealing your concealed piece in dramatic fashion.
Must be my other brother Doug.
I’ve been using one of these every day since June, and I love it. I use my iwb all day/ every day, but when I’m working (it’s a physical customer service job) I keep my holstered lc9 in the bag in the truck. That’s not really off-body carry, but that’s how I use it.
It’s a great product, and I highly recommend it for use in that way. As a sort-of expansion edc pack for the stuff I want to have with me, but don’t want in my pockets.
Well made, the magnetic buttons are a very nice detail. Not too big, not too small. Small pockets inside to keep small things easy to find. I attached a double handgun mag pouch to the molle for a few extra outside pockets. Zippers are high quality. I love that it doesn’t scream “super-tactical-mall-ninja”.
OK. Somehow just not sold on this, probably because not personally at all hipsterish. Does anyone make a good, non-obvious inconspicuous day pack with some thought toward concealed carry? Or a way to mount a holster inside somewhere for good “just in case” access?