complete insanity

As Jillian will testify, when things start to freak me out badly, I internet shop. This time, it's a bag to carry my stuff on the plane to Italy. [What, I don't have enough bags? Shush.] I don't always buy, but I do look...rather obsessively.

I decided on Freitag, cause they're the coolest. Except I couldn't find a color combination I liked, after leaving my ideal bag [custom] in the shopping cart. Because it would have cost more than $200. Never mind.

I figured Freitag can't be the only company making bags out of used truck tarps, and it turned out that I was right. My best discovery came when I figured out, thanks to Google's translator, that "LKW-Plane" means "truck tarpaulins" in German -- the home of such bags, and then I was off to the races, babies. [Freitag, btw, is in Switzerland. Which, I hear, is a more expensive place to do business. Hence the higher cost.]

Without further ado, my list for your enjoyment:
- Kultbag -- my personal favorite, though they're totally out of stock on almost everything. The owner, Bernd, wrote me a nice note and told me an Asian wholesaler bought out everything they have, but they'll be restocked within a month. Definitely worth watching, cause they make cool bags, and very affordable. They also make bags with OLD AIR MATTRESSES as the front flap. Could you plotz?
- Cays -- cool, but only in German, so I never went past making my own customized bag. I prefer not to order stuff in a foreign language, in case they're also asking for a kidney along with my credit card number.
- Berlin Bag -- the ultimate winner. I uploaded my own image, got a 15 euro discount [they've got a sale on right now] and chose my own colors for the top, back and sides of the bag. The bags are smaller than Freitag and Kultbag offer, but they're still made with truck tarps and the custom front panel was too hard to resist. Not recycled. Can't have everything.
---
eta contributions from the comments [thanks! keep them coming!]
- Atelier Scrap from Briana...brilliant French-Canadian company with a French-only website that's not quite ready yet. Definitely cool.
- Demano from Betty...brilliant Spanish [Barcelona!] company with a Spanish-only website that looks like it works quite well. My Spanish sucks, but when I have time, I'll take another look. I think you can pick from a selection of advertising banners and the style of your bag and they make it up for you. Look at the rainboots on the front page! Eee!