Originally Posted by
vaticdart
To add to that, all of the good messenger bag companies are small ones. 1 - 10 employees, operating out of someone's basement or garage, and when you call them you'll end up talking to the person who started, owns and operates the company.
Almost everything made by bigger companies like Timbuk2 or Novara (REI's brand) isn't very good.
Anything made by a really big company is probably going to be a shoulder bag that's called a "messenger bag" for marketing reasons in addition to being crap.
Expect to spend $100, bare minimum, for a good messenger bag. Realistically they're more like $200 or more.
LOL don't listen to this guy. Timbuk2 started out as a small company and they made excellent bags in San Francisco. In recent years they have grown by leaps and bounds, some of their manufacturing has shifted overseas, but I think they do make custom ones in the US still. They still have great bags, and their line has expanded.
That said, there are a lot of other excellent bag makers out there.