It’s rare when you develop such an attachment to a product that you’re willing to publicly admit you “love” it. Well, I’m willing to come out and say as much about my Timbuk2 bag. Bags (plural), actually. My wife calls me something of a bag ho…and yes, that’s accurate. I am a tad obsessed with laptop messenger bags and I’ve built up quite the stockpile on a shelf in our garage.

I’ve tried a huge range of laptop bags labeled with everything from Eddie Bauer script to the Victorinox cross, but I keep coming back to Timbuk2’s. My last one – blue panels bordering a gray one – stood up to profound abuse that would have done in any run-of-the-mill messenger bad. I’ve also had several “swag bag” versions with various corporate logos on them, as Timbuk2’s are something of de rigueur among the tech set for high end giveaways. When the logo’d versions grew dated (I switched jobs…) and the ol’ blue and grey gave up the ghost, the obvious next step was to hit up the Timbuk2 site and build my own yet again.

So why the obsession with one particular brand? Three things: quality, design, and culture. The first two should be self-explanatory if you’ve ever tried one. The third, culture, should be evident if you’ve spent time on their blog, reading up on company history, or browsing through the sweet bag designs in their Artist Originals series.

It’s simply more fun to invest in a brand where the people behind it obviously believe in it, dare to be creative, and strive to turn their products into a works of art. How cool is that?