Jack on the Harrogate for people tired of replacing bags
Jack on the Harrogate for people tired of replacing bags
You have stopped looking for a bag that suits how you actually live. The Harrogate is my answer: one bag for the day you really have.
I am clearing my final ready-made Harrogates because, after 29 years, I am going custom-only. These will not be made again. The Harrogate is £107.95, against its usual price of £540.95.
The people who write to me keep saying much the same thing: a bag can look right and still not belong to an ordinary day. I hear them. I wanted the Harrogate to sit in a city street, on a train and at the edge of the country without changing its character.
I still make these by hand. I have always refused the old trick of calling one enormous pocket “organised”: a pocket for everything is often a pocket for nothing. The laptop, small valuables and papers each needed a proper place, while the outside stayed one considered piece.
I am not trying to dress up an ordinary day. A useful bag should meet you at the door, carry the day's things and still look considered when you reach the other end.
1997
Today
The Harrogate is the one people ask me about most, so it is the one I have written about here. It is not the only backpack leaving my shelves: the others are further down this page.
Five of the last ones, side by side: the Harrogate, the Connemara, the Annapolis, the Flagstaff and the Kinsale.
A surface made for living
I chose waxed cotton canvas and crazy horse leather because this should age with the journeys it carries, not look untouched from the first day. On a rainy morning commute, I can use the same bag I take at the weekend without treating it as a precious display piece.
"I used to choose a bag I was afraid to use properly. This one has been on the train, through town and back, and I have stopped saving it for nicer days."
A laptop with its own place
I wanted a quilted home for a laptop, not a hopeful gap in a large compartment. It slides into the sleeve and stays separate on a weekday train, even when the smaller things are moving around it.
"Mine used to go to work wrapped in a scarf. It goes straight into the quilted sleeve now, and I no longer move it every time I need my keys."
Small things, found at once
I gave the small valuables a zipped inner pocket and the rest of the everyday things slots. At the school gate, I can find what I need without emptying the main compartment onto the car floor.
"No more checking every pocket at the school gate and hoping my keys were in the right one. The zipped inner pocket is now the first place I look."
A front pocket for papers
The outside needed room for papers that arrive on a Monday, not another bag to hold them. During the rush through an airport, they stay in the front flap pocket instead of being flattened in the main compartment.
"My documents no longer get rolled into a tube to stop them bending. They stay flat in the front flap pocket while I wait in the airport queue."
A simple opening with useful sides
I kept the main opening straightforward: a drawstring under a buckled leather flap. At a café counter, the side flap pockets hold the small things I might need, so I do not have to open the whole bag just to find my phone.
"I no longer check the main bag every time the café queue moves. I can find my phone in a side flap pocket while everyone is still deciding where to stand."
A private place at the back
I put a secret zipped pocket on the back for things I would rather not leave showing. By the door, I stopped keeping my wallet in an easy outer pocket because it now has a private place inside the bag.
"My partner said I no longer turn the entire contents out by the door to find my keys. I stopped carrying the little zipped purse inside because the Harrogate has a pocket for it."
The Harrogate, against the leather backpacks you have been buying
Keys get lost in the loose middle.
The laptop gets moved to reach anything else.
Papers bend inside the main compartment.
Every small thing means opening everything.
Keys stay in the zipped inner pocket.
The laptop has its own quilted sleeve.
Papers stay in the front flap pocket.
Small things stay in the side flap pockets.
I no longer take the little holdall whenever I go away for the night. Everything I need is already in the Harrogate.
Why the last Harrogates are here
I have made ready-made bags since 1997. Now I am changing the workshop to custom-only, so the final Harrogates are being cleared. This is not the end of Jack Reid. It is the end of these bags being made in the same ready-made way.
The saving is real because these are the last ones: the Harrogate is £107.95, down from its usual price of £540.95.
Once the final stock is gone, it will not return in this form. If it fits the life you already live, it is worth checking while one is still here.
The other backpacks leaving with it
Every backpack below is final ready-made stock, like the Harrogate. When one of them is gone, it will not be made again.
The ConnemaraCanvas Hiking BackpackSee it →
The AnnapolisCanvas Laptop BackpackSee it →
The FlagstaffVintage RucksackSee it →
The KinsaleMen's Canvas BackpackSee it →
The AlgonquinWaxed Canvas Camera BackpackSee it →
The AlnwickCotton Canvas BackpackSee it →
The MontrealMilitary Canvas BackpackSee it →
The SkyeRetro Canvas RucksackSee it →
For years I bought another high-street backpack and called it good enough. The Harrogate fits the way I travel, and I no longer take a second tote when I go away for two nights.
The 4.9 stars across 1247 reviews are not mine. They come from the people who carried these bags and took the trouble to write.
I am glad to have made them. If this is the backpack that finally fits how you live, please have a look. I would rather you found the right bag than simply bought the last one.
See which of the last backpacks are still here
- Final ready-made stock
- £107.95, down from £540.95
- 30-day returns
The usual high-street bag that lasts two winters, against the Harrogate at £107.95, down from £540.95.
See the last backpacksAbout the writer. Jack founded his shop, Jack Reid, in the United Kingdom in 1997.