Briefcases & Back Problems - 3 Tips For Working Men Who Carry Their Office In A Briefcase
Hi!
I'm Antonio Centeno, the founder of Real Men Real Style.
Today, I'm going to be talking about briefcases, back problems, and how to avoid looking around
a 20-pound handbag that, well, just hurts.
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This is the question that came in.
"Antonio, my daily work bag weighs seven to nine kilos."
Okay, kilos for us non-Europeans, basically just double it, pounds, so close to 20 pounds
here, "And I walk with it quite a lot.
Handheld bags with a single strap are devastating to my spine.
One shoulder is already higher than the other.
Bags on wheels don't really work with me.
The only bag that seems to work is a sturdy backpack.
I want to look good, but it's not when it's going to cost me my health.
How can I work around this?"
Okay, so he's probably referring to an article that we wrote about and we'll link to down
below about why not to wear a backpack with a suit.
I see this oftentimes on universities having just graduated in 2007 from the University
of Texas.
When I was in graduate school there, I saw tons of guys in suits wearing these big McCombs
backpacks and I'd look at this and I'm just like, oh, it's kind of running the suit and
well, it just doesn’t look great, but he's exactly right.
You don't want to sacrifice looks for your health.
Just look at footwear.
Well, I'm not going to tell you to look at a woman's foot or women's feet that they've
been trying to wear these shoes that don't fit them for 20 or 30 years, but yeah, you
can deform your body if you're trying to force a round peg into a square hole.
Let's get back to briefcases because that's why you guys are here.
This gentleman, it appears that he's got the one briefcase and he's wearing it as a shoulder
strap.
He's lugging around 20, probably sometimes 30 pounds and he's like, "Gosh, this is painful.
How can I get around this?"
And so, he thinks, "Okay.
I'll just get a bigger bag" and wears a backpack.
I've got three suggestions for the gentleman on how he can get around this.
1.
The big one is he simply needs to carry less.
So if you're lugging around 20 to 30 pounds all the time, I mean, unless you're going
off to combat, I don't know why you need to be carrying around that much especially nowadays
with smart phones, when paper can be scanned.
Computers, talk to your company if they got a smaller one, or even bunk up and get yourself
a smaller little laptop.
You don't carry the computer.
Just simply have a smart phone with you because at the end of the day, that is going to solve
a lot of problems.
Simply carry less and it's something that's going to require a bit of discipline.
We used to do this in the military because if you're going to go on a 20-mile or 30-mile
forced march, you're going to lay out everything and you're going to examine every single ounce,
and you're going to make sure, "Does this need to be there?"
I haven't used this the last two years and it's been in my bag.
And despite the fact that I think needing a multi-tool in my bag that one time when
somebody needs it, I don't know if it's worth carrying around that multi-tool that weighs,
I don't know, eight ounces or nine ounces, so get rid of it.
Again, examine everything and say, "Do I need to be looking around that copy of Bernhard
Roetzel's book, Gentleman?"
It's a beautiful book, but that thing weighs almost three pounds.
You don't need to carry it everywhere.
You can pick up styles, just use your smart phone and go to Real Men Real Style.
There you go, so carry less.
2.
Look at a smaller bag, and this is related to carrying less, but oftentimes and studies
have shown that if you get a big bag, you're going to fill it.
It's kind of like plates.
So if you go and you've got a big plate, you're going to fill it up with food.
If you've got a small plate, you're going to fill it up with food.
At the end of the day, you're going to be full either way.
It's the same with bags.
You're going to find a way to fill the bag, so go with a smaller bag.
Look for something that you have to force yourself to choose sometimes things to leave
behind.
It's not going to be the end of the world if you leave something at work or if you probably
work less at home, which your wife or your significant other, she'll probably enjoy that.
3.
After that, look for a quality bag that has wheels.
I know you said the wheel bag didn’t work for you, but there are differences between
those with wheels that they're just loud and they're a pain in the butt, or ones that are
quality made.
Samsonite makes some great wheeled bags.
I highly advise you to check them out.
They're going to be a little bit pricier, but it's going to be a lot smoother.
Go for a larger wheel, something that can go across grass and you're not going to have
an issue with.
I use wheeled bags all the time, in airports and anyone that travels, and I find they're
incredibly useful.
This is a hybrid bag that I also wanted to show you.
I picked this up -- and this is old, so excuse it -- I picked this up over in Hong Kong and
I love this bag because it looks like a soft briefcase so I can hold it here.
It's black.
It's made from leather, but the cool part is that it does turn into a backpack.
So if you have to violate my rule with a backpack, at least have a good-looking backpack and
then you can violate it with confidence.
This bag actually worked really well.
It's not huge, as you can tell.
I usually just carry it like a briefcase, but if I ever had my hands full with other
things, I could wear that thing as a backpack.
Three kids sometimes, I've got my son here, my daughter here, I got the baby strapped
to the front, hey, I throw that backpack looking all professional there.
Okay.
Hopefully that helped out.
If you've got anymore questions or anything to add, go to the comments down below and
I'll see you in the comments.
All right.
Take care.
This has been Antonio Centeno at Real Men Real Style.
Bye-bye.