The Quest

Let's play make-believe, shall we?  Let us imagine a scenario that would push our comfort zones.  Let us imagine the most wildest of things that can happen to us, that would push us to this uncomfortable edge.  A bio-chemical attack.  A terrorist attack.  A mass power-outage.  An active shooter incident.  Localized climate event.  But, the sad reality of it all, none of these things are now "make-believe".  These things are very much a reality.  These things are very much, albeit a very sad, a common occurrence now.  So, let's play the game.  If you were stuck in any one of these scenarios, and not being in direct 100% mortality radius, how screwed are you?  With whatever you have on your person.  With whatever you have in your bag.  HOW SCREWED ARE YOU?  Getting yourself away from said catastrophe or having to rough it out where you were, how long can you rough it out?  4 hours?  8?  12?  24?  48?  I asked my fiancé the same question in regards to her ever revolving starting line-up of purses, and seemingly every purse she has is loaded down with junk, and she answered simply that she was 'fucked'.  So, with all this in mind, I embarked on my quest.  I guess this quest for the perfect bag has been an obsession of mine.

The evolution of my obsession started way back when I was a kid in Queens.  I had my dad's fanny pack slung over my shoulder playing war with my friends.  I was the medic, even though I never saw myself as the medic type.  Armed with a stick as my rifle, my friends and I would advanced on an imaginary pill box, tossing water balloons as grenades onto a wrecked car serving as said pill box, before rushing against our imaginary foe.  When a fellow soldier would fall from some sort of sniper fire, I would drop to a knee and sling the fanny pack around, pulled ripped pieces of paper towels out to heal my fallen comrade.  It was here at the early stages of my life, my obsession with having the perfect bag was born.  After confiscating the bag from my father, I would beg my mom to sew additions to it, reluctant and yet giving in to my constant begging, she would make a few pouches and attached them to the fanny pack.  In said pouches, I would have a pack of mints as medicine and some wood blocks as extra ammunition.  At that tender age, that was my perfect bag.

Through the evolution of my life, my needs for the perfect bag didn't really change, in fact, I think it just merely evolved.  What is the perfect bag?  Well, I would have to assume that it would change per person for their needs.  Born and raised in NYC, I have always wanted a bag where security was at one of the top fives in desired traits.  Moving to Syracuse, NY for a portion of my life, yielding the need for a bag that can get me home safely if my car was stuck on the side of the road in a snow storm or, if I needed to spend the night in my office.  Travelling around and going across the border to Canada, yielded the desire to have a bag that fit the function of tactical flexibility and the invisibility of a normal bag where border agents weren't going to get intimate with my insides looking for drugs.  Moving back to NYC during the age of ISIS terror scares, helped evolve my needs again.  I needed a bag where in any situation, I was prepared for what was thrown at me.  Stuck in a subway?  I got myself light sticks, the ability to attach lights and make my way out.  If the call was for me to hunker down before being able to go home, I would have enough calorie driven snacks to keep me going with the ability to keep fluids with me for a day or two.  I needed the security of the bag to not be able to be pulled off of me without a fight or stuff stolen from it in tight quarters.  All in all, I needed a bag that can step up to whatever I need it to.  If the shit were to ever hit the fan, I would like to be able to grab my bag, my rifle, my dog and run.

My "go-to" bag.  Vanquest Skitch 12

Is it paranoia?  Perhaps it is, if you can imagine us all in a situation where we weren't ever worried about something happening, then it can be paranoia.  I remember vocalizing one day in the newspaper office I worked at about my search for a great bag that can fit my needs.  My co-workers at first thought it was just a silly thing for a guy to keep searching for the perfect bag.  They would say I was paranoid.  None of the scenarios I had in my head would ever happen.  But, then again, having a slightly heightened awareness of your surroundings or the possible dangers around you isn't silly or a state of paranoia.  I liken it more to the condom.  Yes, the condom.  It is always better to have it and not use it, than to need it and not have one at all.  It only takes ONE to ruin your life.  That last statement may be offensive to some, but you have to take it with a grain of salt or with a chaser of realism.  We are all comfortable being sheep lead to the slaughter.  But, when the sheep are finally at the slaughter house, they panic and it is all too late.  We all know life can be that jerk that takes us to slaughter.  The difference is, are you a sheep that willingly accepts the situation or are you a sheep that will go kicking and screaming until the end?  Maybe, just maybe you can be that sheep that slips away.  The more prepared one can be, the better.

So, with that in mind, what am I rambling about?  The Quest for the perfect bag for you should be cued to every person's needs.  It could be a backpack.  It could be a sling bag.  It could be a tactical assault bag.  Or it can even be a messenger bag.  The fact that if the bag suites and fits your life, then get it.  Be prepared.  Be ready for the situation.  How am I prepared?  Most of my bags, I have more than one, has an LED flashlight, a fire starting device, paracord, light sticks, a multi-tool, an edc self-defense tool, a monkey-fist, a Mylar blanket, pain killers, bandages, charging battery and tissues.  That list right there is my baseline.  I building my bags with most, if not all of that, in it.  Everything beyond above list are additives to the day at hand.  If I am running a light day with my fiancé in the city for a day of shopping, I use my Chrome Kadet bag and build the bag to be lightweight and handy.  If I am heading away for a few days, I would take my Chrome Mini Metro or my Hazard 4 Switchback or even my Direct Action Messenger (LARGE) and build it to have everything I need with me.   If I have to bug out, run and gun, I would use my Hazard 4 Plan B, load it out with a water bladder, ammunition, 48 hours of rations and get the hell out of the city.   Mission specific builds.  Or, to not sound like a paranoid prepper,  situation specific builds.

For all of you that have made it this far in my rambling article, go out and get that perfect bag that serves all your needs.  It may be more than one bag, but get one that you can depend on.  The reviewers of Shifter Life will continue to share what we experience with the bags we buy in our quest to find the perfect bag that fits the situation at hand.  Be prepared.  Don't be that chump without the condom.

Pat - Shifter Life - Gear Reviewer

Vanquest Skitch 12 with GT Cobra Strap

The Vanquest Skitch 12 with GT Cobra Strap
came ready to work

The first bag from a military style bag company that took the time to think.

Bold words coming from a desk jockey  But, let me clarify my statement with I am merely looking at this from the point of view of a city-trekker that has spent hundreds of dollars on bags trying to find the right one that can fit my life.  If you have read anything on our Tumblr page, or have seen anything on our Instagram page, you know that we are looking for that perfect bag that can shift to our lives.  And, in my eyes, the Vanquest company has finally been the company that produced a line of bags that meet my requirements for the daily grind.  The Skitch 12 is the smaller of the two bags, with the Skitch 15 being the larger of the two.  The Skitch 12 is a messenger style bag that takes a lot of elements that are popular in the messenger style bag world and moved it over to a more handy package with a few tactical elements added.  I think the main idea for this bag from Vanquest is just a different carry option that allows for CCW option while taking advantage of the messenger bag's handiness.  Let's face it, we all have that friend that walks around in the Maxpedition Fatboy-style bags and we all know he is carrying his daily carry in the thing.  This Skitch 12?  It looks like I am going to work or to the neighborhood Starbucks to write my next review.

My Skitch 12 is in the wolf gray trim.  I chose that because everything else that I own is decked out in black.  A little bit of change is nice.  Also, from the one and only non-black bag that I owned was a gray one.  This Skitch 12's wolf gray did exact what that tactical bag did.  In certain lights, it changes colors.  Wearing a bit of brown or greens and the bag seemingly adjusts to that color.  I think they should change it from 'wolf gray' to 'tactical gray', because the shifting of colors is nice.  The interior of the bag is 210-D RIPSTOP nylon in high-visibility orange, a 1000 denier weather treated Cordura wraps the entire bag nicely as the exterior.  The bag sports high-level quality YKK zippers and all the bells and whistles that you would come to expect from a high-end military bag.  If this were a vehicle, I feel it would be like the 2-door Jeep Wrangler with some off-roads tires.  Almost perfect for as a bug-out vehicle, but missing the extra set of doors.  That may be the Skitch 15 bag.  But, all in all, this bag is already showing signs of crushing into my top-5 list of bags I'd prefer.  The real-world dimensions of the bag are 16.5 inches wide, 9 inches tall at the shortest setup and 6 inches deep with a stretch limit of 9.5.  Stretching the bag out at the depth, may make the bag a bit bulky and odd to handle though.

FUNCTION 9.85/10 - The function.  Wow.  What makes the Skitch 12 such a versatile bag is that it is a bag that can lend itself to different layouts.  Not only can it extend in depth, it can extend in height.  This is definitely a cue from the messenger bag world.  The roll-top flap lends itself for you to place taller items into the bag and still carry it with confidence and security.  The layout of the bag has strategically placed hook-and-loop panels and the securing straps have a very long length of reach giving maximized usefulness.  I haven't tested the bag in it's highest layout, but I push the bag to the limits in depth.  I usually don’t carry laptops, my array of tablets rules my life.  My testing loadout this time: Samsung 10.5 tablet in case, Microsoft Surface RT with keyboard, 6-inch Kindle, Sol Republic Air Tracks headphones, Grid-It Organizer with various lengths of USB cables and chargers, small personal first-aid kit, various pens and markers, Gerber multi-tool, police-issued pepper spray, 2 led flashlights, tissues, passport, religious charms, lighter, plastic bag of snack bars and mints, Mylar survival blanket, spare battery pack to charge all my electronics, light rain-jacket packed into a small plastic tube, various length of paracord, survival bracelet, self-defense spike in Kydex holster and some other things that vary depending on where I would be spending most of my day.  Usually, a clip-on water bottle will be the varying element.  The bag's layout gave some key organizing elements that made my loadout listed above very easy to handle.

TACTICAL 8.5/10 - The overall tactical flexibility of this bag is amazing.  It truly does lend itself to be used in a variety of setups and loadouts.  With the little bits of molle-webbing here and there, it gives you the ability to tack on a few things.  Nothing too big, but big enough to handle any situation. My preference to messenger bags really relate to that opened-mouth cavity yielding to easy access, and with the single strap layout, it give users that option to access what they need in the bag without ever really needing to take it off their body.  Living in NYC where petty theft and subway crimes are starting to increase, having the option to get things in my bag without taking it off is nice.  Also, not to add fuel to the paranoid fire in the masses, having molle to attach a baton sheath or a self-defense tool, or a small knife is pretty badass.  To high-light, I live in NYC where having a CCW is almost impossible, so having the ability to attach a few things that are still legal to defend myself with is very key.

BUILD AND FINISH 9.5/10 - Top notch quality with great stitching.  I have looked over the bag and didn't find anything glaring at me that would cause me a great deal of concern in the future.  The nylon inside of the bad looks strong and isn't that stiff nylon that takes weeks to break-in and then cracks with daily use.  Everything that about this bag screams long-term daily use.  And, it should be, especially if a company is to stay competitive in this market.  My only concern that made me take off the half a point is the strap.  I chose the GT Cobra strap that turns the bag from the standard wear-it-off your hip bag to a bicycle messenger style.  The critical point, the buckles, seem to be made of as composite plastic or abs plastic, but that may lead to a catastrophic failure if the connection point were to snap.  On the website, it states a 500lb tensile strength on the buckle, so, we shall see.  With warranties to back their products, I have the utmost confidence in Vanquest products.

STYLE 9/10 -  Ok, style is a hard one to judge.  We all have different preferences when it comes to a woman.  So, why would it change on preferences with bags?  No one man can agree with 100% certainty that they will like what another guy likes.  I judged the Skitch 12 harshly in this department.  It is, in my eyes, a top-of-the-line messenger bag loaded with all the options one would need in a messenger bag.  But, it looks like a messenger bag.  A bit plain-Jane, but very, very functional.  It won't win any beauty pageants, but it will win 'Miss Congeniality'.  It is too likeable.  The moment you pick up this bag, either in the GT Cobra sling style or the standard sling style, all you want to do it put it on.  It is the cute girl that compliments you while shining on her own account.  If you like messenger bags, this one is for you.  And, dear god, get the wolf gray.  It is BAD ASS.

Test load

My experience with the Vanquest Skitch 12 was an overall delightful time.  I got on and off the subways without much problems with my bag fully packed with my loadout and with the GT Cobra strap, it made the loadout feel like nothing on my shoulder.  It was just handy and made with a lot of thought in mind for easing daily use.  I have always wanted a messenger bag with some military influences, and with the Skitch 12, I got that.  It doesn't stand out like the other bags I have.  It isn't yelling "LET'S STORM THE PLACE!" like some of my Hazard 4 bags that are tricked out with rows and rows of molle.  It is merely that cute girl at the dance that is standing by herself and when you finally ask this girl to dance, you realize that she is an absolutely filthy freak under that plain exterior.  The Skitch 12 is that cute girl.  Want to appear plain-Jane?  Tear off the morale patch and take away the molle attachments you have on.  Want to go all 'operator'?  Slap that stuff back on, add some sure-fire lights on the molle and go hardcore into it.  The bag will keep up with you.  This bag in the short period of the review time has been clubbing and shooting it's way onto the top of my top 5 list of bags I use.  With each and every day that passes and I choose her over the others, she is edging out the competition.  If the messenger bag is your kind of bag, GET THIS BAG or its bigger sibling the Skitch 15.  You will not regret it whatsoever.  Go to www.vanquest.com and take a look at their awesome line-up of gear.  Tell them that Shifter Life Gear Reviews sent you!

Pat Lau - Shifter Life m- Gear Reviewer