In August 2021, we asked the staff of The Verge to tell us about their go-to laptop bags. Now, a year later, some are still using the same bags — but not all.

It’s surprising how attached you can get to a bag — especially the bag that you use to carry your laptop, your sweater, your lunch, your notebook, your exercise shoes, your kids’ diapers, or any of the other stuff you need. Whether you’re heading to the office, visiting a friend, hanging in a coffee shop, going on a hike, or just sitting outdoors to read or work, having a bag that can accommodate everything on your “gotta have this” list can help you avoid a lot of aggravation.

So, here’s this year’s staff picks — some old, some new. Most of the staff wrote about their backpacks, but toward the end, we’ve added a few different types of bags as well.

I got a large Timbuk2 messenger bag in 2015 — just in time to haul it around a CES show floor — after wearing out a few smaller options from fancier brands. (According to one company’s associate, in hitherto-undiscovered ways; I am very hard on my accessories.) It’s comfortable, low-profile, fairly affordable, and has a big main compartment with as many little sub-pockets as I could ever want. The only downsides are a) I feel sort of basic when a co-worker shows off some gorgeous Peak Design product and b) I like it so much that I feel like I must have struck an unwitting faustian bargain with a trickster god. Unfortunately, it looks like Timbuk2 doesn’t offer the customization options I got anymore, so maybe the catch is that I can never buy another one that feels just right. — Adi Robertson, senior reporter