It looks like a regular backpack. You know, the kind that you carry on your back when commuting while holding all your gear inside its main chamber. Except, the Osuza Canvas is actually designed to open completely flat like a tool roll, exposing a generous selection of individual compartments for organizing all your gear.
Designed for artists, designers, and other creators, the bag ditches the traditional bag design for something that lays out all your gear right in plain sight. No more reaching into your backpack to grab the pen case before digging into the pile of writing instruments to find the one you need – everything is laid out and neatly organized, ready for the taking.
The Osuza Canvas folds up into a traditional-looking backpack, with straps and buckles holding the separate ends in place, so the darn thing doesn’t accidentally open up while you’re in transit. A zippered opening on the right side gives you access to items inside while maintaining the backpack form factor, so you don’t have to unbuckle the whole thing every time you need those ear buds that you keep inside. According to the outfit, the bag is weatherproof enough to keep most of the gear dry, although we have a feeling water will be able to seep in somehow, so make sure you properly reinforce any item you can’t afford to get wet.
Outside, the bag gets two rows of MOLLE webbing that you can use to attach modular storage items, like small bags and pouches. According to the outfit, you can use the webbing to expand the bag to up to 40 liters, depending on what kind of accessories you mount. Like regular backpacks, it comes with two shoulder straps for carrying on your back, although they appear to have opted not to add a carry handle on top. Yes, we would have preferred having that, too.
Inside, the Osuza Canvas comes with five zippered pockets of different sizes, which you can use to hold more items that you don’t want exposed, like sensitive electronics, as well as five mesh pockets of varying sizes. A large open pocket in the middle, which can be accessed from the rear of the bag, should be big enough to fit most laptops and tablets, along with sketch books, magazines, and larger items. There’s an elastic MOLLE webbing on the left side that you can customize to hold different numbers and sizes of pens, brushes, and similarly-shaped items, along with three rows of traditional MOLLE in the center for strapping down all sorts of items. The idea is, basically, to use all the compartments according to your needs, whether you’re a photographer carrying camera equipment, an architect with drawing and measurement tools, or a woodworker carrying a bunch of different tools.
While designed for creatives, the bag looks like it will be useful for a whole lot of people. So long as you have the space wherever you’re going to lay it all out in the open, you should be fine, whether you’re going to work, the gym, or a picnic in the park.
The Osuza Canvas is available now, priced at $349.