Recommendations: L.L. Bean canvas tote bag

Several months ago I joined a few friends to visit the guys behind Found in Indiana Vintage at their nondescript store and had a short-lived dilemma. A few hours of digging through literal piles of clothes had left me with a pile of my own and no way to carry them home. 

Despite not planning ahead, they had me covered with a vintage L.L. Bean canvas tote bag with a zip-top. While at the time it was a solution to an immediate problem, it’s ended up being a bag I find myself using weekly. 

The L.L. Bean tote bag was actually first introduced in 1944 as a way to carry ice. The company claims it can carry up to 500 lbs. before the carrying handles will give out. 

I’ve been using the tote for practical purposes and it’s quickly been an indispensable bag I use more than my trusty briefcase. It’s lugged fabric books from my office to my home, client garments to my alterationist, and replaced the flimsy totes for grocery trips. 

I’d hesitate to call the tote fashionable, but they’re certainly not an eyesore. And more importantly it’s an incredible value, given the decades of use the tote served its prior owners before it made its way to my hands. They’re still available today for less than $50 in eight different colors and made in the United States. You can even do the preppy thing and get it monogrammed.