Club Obi Wan

I was in a local travel equipment shop today and saw what looked to be many MK VI bags for sale... well, on closer inspection I quickly realised that they were not actually MK VIs but very close copies. There were some differences eg. e zipper under the main flap for exrta security; different D rings and a logo on the front which read 'indiana travelproof'. I don't know if anyone has seen these before but they retail for a mere 15 GBP. not bad value! Here is a link to the travelproof page with the bag on (it is about half-way down the page).

http://www.travelproof.co.uk/travelproof.html

interesting! Indy gear entering the main-stream!

Great find Tollan!!!!!

Actually... for anyone visiting or living in London the shope is right oposite the 'Russel Square' tube station. It's the 'Nomad' travel centre.... right in Central London/Bloomsbury....

Wow!
Interesting stuff. It would be fun to know the story on how it came to be.

Regards,
Swindiana

Well, we know where they got their idea, but they should have put a leather strap on it. I guess they are making it themselves. I haven't seen anyone else selling one exactly like it. Interesting.

It's worth looking at, indeed. I wonder if they have any drain holes, etc. Any clue as to how much they want for one? I couldn't find a price anywhere...

It's official: The MK-VII has come into its own as a pop culture icon. Now maybe they'll be 'hip' and 'trendy' to wear nowadays (haven't they always?). In any case, very cool find, indeed!

Tollan thats amazing, I cant believe you just stumbled onto that! I know Jerry from WPG spent a good chunk of money to have people custom make the MK VII, I never thought anyone would replicate the mk IV! Thanks for posting this!
Cheers

Indy J

EDIT: Where do you see the cost of 15 gpb? I cant find a place on the site to buy one?!

That is an amazing find, Tollan. I would love to get one of these. If anyone knows of a site that sells them online, please let me know.

Must...have...one!!!!

Any idea on the dimensions? If it's a little larger than the original, that would be awesome too, since I'm a little larger than the original Jones

It is important to keep the original proportions.

Bufflehead Jones wrote:It is important to keep the original proportions.

Watch it, Pecan boy!

Very interesting find Tollan. You didn't happen to purchase one of these
did you? It would be neat to see some better pics than the one of their
web site to compare to the original. At first glance though it looks
pretty good and at 15 pounds...let's see that's about $25 US or so isn't
it...not a bad price.

Regards,
Indybill

OK... to answer some of the question: it DID have the drain holes, two of them, like the MK VII. the only problem is that you would have to put your own D rings on as the fittings they use are too small for the leather strap (the strap hook, on the canvas strap, is constructed diffrently from the original MK VI). Other than that it looked exactly the same (except the inside zipper which I think could be remved easily enough... although I though it was quite a good feature!). I know the price because it had a price tag in the shop but you can buy it from this site for the same price (plus shipping I expect):

http://www.trekdirect.co.uk/acatalog/On ... ls_27.html

I forgot to mention that it was made of good quality canvas (but slightly lighter than the original) and seemd to be slightly larger than the MK VI that I have (I didn' actutally measure it though )....

sorry... I keep on posting and then thinking of more things to add... .... it had the same interior dividers and NO i didn't actually purchase one and even if I did I wouldn't be able to post any pictures as I don't have the necessary technology to do it. All I can say is that it was a fairly faithful copy and although it had a stitched logo on the front corner, which could easily be 'picked' off if you wanted I think. I would very much reccommend buying this if you're into indy bags and don't want to ruin your original!! It even had the durable string so you can attach it to your chest like the original!

Great find!!! They better have some in stock, when we have our summit in october!

Regards,
Redbeard

Oh man! "The page cannot be displayed" The shopping cart isnt working....

IJ

yes... I would offer to pick some up for people here but I'm going to be out of the country for a while for work. If you could find the phone number for the Nomad store then you might be able to order direct from them.... just a thought... they had about 10 on display. I might pass by tomorrow so I can ask....

The bottome line of the description says "Temporarily unavailable".
That's why it's not working I guess. Bummer, but that's OK because
I've got too many other projects eating up my finances at the moment
anyway. It's on my list though...gotta' have one!

Regards,
Indybill

You'll notice that there is a leather belt with hidden $$ compartment, too, that looks a lot like the gun belt. the buckle is accurate, and it just needs a metal keeper.

other locations to buy it from
1. http://www.gapyearshop.com/cgi-bin/gapy ... uct/ISB001

2. http://www.onlinetefl.com/shopuser.php? ... i=65&opt=2

This looks very cool!

Adam

Nice one! The pictures on those sites make the bags look almost white with a green strap though! The ones I saw were ALL Khaki... not like in those pictures.... soo I guess that it is simply the photos that like that and NOT the bags....

I'm sorryyyyyyy.... I just couldn't resist! I don't have anything to add, but this post gives me 100 posts... the temptation was tooooo great....

just one last thing to add.... I went past the shop again today and noticed that the bags have only one drain hole, off centre to the right if you are looking at the bag from the front.....

One drain hole? Maybe its right below the spot they recommend a water bottle to go. Makes sense. I think.

One picky little thing, they are not drain holes but vents.
Maybe this one is the first with a hole intended for drainage though, I'm not sure.

This will be the last time I nitpick, I promise. Drain holes does sound cooler even though not accurate.

Regards,
Swindiana

Hi guys!

I sent an e-mail to Travelproof.co.uk asking where my nearest stocklists are and they promptly replied.

It turns out that there are three different places in my city where these are sold and I will try to take a look some time this week.

Great! I'm sure they probably wouldn't let you take pics of the inside of the bag (or comparison pics with a real Mk VII) but if you could convince them it may skyrocket their sales among Indy fans... bink

Swindiana wrote:One picky little thing, they are not drain holes but vents.
Maybe this one is the first with a hole intended for drainage though, I'm not sure.

This will be the last time I nitpick, I promise. Drain holes does sound cooler even though not accurate.

Regards,
Swindiana

You are correct Swindy, my mistake. Altho, they do function in the field as dual purpose vents/drainholes. Anyone who has been in the Army, and had to stand in waist deep water, will agree that these sort of bags will fill up with water, and if not for the drain holes...er..vents, the water would remain in there for quite some time.
If you've ever filled these with water, while washing them, you can see how well they retain water.

But you are correct, their real purpose is to intake air that will be filtered thru the container in the bag, hence the name, vents.

I was just wondering.... I've been away for a few months... did anyone actually pick up one of these bags? And if so, what did they think of them?

Replica bags of this type are all the rage these days, every other student has them. Which is nice, I think. You can go into almost any clothing store and pick up something which resembles the Indy bag.

The problem is distinguishing an Indy-esque "satchel" from a man purse...