The 21st Century Laptop Backpack

I was looking at these $100 backpacks with a built in sleeve for carrying a laptop and thought "WTF man? I can come up with something better than that for like 30 bucks"

The backpack is a SWISS brand, three pocket backpack that I found at a national department store for $19.99. With some scrap foam, a tote bag, tackle box and three ring canvas folder you have a great solution for everyday hauling to your office or school.

No need to buy an expensive laptop sleeve. Take a tote bag and a scrap piece of foam.....

...wrap it all up and you have the protection you need. I have a habit of tossing my bag on the ground (forgetting about my laptop) when I get to work so I needed some thick padding to absorb the impact.

With the padding it fits nice and snug without shifting around. What's awesome is that the foam pad makes wearing the backpack really comfortable, especially when biking. I didn't even realize how uncomfortable it was before.

I had been putting my papers into a file folder when I stuck them into my backpack but they still got bent up and creased. Here I drilled out the rivets of a canvas three ring folder for better protection so I can just throw in loose articles.

They all stay in good shape now.

It all fits nice and snug.

I also needed a better solution to digging through my bag for my pen or USB drive. Here is a tackle box that fits into the front pocket of my backpack. I cut out some shelving liner to fit into the box to get rid of the rattling sound as I walked around