That looks like an awesome pannier. We own 7 panniers between the four of us already, and I don’t neeeeed another one… However.
I can see J1 using it as his school backpack, since he rides to school and then carts a pannier around the halls all day right now
I actually need another one, but I need to get rid of my broken/nonrecoverable ones. You made me wonder, how many do I have? To be fair, I’ve never owned a car, so my panniers are my car. And I used to lead bike camping trips as a volunteer, and I had a 20 mile commute for 3 years. Also I used to get wholesale prices on panniers.
So I just added them up - I have 8 panniers for one person 
I never get rid of them, because they are “still useful” for some things. Even when I should either toss or repair them.
But my main high-capacity North St waterproof pannier that I’ve had for 13 years is finally just toast. I got this mardy pannier so I could stop having to move my skating stuff back and forth between another pannier. Got the pannier and now it’s my highest capacity functional pannier. So now I’m moving my skating stuff out of the pannier to use it for other stuff, defeating the point. I can’t decide if I should just get a second one or shell out for a new North St even though I don’t get wholesale discounts anymore?
We have these panniers that we use:
Plus I think there’s one other in the basement that we definitely don’t use, it’s a single structure but has a bag on both sides? I should find this one and sell it, no one has ever used it.
And three arkel handlebar bags (2 were from the same sponsorship as the bags above, one was bought on facebook marketplace), I have a handlebar basket on mine, and an assortment of other bags to go under the seats and whatnot ( mec etc).
We are pretty loyal to arkel, but I am stuck on J1’s last Christmas gift, there is nothing that they want, and the bag you linked is the exact price point I’m looking for.
Arkel is fantastic. I see why you are loyal! I’d love to upgrade mine sometime before I go on another big long trip. My current one has a tentpole/sleeping pad pocket that kinda is unnecessary these days because of the improvements in the smallness of camping equipment in the past 20 years.
Pocampo is a dope company too. The panniers are not made in Canada like Arkel, but they’re ethically produced and it’s a small woman-owned company. I think their stuff is very functional for around town - it looks good on and off the bike and always has pockets for like easy-access keys, clips for lights, subtle reflectors. The magsafe system is so easy on/off, it only takes one hand! And it doesn’t attack your clothes like hooks. I will say the mardy pannier looks MASSIVE on me as a backpack, but I’m really tiny.
i guess technically i have 9 then, cuz I have a set of those too
I like doing gifts (and can’t say I’m that specific about the occasion) so I can’t say this circumstance has ever come up, but at least a little token seems like a wise idea especially since she’s asked for something.
On the other hand I shall leave everyone with a warning about what happens when someone asks for gift ideas and you don’t provide them:
It’s a purple stuffed animatronic vampire (ish thing) with a bat on his head that sings and dances (ish) to the Adams Family theme song. It arrived for my birthday one year. I don’t know.
Put this on TikTok doing the Wednesday dance and become famous.
I dislike the foisting of junk on me, masquerading as “ thoughtful gifts” in this the Giving Season,
Because I am old I have many years’ worth of stories about gifting frenzy and gifting obligations, but no one want to hear that sh*t including me. Haha.
Suffice to say, it is all a bore and a first world problem, this getting tied up in knots about Gifting.
My general advice to everyone is to step back from it and simplify. We must accept that to some people the “magic of Christmas” is all about buying shit and unwrapping it. Those of us who do not value that have to put up with a certain amount of it. But at least we can minimize how we participate in it all.
My friend who is all about buying tons of shit for adults at Christmas time is hard to buy for because I don’t know what she wants that I don’t pay attention anyway, she can buy what she wants herself.
But because our get togethers at Christmas required lots and lots of gifting, I was able to buy lots of things for her houseful of pets. That is great because I could wrap up dog treats, dog toys, dog food, cat toys etc.
After waffling, we did eventually order the Mardy.
The big challenge with it was there are no Canadian suppliers, and the shipping to Canada was via UPS who like to charge a random brokerage fee for bringing your product across the border, but you never know how much or if they will charge. Often, the charge is $90 regardless what the value of the product is. The price of the bag was very good (even after the exchange rate), the shipping was $40USD to Canada (so getting into ehhhhh territory) and the brokerage was he wildcard that tipped it way over into unreasonable. I tried to find a similar bag at our Little Bike Shops, and they all looked at me like I had two heads
Then husband reminded me that the first week of January he’s going to Cincinnati to pick up roof racks that he had shipped there because of the same unknown brokerage fees. There is currently enough snow on the ground that J1 is not riding their bike, and it is winter break from school regardless.
So they will open a large pannier sized box on Christmas morning that will contain a photo of the Pannier that they are going to Cincinnati to pick up with Dad.
Great solution!
