Behind the Hype: Chrome Bags

Chrome messenger bags are designed to be completely weatherproof, totally comfortable, and virtually indestructible. Just what we like to hear! Street Cents does what it does best and torture tests the bags to see just how tough they really are!

Ads for these bags run in up to 17 magazines a month. They’re everywhere and we needed to know just what all the hype was about.

Chrome director of marketing Rob Reedy told Street Cents that the ads run in bike, surf, and music publications like Rolling Stone. The company claims that its bags are “indestructable.”

Durable? Yes. Waterproof? Street Cents will find out. But “indestructable?” Nothing that Street Cents gets their hands on is indestructable for long!

The Product

Street Cents had our testers torture test the Citizen Chrome messenger bag, which costs $129.95 CDN. This is Chrome’s signature bag and it is available in four different sizes with different names - the XL Kremlin, the L Metropolis, the M Citizen, and the S Mini Metro.

Though the larger Metropolis and Kremlin bags are more geared to actual messengers, Donny Fairbourn, of Curbside Cycle, told Street Cents that the Citizen and Mini Metro appeal to bikers and basically anyone looking for a durable bag.

The Citizen messenger bag features two large inner pockets, two small inner pockets, one wallet sized outer pocket, one zippered outer pouch, a seat belt buckle closure, cross-chest stabilizer, and three slots of pens, pencils, etc.

The Product Claims

According to the Chrome catalogue, these messenger bags are “indestructible.” The website, catalogue, and bag tags states these products are “designed for the long haul… ten hours a day in the rain, mud, snow, and grit. For years Chrome messenger bags have been crashed, smashed, and trashed by couriers worldwide.”

Chrome also states that ”All Chrome products carry a lifetime guarantee to be free of defects in materials and workmanship. This does not cover reasonable wear and tear or abuse. We will repair or replace, free of charge, any item that is found to be defective in materials or workmanship. If you screwed up and broke your bag as a result of your own action...we can still help. Give us a call and let us know what happened. If your story is sufficiently ridiculous you may qualify for a free repair.”

The Torture Test

So what did we do to these bags? How could we sufficiently torture them to see if they really are indestructible? Well, we always find a way and our producer Mike out in BC took this torture test to a whole new level.

It all started with a little game of tug o’ war – which it survived no problem. It then went on to be beaten by a baseball battle, a sledgehammer and stabbed with a sword. It held up well - but is it weatherproof?

We brought it into the shower, we threw it in the ocean, we dragged it through the snow and ground it into the mud. And the bag was still going strong.

We had a dog trained to attack fleeing police suspects attack our bag with his powerful jaws, we dropped them from roofs, we drove over them, we beat them with a front end loader AND we sent them on fire!

After all this abuse, we weren’t so sure that Chrome could live up to their claims – but they did!

The Results

Winner! Winner! Winner! OK, so maybe the Chrome bags aren’t completely indestructible, but let’s cut them some slack. What we put them through isn’t exactly your every day wear and tear! Despite all the torture, the contents of the bag remained dry, dirt free and relatively unscathed. There was a little breakage – a CD case – but comeon! It was smashed with a front-end loader! And, the CD inside was fine. Even the fire couldn’t pierce through the nylon shell, though in the same amount of time, fire completely consumed our test bag of a different brand. And lastly, all that dragging and beating and smashing and dropping didn’t tear the bag apart. It looked a little scuffed up and a little worse for wear, but it still was able to perform and keep our precious valuables safe inside.

So there you have it. If you lead a crazy, extreme life that involves a lot falling, running into things, catching fire etc. then you may need the Chrome bag - If only for your own protection!