A Bang Up Companion.

Ever since Apple stuffed only USB C ports into their MacBooks, everyone has been on the 'dongle' train. Issue is, (honestly we always forget the little things) we have always been a slave to the cable.

Ever plug a computer into a TV, monitor? There's a cable there. A keyboard and ergonomic mouse (sometimes known as a 'trackball')? Another cable. Want to charge that iPhone? More cables.

Regardless of the computer you have, cables and perhaps a dongle or two are a mainstay in everyone's bag. Over the years my personal collection of cables have been strewn across a duffel saddlebag and backpack. In 2019 I decided to do a little consolidation around this mess and gave this little thing a whirl:

Waterfield as a brand has been on the bag radar for some time. They are well known for their impeccably made waxed canvas, leather bags and accessories. Due to much of their designs being a bit too 'professional', I usually look elsewhere. Except when it comes to pouches and sleeves (and only within the last year).

When the time came to consolidate my cable and dongle carry, I needed something that could slide into the back slot of a Mission Workshop Rhake. This tech forward, city focused bag has a small horizontal pocket in the large main compartment. It's a perfect space for a cable cache. However, it's overly thin (width wise) and entirely too deep.

Laying out smaller items in this section, without a pouch of some kind would be nearly impossible. On top of this, finding a pouch that isn't too thick, so as not to drive into the wearers' back, proved to be equally tricky.

Take the Belroy Tech Kit for example. It has ample storage but, falls short on being too stout length wise leading it to be entirely too wide. Same goes for the Peak Designs Tech Pouch. Both of these in their own right are well designed (for some overly designed) but, fall short in a space that is width constrained.

Enter the aforementioned Waterfield tech pocket, specifically the larger variant of the two. With a single zippered pocket and a clever magnetic larger opening, there isn't any worry of wearing out any hardware when frequently plugging in that HHKB. With the following list of cables and dongles, this little pouch still remains svelte and can easily slip into the slimmest of city backpacks:

  1. USB C -> USB C
  2. USB C -> Lightning
  3. USB C -> USB Mini
  4. USB A -> Lightning
  5. USB A -> USB Mini
  6. USB C -> Digital AV Multiport 'dongle'
  7. USB C -> USB A 'dongle'

Without something wrapping that chord chaos, this pocket would be relatively impossible to tame. This plus everything would pile onto the bottom (that thing called 'gravity' or something) of any pocket.

The best part of this little gem? When arriving at the coffee shop, office, or seat 9F leaving this pouch on the desk won't give you away as a mechanical keyboard carrying programmer. What you do have though is an intricately made pouch to wrap all that chord madness.

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