Le Grand Derriere - Tom Bihn

I’ve been thinking about buying a sling bag for a while. For those times I leave the house with just too much for pockets, but not quite enough for a backpack. Things like: a book, a jumper, a water bottle.

When I saw Tom Bihn released one I knew I had to give it a go. Tom Bihn make high quality, thoughtfully designed bags.

The Le Grand Derriere is technically a waist pack/fanny pack/bum bag. But, in my opinion it’s too big for that. Really it works well as a small sling or even a shoulder bag if you want to attach a shoulder strap to the D rings on each end.

Size-wise I think that this is as big a bag that I would really want to carry as a sling, any bigger and you’re in to messenger bag territory. One of the good things about this is that it forces you to carry a bit less. I can fit a jumper, my 750ml Camelbak water bottle, and maybe a smaller book as well all in the main compartment of the bag. This doesn’t leave a ton of room for other stuff, but honestly that takes care of most of what I want to take with me.

Firstly as a sling bag, I think it excels when it’s not too heavy. The wings that attach to the strap are not padded in any way so can start to dig in a little if the bag gets heavy. The backpack straps on the more recent Tom Bihn bags are super comfortable, maybe some of the DNA from that could have made it’s way into this bag. As is important for a sling bag, it’s easy to swing round and have in front of you, and when it is in front it’s relatively easy to access all the pockets. The zip for the main compartment is covered by a gusset which can be a little tricky to work with - maybe adding the included cord zipper pulls would help that, but I prefer the look without.[^1]

Both of the zippers on the bag are YKK number 8 which feel good and I have faith they’ll be fine in the long run. I do wish the hardware clip for the strap was a bit more substantial, as it does feel a little on the cheap side, and is also quite hard to adjust without taking the bag off completely. I’d love to see Tom Bihn embrace more modern hardware like the fidlock or cobra buckles that you see on bags of a similar price range. I’ve noticed that the bag does tend to fall away from the body a bit, so the bottom of the bag is still in contact with my back while the top of the bag isn’t. This can feel a tad uncomfortable but isn’t the end of the world.

As a shoulder bag the LGD works well. The waist straps fold away into a back compartment but can still be felt if you’ve got the bag against your body. Maybe it would have been nice if the waist straps were removable. I have an Absolute Shoulder Strap from TB and it is the most comfortable shoulder strap I’ve come across, but feels like overkill for such a small bag. I’d love to see a smaller Absolute strap and from what I understand the Op-tech mini strap is just that. I picked one up and I can confirm that it’s a mini absolute strap. It’s very comfortable and feels less like overkill.

Before my LGD arrived I’d been using a Tom Bihn Packing Cube Shoulder Bag as a make shift sling bag.

After carrying the LGD for a week or so I like it more than I initially expected to. When it’s not too heavy it’s fairly comfortable on the back. Part of me does wish that the back panel had mesh instead of just the nylon back. But that really is a nitpick.

Other thoughts.

• The bag is unlined, so for the most part it’s just one layer of fabric. This surprised me as even some of the more lightweight bags I own, like the daylight briefcase and backpack from TB have some degree of lining. I don’t expect that this will cause any issues, but it’s just something that in my opinion makes the bag feel a little less premium. Also I think a bright internal fabric would make it easier to see at a glance what’s in the bag. The darker internal fabric on the Wilderness version I have can make that tough
• I think that by trying to be so versatile and being a 3 way bag it does mean that it’s not massively excelling at any of the 3 ways of carry.
• I like the flap pocket on the outside, it’s a great quick access pocket for keys attached to a key leash.
• I would also like to see a “hidden” pocket that sits against the back of the bag. A lot of companies do this with these types of bags and provide pockets designed for quick access things like passports or phones, whilst still keeping them safe.
• The top grab handle isn’t the best if you actually want to carry the bag with it. It’s completely over to one side so the bag feels quite unbalanced.
• You can fit up to 3 bottles of wine in the bag. A handy thing to remember.

Conclusion

The tl;dr is that I am torn. I wanted to love this bag and it be my go to.