Citizen Slide 24L Messenger

Well…possibly, though there is an asterisk. The new Citizen had the promise of being one of Chrome’s best messengers ever, but it fell a hair short…initially. The bag itself is great - it’s a bit more lightweight than the original Citizen, the ambidextrous shoulder strap is a wonderful addition, and the addition of a zippered laptop sleeve was simply an inevitability that happened sooner rather than later.

On to the asterisk(s)…my main gripe is that the internal bottle pocket was on the opposite side of what is shown in the promotional materials, meaning it sits right between your neck and your shoulder if you wear the bag over your left shoulder, which is usually par for the course. Initially, this was a huge turnoff…until I swapped the shoulder strap around to wear over my right shoulder. For some reason, that small detail worked out extremely well for me, and I’m not entirely sure how I’ve been wearing bags over my left shoulder for 20 years.

My biggest issue was the total difference between the new Citizen and classic Citizen in terms of internal organization. On the classic, I LOVED the free-floating tarpaulin liner, and the side “pockets” were perfect for a water bottle and a u-lock. However, the pockets left a bit to be desired, as they weren’t very expandable and made storage kind of…interesting. With the new Citizen, the floating liner is gone (which I admit is kind of a bummer), but so are the slim pockets. In their place are two relatively large pockets, both…