Here’s something the tech era quietly broke: the concept of travelling light. Phones got bigger, laptops and tablets became non-negotiable, and for most people, headphones or earbuds are now pretty much an everyday essential – at least, if you want to stay sane by drowning out the noise of your morning commute (or keep up with your favourite podcast).
And the problem isn’t just the tech itself. It’s all the accessories that come with it – cases, cables, chargers, adapters, power banks. That’s without adding all the stuff we’ve always carried, like water bottles, coffee cups, sunglasses, house keys, wallets… you get the picture.
Somewhere along the way, all this stuff expanded beyond what anybody could reasonably carry in their pockets. So, because people already had one somewhere, the humble backpack filled the gap – until half the population was lugging a 25-litre pack to the office and back every day, bumping and jostling their way from street to train platform to coffee shop. In a global city like Los Angeles, where about 1.95 million people work directly within the city limits, that’s a lot of packs – and a lot of space taken up on the city’s public transit system. LA-based designer Shiro Suzuki looked at this situation, applied thirty years of product design experience to it, and concluded that what LA – and the wider world – needed wasn’t a better backpack. It needed a completely different way of thinking about carry altogether.
The problem, as he saw it, wasn’t that bag designers lacked talent, or even imagination. It was that the market had evolved in a lopsided direction. Our appetite for stuff had outgrown the size of our pockets, but the response from most brands was simply to make bags bigger – bulkier, heavier, more cumbersome than ever.
The middle ground had been left almost entirely unexplored: a carry system compact enough to live with every day, intelligent enough to adapt as your day changed around you, and designed with the kind of rigour that most brands reserved for much larger or more technical products. That was the gap Suzuki wanted to fill – and filling it, he decided, would require building something the industry didn’t yet have a name for. Something he would eventually call – and trademark – as Carrywear.
The concept behind Carrywear is straightforward in principle, and fiendishly complex in execution. Rather than designing a bag that you simply put things in, Suzuki envisioned a carry system that would function as a wearable extension of your pockets – staying close to the body, moving naturally with you, and adapting to different environments without requiring you to swap bags or repack your kit. After all, he reasoned, it’s pretty common for somebody to go out for the day and return with more stuff than they set out with. It’s called ‘shopping’.
The inspiration came from two directions simultaneously: the accessibility and body-hugging comfort of the classic fanny pack (or what us Brits would call a ‘bum bag’), and the technical rigour of high-performance outdoor gear (not just packs per se, but apparel too). The result was something that belonged fully to neither category, and was more useful than either thing on its own.
The first product to embody this philosophy was the X-PAK, launched on Kickstarter in 2016. Its design reflected the thinking that had been building for years: two independent compartments, a vertically integrated rolltop closure that could reconfigure the bag’s volume on the fly, and multiple carry modes – crossbody, single shoulder, waist carry – built into a single, clean silhouette. The orange interior lining was an idea borrowed from the iconic USAF MA-1 bomber jacket, originally developed after the Second World War. Downed or lost airmen hoping for rescue could reverse the jacket to reveal the high-visibility anti-camouflage orange inner as a locating aid for their searchers. While the X-PAK isn’t reversible, the high contrast lining is designed to make it easier to find your stuff inside. It’s gone on to become a hallmark of the CODE OF BELL product range.
The X-PAK raised $84,296 from 433 backers, smashing its funding target by 237 per cent. The number was a validation, but more importantly, it was the beginning of a conversation with the people who would go on to shape CODE OF BELL’s direction.
Success, for Suzuki, was never an invitation to repeat himself. With the X-PAK established, he immediately turned his attention to the next problem: what if you needed even less? What if the sweet spot wasn’t 10 litres, but closer to two? This instinct corresponded with the feedback he was getting from the X-PAK’s first wave of backers.
The X-POD, launched in 2018, was CODE OF BELL’s answer – and arguably the product that really put the brand on the map. Smaller than the X-PAK but no less engineered, the X-POD distilled the Carrywear philosophy into its purest and most concentrated form. At its default configuration it offered 2.3 litres of storage; release the compression straps and the rolltop, and it expanded to 7 litres. The X-Pac sailcloth front pocket, 940D Cordura nylon body, waterproof YKK Aquaguard zippers, self-locking magnetic Fidlock buckle, and hi-vis orange ripstop interior weren’t features added for the spec sheet – they were the result of obsessive, granular thinking about how the bag would actually be used.
The outdoor and carry media took notice. Carryology, the world’s leading carry-focused publication, named the X-POD its Best Sling Bag of 2019. The accolade reflected what early adopters had already worked out: this wasn’t just a well-made sling. It was a genuinely new kind of product.
Three more successful Kickstarter campaigns followed – the even smaller Annex 360 wallet sling, and then the Apex Liner Pro & Max personal mobile workstation – big enough for laptops, but far less bulky than most padded computer bags. Each one pushed the boundaries of what compact carry could do. With each launch, the community around CODE OF BELL grew: EDC enthusiasts, urban commuters, photographers, frequent travellers, and anyone else who had spent too long hauling more than they needed and getting less than they wanted in return.
The phrase “overly engineered” gets used about CODE OF BELL products a lot. Suzuki has heard it often enough that it’s effectively become a compliment. The brand now leans into it with relish.
Every element of a CODE OF BELL bag exists for a reason. The self-locking magnetic Fidlock buckle on the X-POD’s shoulder strap releases with a single pull – intuitive under pressure, secure at all other times. The compression straps double as external carry points for phone/camera tripods or a rolled-up jacket. The detachable chest stabiliser strap adds even more versatility to your carry options – you can wear it cross-body as well as over the shoulder or at the hip. The multi-purpose external daisy-chain attachment points accept carabiners, bike lights, and other accessories, making the bag as customisable as the lifestyle it’s designed to support.
Then there are the materials. Nothing is there because it looked good on a mood board. The construction – X-Pac, Cordura, YKK hardware, ITW buckles throughout – reflects a commitment to robust and rugged fabrics and components that have proven themselves in the field, not just on paper.
This isn’t overengineering for its own sake. It’s the product of someone who has thought very carefully about the moments in a day when a bag either works or doesn’t – and decided that “doesn’t” is not an acceptable outcome.
Suzuki calls this philosophy “Functional Adaptability”. It’s the idea that great carry gear shouldn’t just perform well in a single context, but should respond intelligently to the full, unpredictable range of situations that make up a modern day. From mountain trails to metro stations, from a quick coffee run to an international layover with no checked luggage, the bag adapts rather than constrains.
The current CODE OF BELL range – slings, packs, and carry accessories – extends that same thinking across a broader set of needs. The Carrywear system has evolved, but the principle hasn’t: everything is modular, expandable, and built to adapt as life demands.
There’s something else going on beyond the engineering, too. The bags look like nothing else on the market – and that’s entirely deliberate. Suzuki’s aesthetic draws from a specific collision of influences: the clean, considered minimalism of Tokyo street fashion, the technical vocabulary of high-performance outdoor apparel, and the urban functionality of Los Angeles everyday life. The result is gear that reads as quietly purposeful rather than loudly tactical – matte finishes, restrained branding, a colour palette that defaults to blacks and greys punctuated by signature hi-vis flashes. It’s a world away from the logo-heavy maximalism of mainstream carry brands, and closer in spirit to the Japanese concept of katachi – the idea that form and function are not competing priorities but a single unified one. Wear a CODE OF BELL sling in Tokyo, London or New York and it fits without trying. That’s not an accident. It’s the result of someone thinking very carefully about what good design looks like when it has nowhere to hide.
Nearly a decade on from that first Kickstarter campaign, CODE OF BELL’s influence extends well beyond Los Angeles. The brand’s following spans the United States, Europe, and a growing community of carry obsessives in the UK – drawn in initially by the X-POD’s reputation and staying for the range of products that have followed. It’s a community defined less by demographic than by disposition: people who have thought seriously about what they carry, resent being made to compromise, and recognise good design when they encounter it.
That expansion of influence is reflected in how the range itself has grown. The Annex line – compact zip pouches and organisers built with the same ECOPAK recycled waterproof fabric, YKK zippers and Hypalon hardware as the slings – takes the Carrywear material philosophy and applies it to the smallest possible scale. Stick one in your suitcase or clip one to your belt loop and you have weatherproof storage for the things most likely to get lost: cables, cards, coins, earphones. Then there’s the BASI[X] Vapor and Camper Hats – CODE OF BELL’s move into headwear, bringing the same technical fabric sensibility to the category. It’s a logical extension of the brand’s thinking: if you’re already applying cutting-edge materials science to what you carry, why stop at slings?
New additions to the range continue to apply the same principles to new problems – expanding what Carrywear can mean without diluting what it stands for. The products keep getting more refined. The thinking behind them hasn’t changed at all.
Overbuilt? Absolutely. That’s the point.
Shop the CODE OF BELL collection at WildBounds.
