Announcing The Winners Of Cult Of Mac’s “What’s In Your Gadget Bag?” Contest

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Our three prizes: Waterfield Design's Cargo Bag, the Muzetto Outback and a Sleevecase.
Our three prizes: Waterfield Design's Cargo Bag, the Muzetto Outback and a Sleevecase.

For the last week and a half, we’ve been asking Cult of Mac readers to spill out their gadget bags and show us what’s inside for a chance to win one of three incredible bags and sleeves by one of our favorite designers, Waterfield Designs, as part of our “What’s In Your Gadget Bag?” contest. We got dozens of fantastic entries, but at the end of the day, we only have three prizes to give away, so here are the winners.

First Place: menithings

We loved menithings’ very Apple-like shot of his bag, and not just because he photobombed it with a cute cat and added iOS-style badges to label all of his gadgets. This is like the gear you could imagine Jony Ive carrying around with him: a mixture of the best first-party and third-party iDevice and Mac gear money can buy, with the exception of a comically terrible bag: an Ikea Canvas Messenger Bag. That’s an eyesore we’re about to correct by giving him our first place prize, a Waterfield Designs Cargo bag, a $209 value.

menithings’ First Place Prize: a Waterfield Designs Cargo.

 

Second Place: Ryan Johnson

 

Lest you think we’re awarding all of our prizes to contestants who photobombed us with cats, the sneaky inclusion of a feline in Ryan Johnson’s entry wasn’t what got him the second place prize: rather, it’s the fact that this is the gear Ryan carries with him everywhere while he goes around helping people as a Peace Corps volunteer in Bishkek, Krgyzstan.

Johnson explains his bag:

I’m a 3rd year Peace Corps Volunteer in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and thanks to the delightful creep of 3G across the ‘Switzerland to Central Asia’, my gadget bag has remained relatively unchanged since getting to Kyrgyzstan.

Progress!

1 – Standard Issue MacBook Pro 13 in… just like every other Peace Corps Volunteer
2 – Lucky Soviet Ruble… somehow ended up in my pocket way back in study abroad days and stayed there
3 – Boy Scout Issue pocket knife. It was given to me when I was 11 and today cuts cheese and opens care packages.
4 – Kindle w/Keyboard chock full of eBooks. We have no good english-language bookstores here in Kg, so we all have Kindles.
5 – Winston, a stray cat who lives with me and strayed into this shot.
6 – My wallet with 180 som ($3.83). I ordered this from Mighty Wallet 3 or 4 years ago, and it just won’t die.
7 – MacBook charger.
8 – Peace Corps ID. This is what I show the police when they stop me out of boredom, fishing for ‘fines’.
9 – Jabra Clipper bluetooth headset, because I don’t like pulling my iPhone out of my pocket, and the cordless headsets don’t do pickpockets any favors.
10 – Random pouch full of change.
11 – My journal, i.e. the beginnings of my prerequisite Peace Corps memoir/novel
12 – Samsung C5215 with a Beeline international sim. This is my old phone, mainly used to call home and as a pocket watch.
13 – Microfiber wipe to keep screens and glasses pretty.
14 – Assorted USB flashdrives
15 – Random chinese 200 som ($4.25) messenger bag that I bought at the bazaar.
16 – A notepad… for notes.
17- My keys with an old Ralph’s discount card still attached.
18 – A red uniball pen (for correcting papers) and a .02 Micron black pen for writing and doodling. Best pens ever.
19 – A comb. Gotta represent America and whatnot.
20 – My daily driver, iPhone 4s 16gb factory unlocked with a MegaCom sim. This is my phone, main internet connection, video games, digital camera, and anchor to sanity and normalcy.
21 – A random headphone pouch with a dock connector cable and stock Apple headset as a backup.
22 – Assorted plug adapters.

And yeah… that’s it.
And in case you are wondering, this is pretty standard for most Peace Corps Volunteers today.
Yep.

Who knew? Since Ryan’s been carrying around all this gear in a cheap Chinese satchel bag, we decided to upgrade him with out second place prize: a Waterfield Designs Muzetto Outback Waxed Canvas satchel, a $159 value.

Ryan’s second place prize: a Waterfield Designs Muzetto Outback

Third Place: Revano Satria

Here at Cult of Mac, we admire a sense of style, and Revano’s fantastic gadget bag just oozes it, dominated by moustaches, vintage gear and an overarcing taste in cases and covers with brightly colored horizontal lines. Revano didn’t label his picture, and since he already has a bag that tastefully matches his aesthetic, we decided to give him our third place prize: a Waterfield Designs Sleevecase to ensconce his MacBook, a $49 value. Great job, Revano!

Revano’s third place prize: a Waterfield Designs Sleevecase

Congrats to all the winners! That’s all we’ve got for now, but we’ll be putting up a gallery of our favorite runners-up tomorrow for more bag porn goodness. Thanks again to our amazing sponsor, Waterfield Designs, for providing the prizes for this contest: if you’re looking for a stylish, functional, USA-made bag, these are the guys to go to.

The contest may be over, but it’s always fun to show people your kit, so why not head on over to our forums and show us your gadget bag anyway? Or take part in any of the other wonderful threads there?

 

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