I'm a bit of a bag geek.

I really like briefcases, luggage, messenger bags, backpacks, man purses, and all manner of vaguely embarrassing ways to cart my junk around. I even know where to find cool bags on Etsy, which I am pretty sure could get me kicked out of my fantasy football league.

I have lots of bags, and I admit it is kind of a problem. Particularly when I end up rocking a bag that makes me look like this:

One briefcase that I've been using for better than a year now, and which poses no such threats to my masculinity, is the Tom Bihn Empire Builder:

The Empire Builder is the standard bearer in the Tom Bihn briefcase line.

For those who don't geek out over bags, by the way, Tom Bihn is the eponomously-named, Seattle-based company that produces a line of very high quality luggage, briefcases, messenger bags, backpacks and the like. Tom Bihn does a lot right, from the high quality materials to the thoughtful designs to the way they engage their fans online (and a tribe of raving fans, it is).

The Empire Builder has a cavernous interior, which even when filled a laptop in a protective sleeve, leaves room for tons of paper, books, magazines, lunch, toddlers, breadboxes, and basketballs. That is perhaps a slight exaggeration, but the interior is wide, long and tall, and the bag is much more likely to become too heavy rather than too small. Paper-bound lawyers will be happy to know it can accommodate "red well" expandable file folders easily.

There is a slash pocket on the back for magazines and newspapers, as well as a zippered opening that permits it to slide onto the handle and rest above a piece of rolling luggage. The zipper is wide enough to accommodate the handle from almost any brand of luggage. I use Hartmann which features particularly wide handles, and the Empire Builder fits with no problem.

The front flap is a maze of zippered compartments, pen loops, and o-rings on which to clip any number of Tom Bihn zippered pouches, key fobs or what have you. To give you some idea of the capacity, I brought my Empire Builder on a week long trip to the Pacific Northwest and used it to carry my MacBook Pro, my wife's ThinkPad, my iPad, her Kindle, both our iPods, a Verizon Mifi, all of the associated chargers and cords, and still had plenty of room for magazines, and other junk. Why we vacation with all that crap is another matter entirely.

It also kept the contents dry despite repeated exposure to what our Seattle and Vancouver friends cheerfully reminded us was "real Northwest weather." Our next visit will hopefully feature more fake tourist weather.

Despite the weight of the bag fully loaded (which was considerable), my dainty little flower of a wife was able to carry the bag with ease, due mostly to the incredible Absolute shoulder strap. The strap - to borrow a turn of phrase from Steve Jobs - magically incorporates elasticity which creates flex in the bag as one walks with it and reduces the strain on the shoulder. Truly a fantastic strap and worth every penny.

I have only a few misgivings about the bag after having lived with it for all this time:

First and foremost, when the compartments in the front flap are loaded but there is correspondingly less in the cavernous main compartment, the bag falls over on its face. An annoyance that you either get used to or deal with by moving the contents strategically around the bag to balance weight.

Second, the Empire Builder is so tall that it can't fit standing up under the seatback in front of you on a plane, which means it must lay flat or on an angle. Laying it flat or on an angle under the seat it takes up a substantial amount of the room in the space under the seat (where in a more comfortable universe, is where your feet would go).

Last, a lot of the cargo room in the bag is vertical: even fairly fully packed, there is usually room along the top of the contents to lay water bottles, apples, and other non-rectilinear objects. However, I kind of hate placing stuff on top of the other contents that way. The objects placed atop the pile often slide down and between the contents in an ungainly way, making a mess of my OCD packing attempts.

That all said, the Empire Builder is the best briefcase I have ever owned and I recommend it and the rest of the Tom Bihn line enthusiastically to friends, airplane seatmates, people in line at the DMV, and, well you get the idea.

I've heard a lot of people say the Empire Builder is expensive at $170 not including the laptop sleeve or absolute strap, but for the level of build and design quality, craftsmanship, and made-right-here in the US goodness, the bag packs an enormous amount of value.

Since I don't have the patience to meticulously review every inch and feature of the Empire Builder, I'll include a few of the really excellent reviews out there in case you'd like to see more:

The Gadgeteer produced a thorough review of the Empire Builder with great pics.

My friend and fellow TECHSHOW Board Member Brett Burney penned a strong review a couple of years ago.

Tom Bihn has a fantastic Youtube channel with tons of videos which I have found to be, by far, the most illuminating way to check out a bag without actually going hands on.

One of the great videos is embedded below to give you an idea of what is on the channel:

In summary, the Empire Builder is a great bag for the lawyer who likes to carry a lot of tech gear and/or files. Definitely worth a look if you are in the market for a laptop bag or briefcase.