Best bag/pannier for business suits?

[dasgeh]

I leave my suits at work. Bring in fresh bottom layer (including shirts). I do dry cleaning at work. Pretty simple, though I get strange looks sometimes walking in wearing bike stuff or jeans (if I don’t bike).

[consularrider]

When I restarted commuting I bought a garment bag pannier that goes over my rear rack. One issue with it is that it is not waterproof, so if I needed a new suit every day, I would have issues on rainy days. Although, I think I could put the suit inside a vinyl garment bag and put that in the pannier. However, it turns out I don’t use that bag very often because I have space to leave a couple of suits and a sport coat at work as well as a couple pairs of shoes. When they need cleaning, there is a drycleaner less than a block away. Most days I don’t have to have the jacket, so I have a rack trunk with side pockets that can handle more than a full change of clothes.

[OneEighth]

I wear a suit every day at work. Provided that the bag is big enough and protects against the elements, the real trick to getting your suit to work in decent shape is how you pack it. Your shirt choice can also make a difference to appearance after it has been carried in a pack.
Shoes, belts, and overcoat stay at work.
My suit, shirt, tie, etc get gently rolled and put in the bag (in my case a Timbuk2 Swig backpack). Actually, I put the whole schmeer into a separate bag first to protect it from my lunch.
As for shirts—if your collar and cuffs (pocket if you have one) look flat, the shirt will look fine under your suit jacket. Over the years, I found that French cuffs stay flat and smooth much longer than single button.

[sjclaeys]

I have a pannier bag for suits from Two Wheel Gear, which I am very happy with. It fits over my rear rack like a garment bag, so no rolling up or folding of clothes. I need to bring everything in and the bag has plenty of room. It is not 100% waterproof, but I put my suit and shirt in a dry cleaning bag, which also keeps them clean and fairly wrinkle-free.

[JohnL]

The Two Wheel Gear garment bag is a brilliantly designed commuter bag; I put a suit and dress shirt in the main compartment, and it folds over and attaches to my rack, with no wrinkling. It has side pockets for shoes, toiletries, compact pump, spare tube, papers, laptop, etc., so it has become my daily commuter bag. A dry-cleaner bag keeps the suit dry on rainy days. It has a loop on top to hang on a hook in the locker room at work, so it is easy to access when you are getting dressed.

My only complaint is that I seem to wear out the bag after four years or so of use; I’m about to retire my second one. I’d love to find a bag with its design features that is more durable.

[Bunjabi]

Thanks guys! This Two Wheel Gear bag sounds like what I need. I’ll check it out.

[damnboy]

Pretty simple,
the real trick to getting your suit to work in decent shape is how you pack it..
i hope you like it ..

[Terpfan]

For a non-pannier situation/bag type, I have a SuitSak (https://www.suitsak.com). I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily waterproof, but it keeps most of the water out and if I use a drycleaning back then it’s totally dry. It’s a Canadian invention. Biggest negative is that it acts like a wind sail at Gravely Point on some days, but this could be seen as a plus for trainers. The reason I got it was the easy of putting my shoes (although I finally learned to just leave them at work), belt, tie, wallet, phones, keys, suit, other clothes, etc in it and they all fit nicely. Then again, they must not be popular as I’ve seen exactly one other person with the same bag in five years.

[AFHokie]

I’ve been using a Two Wheel Gear Bag for the past year. It’s not waterproof, but does come with a rain cover. I’ve yet to arrive with a soaked suit after riding in the rain.

[mohonk]

Fortunately I don’t have to wear a suit but even bringing business casual clothes on my bike is a challenge. I put my stuff in a cheap gym bag that I bungee cord to my rack. I’m fortunate in that no one in my office turns a head anymore when I show up for work looking like I just spent 18 hours in coach from Dubai. Or maybe I should buy one of those expensive pannier bags.

[bentbike33]

@mohonk 148779 wrote:

Fortunately I don’t have to wear a suit but even bringing business casual clothes on my bike is a challenge. I put my stuff in a cheap gym bag that I bungee cord to my rack. I’m fortunate in that no one in my office turns a head anymore when I show up for work looking like I just spent 18 hours in coach from Dubai. Or maybe I should buy one of those expensive pannier bags.

I keep a few sport coats and 2 pair of dress shoes in my office. I pack in undergarments, pants, shirt and necktie each day. I think there are two keys to looking well-pressed at work: (1) buying no-iron or low-iron clothes, and (2) carefully folding your clothes when you pack them. I use a standard pannier, but first put all of my clothes in a heavy-duty shopping bag from The Container Store. The bag keeps everything together as it goes into the pannier, adds some additional waterproofing, and protects the clothes from any potential mishap with breakfast and lunch which also ride along in the pannier.

You might try just first shopping-bagging your neatly folded clothes before putting them in the gym bag. Nothing will help with clothes that wrinkle when you just look at them funny, however.

Several years ago I used the suit pannier type bag, and while it kept the clothes nice, it was an inferior attachment to the bike.

[huskerdont]

I also keep shoes and ties at work, as well as a sport coat or two. One other thing I do is to liberally use the dry cleaner up the street from my office. I still pack shirts in and out, but mostly the ones that don’t wrinkle too badly. The rest I get cleaned and pressed so that I don’t have to worry about wrinkling them on the ride.

I have never used panniers but use a waterproof Banjo Brothers large commuter backpack. Part of the reason for the backpack rather than panniers is that I might use one of a few different bikes for work so I figured why put racks on them. Everything I have here has come in that pack,* including the lamp in my office, so it’s done the trick for me.

*ETA that that’s not completely true. When I brought the lamp, the lampshade was clipped to the outside of the pack. I must’ve looked quite funny riding in that day.

[Harry Meatmotor]

If you get your shirts dry cleaned and pressed, many dry cleaners offer boxing services. Boxing can mean anything from the shirt contained an actual cardboard box to being clipped and packaged like when purchased new, in an acetate bag with tissue paper and collar props.

Luckily I don’t have to wear a business suit at work, but if I did I’d leave them in the office and have them dry cleaned/pressed once a week somewhere near my office.

[VA2DC]

I keep my suits, ties, belts, and dress shoes at work. I bring in socks, undies, and dress shirts once a week in a pannier. I second the suggestion to stick with no-iron shirts. I use an Eagle Creek packing folder to bring in 5 shirts at a time, then hang them up when I get to the office. I fold them up the night before, but wait until the next morning to cinch down the folder. That seems to keep them pretty wrinkle-free.

One suit at a time, folded gently and placed in a pannier, also stays pretty much wrinkle-free. I fold the coat in half lengthwise, put the folded pants on the bottom half, and then fold the coat over the pants crosswise. Then I wrap the whole bundle in a plastic bag from the dry cleaners before putting it in the pannier. Like dress shirts, hanging up the suit (or putting it on) immediately after arriving seems to help minimize wrinkling.

[Crickey7]

Agree with most of this advice (though I use a backpack), with two added thoughts: Wool is fairly naturally wrinkle resistant, and Downy Wrinkle Releaser works surprisingly well for dress shirts.

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