Filson Original Briefcase

The Original Briefcase is a soft-sided case of heavy cotton twill, lightly waxed so that rain beads and runs off, in tan, green or black. It is trimmed in thick bridle leather, the leather of saddlery and horse tack, at the handles and in a detachable, adjustable shoulder strap; the hardware is sand-cast brass, and a brass zip under a storm flap closes the main compartment, which has dividers inside, with two stow pockets on the outside. It is about forty centimetres wide and thirty high, and makes no attempt to look like a lawyer's case.

Its maker came to the office late. C.C. Filson opened his store on Seattle's First Avenue in 1897 to outfit prospectors heading north for the Klondike, and for most of the twentieth century the company made wool and waxed-cotton clothing for loggers, hunters and foresters; the US Forest Service adopted its jackets. In 1991, under the owner Stan Kohls, Filson brought back a line of luggage made from the same materials as its workwear: Rugged Twill, a lightly waxed cotton with a tear strength Filson puts above 1,400 pounds, and bridle leather.

The briefcase followed in 1994. Filson calls it its first, and still sells it under the name Original, a bestseller three decades on. The firm tells of a customer who logged more than a million miles of travel with one. The twill is woven for Filson by British Millerain, and the case is the same marriage of waxed cotton and harness leather on which Filson built its luggage.

The company around it has changed more than the bag. Private-equity owners bought Filson in 2005, and in 2012 it passed to Bedrock Manufacturing, the firm of Shinola's founder Tom Kartsotis. Most sewing has since left Seattle, much of it for a contractor near Los Angeles in 2023, though the briefcase is still listed as made in the USA. It is sold with Filson's limited lifetime guarantee.