Amazon has this Workpro wide mouth 10″ utility tool bag on sale right now, and it caught my attention. Do you think it’s a good value?
At the time of this posting, Amazon says the tool bag is discounted by 10%. I suppose the real question is whether it’s a useful product – I doubt the small savings will make a difference here.
This doesn’t look like an ordinary tool bag, wouldn’t you agree?
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Here’s a Husky 12″ 4-pocket tool bag for $10 at Home Depot. This is the gold standard for inexpensive tool bags.
The Husky bag has two handles, a couple of pockets, a zipper, and a spacious main compartment.
The Workpro opens wide, thanks to its zipper design, but it also has a very boxy-looking shape when closed.
You’re not fitting a drill in here, but it looks like it could be nicely-sized for a hand tool kit. Or maybe it’s a good size for some misc parts or supplies.
The triangular shape and height of the Husky tool bag helps it hold a lot of tools and gear. But have you ever tried storing a tool bag like this? The height can get in the way.
That the Workpro tool bag is a lot smaller and boxier could be a pro or con. I think it would be easier to store way.
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I used to see a Workpro tool bag that was nearly identical to my much-loved Stanley FatMax tool bag of many years. Husky tool bags are inexpensive and popular, but it seems Workpro is also very experienced in this space.
You can also get the Workpro in a woodland camo color that looks just right for accidentally losing in the grass.
I’m not sold on the idea, but I also feel it’s good to know something like this is out there.
At the time of this posting, the price is $9 each, and I also found a 3-pack for $21 (blue) or $22 (camo).
Do you have any thoughts about the design?
Clay
Looks like a pretty good one for keeping some essentials in a vehicle.
John
I could see these being very useful for me. I prefer the boxy shape and reduced height compared to the Husky bags. I have quite a bunch of things (large collection of zip ties, long or specialty drill bits, seldom used layout tools such plumb bob, laser measure, 50 ft reel tape, etc. — that would benefit from smallish portable storage like these. That said, I black colored tool/supply storage = “black holes”, I fear. And I don’t think the camo is any better. If these were brightly colored, I’d be all in. For me, also, different colors would make it easier for me to remember what I had stored in each one, though a small plastic ID window could work too, and I could always MacGyver that myself. Still, for $7 each, I’m tempted.
Mark W
Definitely agree. Getting a backpack with a light-colored interior many years ago really opened my mind to that and now I notice it whenever I’m digging around in a black bag for something.
The blue with contrasting blaze orange or yellow interior would be awesome. Camo with blaze orange interior & zipper fabric 100% good improvements.
Mark W
The workpro seems really nice for like a trunk tool kit, etc. Because it opens so wide, to me, it doubles as the work surface/tool tray when open, for the tools inside. Neat.
Wish it was husky branded tho lol you are NOT kidding – those things are the gold standard. They’ve been able to keep the price down throughout the years’ inflation as well IMO. Haven’t really sacrificed quality or build. Maybe just a little less complexity than earlier models and slightly lower visual standards (like seams being straight, etc). Thats great manufacturing engineering IMO. Cut where the customer doesn’t care, & maintain standards where its important.
blocky
This diagonal-opening design has been present in pencil and cosmetic cases for a long time. It’s good to see it in 1680d fabric, but I agree that the colors are a detraction.
I would prefer to see this with light colors, with a couple internal elastic bands or velcro straps. I would prefer to see this as a single-zipper pull, or even better a magnetic-wrap around flap closure that passes 1.5 sides so that it resists accidental opening. I would prefer this to be 9 or 9.5″ overall length, rather than 10″, because that would store better vertically in most of my go bags, and I wouldn’t use this for large hand-tools.
Versions that open fully flat or that have a L/R compartment with a central handle to carry as a tray while open would be compelling.
I see this as a packing cube, and the philosophy in-use is similar to the canvas zipper pouch or tool-roll with multiple pouches method of organization. In other words, it’s a half-measure. Instead of one big bin of tools jangling around, you have several smaller bins, roughly organized. This is a good way to go for people who are accustomed to visually sifting for what they want, and who won’t take the time to put tools back in a specific way. I’ve gone deeper in my primary tool kit organization and prefer not to have bundles of tools jangling around at all.
Related, in general, I hate the trapezoid/ triangle squish design of the doctor’s-bag style tool-bags. They always are most usable when open, and do not close well when remotely full. For me, the zippers are often unused, and as Mark W notes, my most recent Husky bag, the zippers are so poorly aligned that they cannot be closed at all. I have several of the 12 and 14″ Husky bags and use them for binning augmenting kits and supplies in shop. That’s not too different than the idea of using these little pencil-cases, except at a different scale, and these rarely travel.
I do have some Ergodyne zipper bags in bright colors that are rectangular and have windows for ID tags. They have 2-3 internal spaces, and I use those for specialty tapes, small adhesives, and smaller archival materials that occasionally need to go out in the field but must be kept clean.
Jared
I could see this being useful for subdividing large storage spaces with tools you grab to work elsewhere. E.g. maybe a multimeter, non-contact voltage tester and outlet tester all in one bag. Soldering tools and supplies in another. OBD-II and other automotive diagnostic tools in another. Then all those bags on a shelf or large drawer. Being rectangular but still soft, you could presumably fit a lot of them into a space.
I have something kinda similar going on with some semi-rigid cases, but they’re not all the same size.
John
This is exactly how I’d use them. Just don’t want them in black or camo.
ElectroAtletico
The kids tool toys fit nicely