Aviator Bag’s Simplicity Sponsors Creative Uses With Claw Shoulder Strap

How to Convert An Aviator from Hand Carry to Shoulder Carry.

Andrew Fegan finds inspiration to convert an Aviator Bag to shoulder carry in this Gear Review.

The simplicity of the Aviator Duffels really appealed to me, and I’ve been using a size small as my carry-on, ‘one-bag’ solution. I’ll typically bundle-wrap and use a pair of compression straps for my clothes. My Lil Roy is the perfect size shave kit for me. Yes, it’s considerably smaller than most others, but this forces me to limit items to the truly essential. A couple of packing cubes to wrangle any other loose items and a thin slipcase for the laptop rounds out my setup.

Despite the success of this configuration, I was lamenting the lack of a shoulder strap. Your Pin Mount Key Clip and the Aviator Bag mods near the end of Steve Olson’s "Three Kings of Carry-On…" article provided the necessary inspiration.

I acquired a pair of Pin Mount, Stainless Rings (sourced from Cetacea SKU IDPM07-SS) and your Claw Shoulder Strap. My Small Aviator sports the Claw to great effect, and makes the long trek between terminals, or back to the airport’s parking deck MUCH easier to manage.

After a bit of experimenting, I found that attaching the pin-mounts just below the XX stitching on the webbing to be a great location. One ring on each web strap on opposite sides of the bag works to balance out the load nicely.