Every few years, culture rediscovers the L.L.Bean tote bag, officially (and adorably) named the Boat ‘n Tote. Every time it does, I say good: L.L.Bean’s signature bag is probably the single greatest tote bag ever created.
L.L.Bean’s tote so good that over 80 years after it was conceived as a method of lugging around ice blocks, we’re still discussing its relevance while new generations come around to its simple brilliance.
Anecdotally, I’ve been witnessing a real Bean Bag boom here in New York. Perhaps due to ongoing demand for the suspiciously similar Trader Joe’s tote, L.L.Bean’s Boat ‘n Tote is back in a big way.
Years after that whole Balenciaga Bean Bag situation, young people are still customizing their Boat ‘n Totes with personalized embroidery — a service offered in-house by L.L.Bean — secondhand shops are slinging vintage editions, and the overt homages roll out en masse season after season, varying in form from paean to parody.
And none of it tarnishes the OG.
Unlike perhaps any other Americana fashion touchstone, the Boat ‘n Tote cannot be oversaturated. It really can do it all. For instance, as an accessory indicative of the outdoorsman, the Bean bag is inextricable from the menswear space. And yet it capably crosses between genres.
Mid-market fashion label Tibi recently belted up bespoke Boat ‘n Totes as its answer to new-season handbags, while many other brands unapologetically bite the Bean bag’s steeze. All while TikTokers of all tastes are posting so many videos discussing Boat ‘n Tote sizing, colors, care, and styling that it was a minor struggle to cut down examples for inclusion in this piece (I opted for some of the most recent uploads).
Part of the secret sauce is that L.L.Bean’s tote is as quaint as it is hardy, as its cutesy but accurate name implies.
The Boat ‘n Tote’s hardy canvas exterior and deep volume makes it a reliable travel bag while its customizable colors and branding gives it pop appeal. That always-available feature is another right-time right-place factor, tying in with contemporary consumers’ desire to see themselves in their purchase.
Several years ago, an Instagram page was created to collate images of “ironic” phrases stitched to Bean bags as part of a nascent fixation with the tote. By now, though, the appeal is hardly ironic. The L.L.Bean tote is simply cool.
“True icon status, not defined by the brand but by the customer, is so elusive,” Amanda Hannah, L.L.Bean head of brand engagement and external communications, told me earlier this month while we were discussing L.L.Bean’s Japan Collection.
The Boat ‘n Tote “is our number one driver of new buyers.”
In observing the normalization of the Boat ‘n Tote, I’m reminded of growing acceptance of the boat shoe and Ralph Lauren-style curved-brim dad hat as casually cool accessories with only a dash of WASP-y flavor. This is not quiet luxury but a similar absorption of slight status symbols.
But whereas those items are subject to trend and taste, the L.L.Bean tote is too innocuous to ever be subjected to stigma. Whereas boat shoes and dad hats are frat-boy classics, the Bean bag is just a classic.
Its modest clunkiness helps. The L.L.Bean tote doesn’t make any attempt to fit in. Newer versions may be fitted with shoulder straps and slimmed-down bodies but the OG remains vital because it’s just so analog.
You can find sleekly suave bags anywhere, at any price point from reasonable to absurd. From my pop-psychology perch, I posit that the stubborn un-utility of the two-handled L.L.Bean tote, with its easy-to-scuff-hard-to-rip canvas exterior that only gains personality with wear, comparatively feels like a warm bath. It’s a relatable, satisfying combo of soft and hard.
It’s not trying to be anything but useful. Shouldn’t we all aspire to the same?
