MAAP creates a new category with a material 8x the strength-to-weight ratio of steel: welcome to the tech-tote era

A cycling journalist’s job is like existing in a Truman Show-esque, live-action version of the Generation Game conveyor belt: where products stream past our eyes, desperately begging to be remembered, and then reported on, accurately and in excruciating detail.

This week alone, we’ve had artisan chocolate brownies named after triathletes, roof racks of questionable necessity, and one press release that claims to have completely reinvented the water bottle for 'modern lifestyles'. (As if your existing water bottle was a Victorian anachronism).

Some of these hyperbolic claims will, perhaps, be solid. Most will get dutifully reported on. And, occasionally, one will absolutely blow your mind - for any number of brilliant reasons.

One such launch that set the Cycling Weekly Slack channel ablaze this morning was the news that the Australian fancy-pants apparel brand, MAAP, has 'reimagined' the humble tote bag. Yes, the tote bag. That usually complimentary, often disposable, canvas accessory, typically made of rough-spun hemp and screen-printed by someone called Sophie from Fulham with an Etsy store.

Now, all joking aside, MAAP does make some very classy kit, in styles that make it stand out alongside any other mainstream lifestyle brand. It’s gear that feels cool outside of cycling.

MAAP and brands like them have, dare I say it, helped make cycling cool again, albeit for the vanishingly small number of people who can actually afford their gear. We regularly review their kit, and it's always up there with the best kit money can buy.

The final design of not just a new tote, but also a musette, merges, it claims, “aesthetics and performance into everyday items, for use on and off the bike… the new Tech Tote, Tech Musette and Tech Pouch bags are built to move between environments without compromise.”

The musette and totes feature ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) fabric, which MAAP insists will ensure that each "tech bag" delivers "exceptional performance" in an "ultralight, water-resistant construction."

The science behind it is genuinely interesting, in that the material in question is ALUULA Graflyte™ fabric, which we are told boasts an “unparalleled strength-to-weight ratio—8x that of steel,” presumably keeping your bits and pieces securely contained, and looking stylish, whilst “weathering the demands of daily life - on or off the bike.”

This new range of uber-stylish, marsupial-esque pouches includes a product simply described as a "pouch." This item is shown in the press images containing a canister of NOS (presumably for festival season?) and some hand tools, and retails for a completely reasonable €55 / £50 / $60 / $AUD85.

The Tech Tote and Tech Musette, meanwhile, retail at €130 / £115 / $145 / $AUD190 and €110 / £100 / $125 / $AUD160 respectively.

All three items are, mercifully for those in need of one immediately, available now.