When I was studying in Bologna back in the heady days of 1997, I noticed an interesting fashion anomaly. Italians tend to be well turned out, even the students. But they had a blind spot for rucksacks from Invicta. They are large, shapeless, and come in hideous mismatches of colour that would be considered laughable in the UK, yet entire posses of students would sport them. Actually not just students, sometimes people in business dress too, looking like complete pratts as a consequence.
(I'm aware that my fashion sense is, er, not especially well developed, so take with the appropriate quantity of salt, but it is rather odd).
For well over a year I've had a smallish walking rucksack which just about fitted my laptop in its sleeve, cables, possibly a jumper and a diary and a bottle of water. Cramming this much crap into it often required taking everything out and rearranging it at annoying moments. blech pointed me in the direction of timbuk3 laptop bags, but I was too stingy to shell out for one. larsen finally took pity on me and suggested that his local department store had sold him his - a padded "sporty" rucksack with lots of compartments for laptop, documents, cables - for 30 Euros, and kindly brought one for me when he went home for the weekend. I'm calling it a late present from parents' Christmas money.
