Gregory 70L Gear Tote

I needed a new snowboarding gear hauler. I was previously using a collapsible 50L laundry tote by Clever Made and it was a fantastic tote except I started carrying more gear than it could handle and I began spilling over the sides. Not to mention the fabric was starting to get holes on the high contact bottom points.

The Gregory 70L Gear Tote has a great size foot print nearly identical to the Clever Made laundry tote and it is able to fit on a shelf and in the back of my vehicle. I loaded it with my snowboarding gear in store before buying it. This includes helmet, gloves, baclava, 25L day pack, goggle storage box, goggles, snowboard bib, anorak jacket, extra large backpack storage bag of extra baclavas, gloves, and miscellaneous extras, extra large puffy insulated skirt, and mid layer sweater. There is still extra room to spare for snacks and tools.

I would never consider Putting my boots inside the bin because #1. The bottom of the bin is flimsy and flexes/sags. #2. The boots are dirty and usually wet after riding so they do not belong inside the gear bin with all of my clean dry gear.

So using the Clever Made 50L tote as my template I decided to improve the Gregory 70L gear tote by adding carrying handles. I need my hands free when carrying a gear tote so I added carrying straps! the blue aluminum bar is the strongest attachment point to add handles.

  • $1.75 14ft of polyester 1” strap/webbing purchased from local store.
  • Sewing machine (sewing needles etc)
  • Tailors measuring tapes
The bottom of the bin is extremely flimsy and in the image it is pushing upward. Once loaded it sags downward.

I Began by using 2 tailors measuring tapes to measure out the strap length I would need. 41” for each strap is what I decided.

Measure 6” and mark in from left and right edges. This is the amount that will wrap around the basket arm and be sewn. the center of the strap is 20.5”.

Mark 17” from the edge for the grip handle.

Mark again at 24”

Fold the strap in half between the 17” and 24” markings and sew to create the grip handle.

Wrap the strap around the frame and align it with the 6” markings and apply baste stitching. For this I did 3 rows separated by 3 stitches so no wider than 1/2”. ⛔️⚠️ sewing too close to the bar will prevent the strap from freely rotating.

Final Thoughts

I expect that the exterior bottom of this tote is going to get rips and tears because the engineer and design team did not think to implement a rigid base or any bumper feet on the bottom to prevent it from sagging and getting in the muck of wet ground etc. So I suspect that when this starts to happen I will be gluing some old tire tread to the exterior bottom of this tote. The 70L tote is a great size for one person maximum of two people who don’t take day packs or extra gear to the mountain with them but only take the bare essentials.

Fully loaded with all of my snowboarding gear including base layers, mid layer, and outer layers!

Base layers removed

End of morning riding and my outer layers are back in the tote!

So a 70L tote is perfect for carrying all of my own gear and necessities without leaving much room to consider sharing.