Veto Pro Pac

By Phil Spano

If you’re anything like me, a blue-collar guy who’s been in the trades for quite a while, you’ve been through numerous different types of bags,  and ways of carrying your tools from job site to job site and until recently I haven’t really found anything that I’ve been very happy with.

A few years ago I was in a supply house and I saw a couple tool bags hanging out on the shelf these tool bags were from Veto ProPac. This is a brand I had never heard of before, but the guy behind the counter told me about them and said that they were very durable and badass. The zippers on them are awesome and smooth and hold up if you take care of them, and then he told me how much…Now, these bags aren’t cheap but you get what you pay for, right?

Veto ProPac tool bags are designed by Roger Brouard, who was a tradesman himself, and a carpenter of 30 years. Roger came up with the idea of creating a center panel tool bag with an injection molded plastic base and prototyped that idea in 1998 because he was frustrated with the lack of functional and high-quality tool bags that were out on the market. He had confidence that tradesmen who cared about their work and bought high-quality tools would also be willing to pay for high-quality and functional tool bags.

Now up until then, most of these tool bags were made by companies that also made tools so these bags were not very functional. They weren’t sturdy they basically were just a giant bag that you could just throw tools in very similar to a bucket which in my opinion is a horrible way of carrying your tools around.

After arguing with myself for quite some time and going through more bags from backpacks to open-top bags, I finally won and I bought an MB3 from Veto. 

The MB3 is a smaller tool bag specifically designed to hold your meter and a few tools that you might need for measuring voltage and the like on electrical circuits. It’s a lightweight bag that holds a good amount of tools inside it. Unfortunately with the MB3, it doesn’t keep your tools very organized. It does hold your meter and some tools but it doesn’t have specific pockets for your tools to go in. It is basically a wide-open pack that you can set your meter in and have a little pocket on either side of the bag or you can throw a couple tools in that you might need. 

It is a great bag don’t get me wrong, but I wanted something to keep me a little more organized and to hold more tools, so after poking around on the Veto website for quite a while, I came across a TP XXL. 

This bag is much bigger, almost double in size of the MB3 and it has pockets specifically for tool storage where every tool has its own space. On the sides, it has two padded pockets which can fit your meter and other tools that you may need or other metering devices that you may need to use. There are also clips on the outside of both of those side panels and the front flap that can hold your drill or a measuring device. 

The TP XXL has 47 different pockets for your tools, this bag features V-swap removable panels where you can swap out different panels inside the bag to fit your needs. It has a rear tablet pocket and like I said those two side padded pockets for your meters. There’s an over-the-top molded grip where you can carry it by hand and it also comes with a padded shoulder strap so you can swing it over your shoulder and head up to the roof. It has YKK zippers and a hard molded base so you don’t have to worry about where you sit the bag down. 

Veto says if you keep the zippers lubricated and away from heat and sharp objects, they should last you quite a long time. Veto also offers a five-year limited warranty on all of their products so check out their website for specific details on their policies. 

I gotta say that these bags have been a game-changer for me. I still use the MB3 quite often, but now I use it more as a service bag so I keep it empty most of the time and if I go on a service call where I need to climb up on the roof or a tight space I fill it up with a couple of tools that I think I may need for the specific job, and when I’m going to do a big job or an install I just grab my TP XXL and off I go. 

Don’t let the price of these bags scare you the TP XXL can run from anywhere from $210-$250 depending on which one you get and if you get any V swap panels and the MB3 bag is around $95, but they are worth every penny. I have had the MB3 for almost 2 years and have zero complaints about it. 

So if you’re in the trades or you’re just the guy who likes to carry around a lot of tools for whatever you do and you want to keep things organized that and neatly in place, go check out Veto Pro Pac and I guarantee you will not be disappointed.