Tote bags are a ubiquitous accessory on college campuses worldwide and the 5Cs are no exception. Walking around campus, one is likely to see canvas straps thrown over — or slipping down — the shoulders of many 5C students. However, the black and white New Yorker tote, featuring the magazine’s classic 1925 logo amidst abstract, oversized Irvine typeface lettering, seems to pop up an inordinate amount.
The New Yorker tote took off in 2014 as a promotion for a yearly subscription, coinciding with their website’s transition to a metered paywalled format, according to John Carter, the New Yorker’s global director of customer revenue. The bag remains exclusive to new subscribers and is not available for purchase on their online store.
Lexi Duffy PO ’26, often spotted carrying the tote bag on her way to classes around campus, said obtaining the tote bag was a significant factor in her decision to subscribe to the magazine.
“I do love the New Yorker, I [always] use up my free articles, I was happy to have access,” Duffy said. “But I will say my largest priority was that tote bag.”
Emma Mariele Neeb PO ’26 subscribed to the magazine after she ran out of free articles. Neeb recognized that the bag has become its own phenomenon, with its own value separate from the subscription.
“I was going to subscribe anyway because I always ran out of free articles, but the bag was definitely a bonus.” Neeb said.
The prominence of the New Yorker tote initially took Neeb by surprise.
“I got my bag when I was still in high school back in Europe, where I was pretty much the only one who had it,” Neeb said. “So I thought it was pretty funny coming here and seeing that so many others had the same bag. It feels kinda cool.”
The bag has long transcended its initial function. In addition to the original design, the New Yorker periodically releases limited edition seasonal designs by artists such as Edward Steed and Tim Lahan.
“I do love the New Yorker, I [always] use up my free articles, I was happy to have access. But I will say my largest priority was that tote bag.”
Upon seeing many students carry the bag on campus, Ariana Makar PO ’24 admired its design.
“I didn’t know where they got [the bag] from until my boyfriend told me it’s a gift that you get when you subscribe,” Makar said. “So he subscribed and gave the bag to me.”
Ana Yanez PO ’27 was first exposed to the tote when she came to Pomona College. Rather than getting it through the subscription, she requested it as a gift from her friend Desi Silverman-Joseph, a first-year at Brown University.
“[Desi] was like, ‘Why do you want a New Yorker tote? Do you even read the New Yorker?’ Yanez said. “And I was like, ‘I don’t think all these people read the New Yorker.’”
Upon hearing about the tote from Yanez, Silverman-Joseph started noticing its prevalence on his college campus, located across the country from Claremont.
“I always thought about the New Yorker as something that our generation didn’t really touch,” Silverman-Joseph said. “I was a little bit surprised at first that [Ana] wanted it, but then I began to notice after she asked, that everybody at Brown … had a New Yorker tote bag just like she wanted. I began to see the trend everywhere and it made more sense.”
Anna Priya Gupte SC ’27 has noticed the trend, too.
“I think my style’s very similar to a lot of people here,” Gupte said. “There’s been a couple of times where I’ve accidentally grabbed someone else’s tote bag right next to mine.”
Searches for the New Yorker tote produce an abundance of links to online resellers who sell varying iterations of the bag at marked-up prices, as well as websites that sell dupes of the original and limited edition designs, allowing anyone to carry the New Yorker logo on their shoulder.
Silverman-Joseph, who bought the tote for Yanez on a resale site, expressed that the tote has become a status symbol due to its signage value: Owning the bag suggests that its bearer is well-read.
“I don’t think it has come to mean very much at this point, because it’s so popular,” Silverman-Joseph said. “I know that [people with the tote bag] are trying to come off as cool and well-read and interested in news and culture. But I don’t know that they actually are.”
Duffy stated that while she understood that the bag was coveted as a signifier, there were other factors at play in her decision to carry it.
“It’s not for the goal of, ‘I’m putting this on to seem smart,’ but when I’m wearing it, sometimes I do wonder if that’s something that is perceived,” Duffy said. “I do sometimes feel cooler wearing it around. I feel well-read and educated and all the things that signifies, even though half the time I’m not reading the New Yorker.”
Many students feel an unspoken sense of camaraderie when they spot another New Yorker bag carrier on campus.
“I think it’s fun when you see someone else have it; it’s kind of like a bonding thing,” Makar said. “My friends have seen other people with the bag and they’re like, ‘Oh, we thought that was you,’ because I wear it almost every day. It’s not too deep.”
Aside from the resale hype and the cultural cachet the tote carries, there is a simple delight in having something in common with so many people at the 5Cs.
“At some point, I joked with friends that we should start a New Yorker bag club,” Neeb said. “But that would be a bit exclusionist.”
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