Steele Canvas — a Boston-based company with roots stretching back to 1926, known mainly for making commercial laundry baskets — just released a limited-edition consumer bag that one-ups the iconic L.L. Bean Boat and Tote in at least one way while matching its other details nearly beat-for-beat.
America’s birthday bag
The 250th Anniversary Edition tote carries the same structural DNA that has defined Steele Canvas’s products for generations. It’s made in America from heavy-duty cotton canvas, reinforced handles, and a flat-bottomed silhouette built to stand upright under load.
The bag is part of the brand’s broader Icon Collection, a curated set of limited-edition offerings made to order from a rich Midnight Navy canvas, making it a much more colorful option compared to the mostly white canvas of the Boat and Tote.
Steele Canvas sizes it as a medium, meaning it’s wide enough for groceries, a gym kit, or an afternoon’s worth of EDC items. Though at 17″H x 17″L x 7″ W, it is notably taller, wider, and longer than L.L. Bean’s medium offering, which measures (10½”H x 9½”L x 5″ W).
Availability and pricing
The Boat and Tote owns the canvas tote conversation thanks to its consistent quality, timeless design and sheer cultural weight.
But Steele Canvas earns its credibility in a different way — through commercial durability. Its wares have spent decades in hospitals, laundries and restaurants before they ever landed on a farmers market shoulder.
The 250th Anniversary Edition packages that industrial lineage in a way any buyer looking for a canvas tote with deep American roots, a pop of patriotic coloring, and exclusivity can appreciate, granted they’re willing to pay significantly more for the privilege.
At $85, it’s more than double the price of L.L. Bean’s standard medium Boat and Tote.
