100 Things You Never Knew About Resident Evil
31. Who Is Ethan Winters?
When Capcom had to go back to the drawing board following the disastrous response to RE6, their ideas for a protagonist took shape slowly. Originally, Resident Evil 7's lead was going be a stand-in for the player and given a "generic" storyline. Over time however they decided that it would be far more interesting if Ethan was a central player in the plot, rather than just reactive.
So when the design team started sketching him out, Ethan was considerably different. Not only do early concepts show his face - something never officially revealed in-game - but some even put him in a suit. Apparently, at one point, he was set to be a detective. In the final game Ethan's occupation is never mentioned, but a supplemental guide book refers to him as a systems engineer.
You never really think about it purely because it's a gameplay and design device, but Village's inventory - like RE4's before it - implies that Ethan is carrying around a suitcase. In concept stages, the character was originally drawn with a backpack, with different size upgrades that would be made available.
This probably would've made more logical sense than a briefcase, but maybe there's bonus points for style.