Once you put your hands on a bag from Saddleback Leather Co., you immediately know you’ve got something legit, and can easily sense it will far outlast it’s 100 year warranty. And even before you touch its thick n’ meaty leather, it’s already eminating a polished rugged vigor and craftsmanship impossible to find in this century. Last Thursday I opened up our review unit of the Saddleback Leather Medium Satchel for the iPad and was throughly blown away.
This. Bag. Is. Tough. I cannot stress to you enough what a powerhouse and pinnacle of leatherwork this thing is. It’s artfully crafted in stiff rock hard leather, just begging for you to break it in. When I look at it, I just want to take it around the world and beat the hell out of it, because it’s the sort of bag that in 20 years, will look even better. It’s absolutely built to age gracefully, and I’ve already added a couple nice dings and wrinkles from testing. Just out of the box this satchel has more personality than some people I know, and will easily outlive ‘em too.
The bag is gorgeous, but how’s it for the iPad? Excellent. Like I said, this leather is STIFF, and gives you a whole lot more protection than some nylon or neoprene, and will make sure it keeps it’s shape. If you’re the clumsy sort, I suspect it can easily absorb any substantial side or bottom impact with it’s solid leather walls, 6 sheets thick toward the bottom. Polished silver D-rings detail the bag with the 4 on the bottom looking especially cool. The inside of the bag offers a seperate inner pocket cut to fit the iPad, and a roomy space for whatever books or accessories you’ve got. The iPad pocket is done in a crisper smoother leather that makes the iPad slide in and out easier. The side pockets are big enough for a cellphone, but you might have to stretch and break them in a bit before you can fit a bottled water in there. On the back is another flat pocket for your stuffing pleasure.
The steel claps and rings catch the light and and really make it pop stylewise. It closes with a belt buckle, which looks awesome, but it’s the one thing I wish was different on the bag. When carrying it by the shoulder strap, I found myself just sticking the belt in the loop and not using the pin so I could open it quicker when I needed to. You have to use the pin though if you want to carry it by the handle otherwise the bag would hang open. I can see why it’s a belt closure, it totally fits the style of the bag, but it’s not easy access in a pinch. Then again, the upside is it’s great at keeping unwanted hands out of your bag on a crowded subway. The leather is thick enough where the belt stays in place without the pin anyway, keeping the bag shut. As you break the belt in I’m sure it will get easier and easier.
The very adjustable shoulder strap has two slideable leather shoulder pads and is also removable. Why two shoulder pads? Because it can easily be turned into a backpack! They just keep giving me more reasons to love this bag.
The bottom line is, I felt great carrying this around and got quite a few jealous eyes on it. It looks and feels like someone worked and sweat for days to build it, and looks like it has a story from the moment it hits your shoulder. It’s an indestructible tank, a beautiful and modern bag, designed with old world craftsmanship by a company who’s dead serious about leatherworking. I would get this bag even if I didn’t have an iPad, in fact I really don’t want to give it away! It’s available in 4 colors, I may order the Dark Coffee Brown for myself.
But alas, keeping this awesome bag for myself wouldn’t be good karma, and it’s my duty as the top guy at this site to do the right thing and give it away to one lucky reader!
iPadBags.com GIVEAWAY!!
It kills us to do it, but we’re giving away the gorgeous Medium Satchel for iPad from Saddleback Leather Co.! To enter just send an email to iPadBags@gmail.com with the subject “Saddleback!”. The lucky winner will be chosen on August 9th! Good Luck!
