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Introduction
Whenever a designer sits down to design a product, of any kind, there are usually a number of considerations.  The design process is really about finding the right balance between all of those considerations to make the product do what it is supposed to do.  Things like finding a balance between making something strong but lightweight, high quality but affordable, fast but fuel efficient, and the list goes on and on.  New products can have dozens or even hundreds of design considerations.  But, every now and then, a company or a situation will come along and call for the design of a hyperbole.  The design of the “-est”.  Lightest. Fastest. Cheapest. Tallest. Toughest.  Sometimes, maybe even most of the time, those designs turn into trainwrecks.  The products are so single-minded in their purpose that they lose any of their usefulness.  But, every now and then, these types of designs achieve a certain elegance in the process of meeting the goal.  The elegant simplicity of the design will allow it to be useful while still being the “-est”.  In those rare cases, the product can take on its own mystique and become something great.  It was clear from reading Saddleback Leather’s website that this was exactly what they had set out to do.  The question is, did they succeed?  Read on to find out.

Background
I feel that something like a briefcase is a very personal decision where everyone is going to have slightly different needs and expectations.  So, I think it is wise to share a little of my background and how I use a briefcase/backpack before we go much further.  I work in an office setting every day and have used a briefcase every day for the last 5 years.  I had a really nice, very “professional” looking briefcase that cost several hundred dollars at the time of purchase.  All black leather and crisp lines.  But, it was starting to show its age.  In some spots, the black leather was fading to blueish-grey.  The metal clasp that held the main flap shut would sometimes open for no reason.  The thread (or maybe leather) was starting to warp with age and the crisp lines of the briefcase were starting to look a little sloppy.  So, when reading about a briefcase designed for durability and longevity like Saddleback’s briefcase, I was receptive to a lot of the ideas.

As I considered Saddleback’s bag, I knew that if I was going to spend this much money on a briefcase, I wanted it to do everything.  I occasionally take graduate classes that require me to walk for about half an hour to get to class.  During those times, I’d use my old college backpack instead of my briefcase because a shoulder-style bag is uncomfortable when hauling heavy books for half an hour.  When traveling through airports or other crowded places, again, I’d break out the old backpack because it was easier to maneuver instead of taking my briefcase.   For me to justify spending several hundred dollars on a Saddleback bag, I needed it to fulfill all of those roles and do them well.  So, those sorts of scenarios will be what I have in mind as I’m reviewing the bag.

The Company
This bag is made by Saddleback Leather Company (I’ll call them Saddleback for short).  Unique does not begin to describe the experience of ordering from and interacting with Saddleback.  They are a small, family owned company.  It will only take you one or two emails or phone calls with them to figure that out.  I mean that as a compliment.  Their customer service is top notch.  I found them to be responsive both via phone and email.  Their email address seems to be actively manned from 9am to 9pm central time.  I sent several questions via email and I think I received a response on the same day for every one of them.  I was very pleased with the service.  But, what really sets them apart is the level of freedom that they have in their communications and the level of genuine humanity that they manage to inject into their work.  Maybe rather than trying to describe it, I should just give you some examples.  Lets start at the top with the company President (and lead designer, I think), Dave.  His official title is el presidente.  That’s in his email signature and on his business card.  Which makes sense, because the whole website and company have a distinct south-of-the-border flair.  The company’s slogan: “They’ll fight over it when you’re dead.” manages to be a little bit funny, a little bit politically incorrect, and very effective in conveying a sense of the company and the products.  Then there is the form email that you get when you order a bag that tells you that the speed with which you will receive your bag depends on what sort of humor Dave’s shipping burro is in…  and how greedy the customs agents are, if you are international.  Then, there was the time that Dave’s sister (who was manning the email help center), responded to one of my questions and introduced herself as “Dave’s ever-efficient and much better looking sister”.  Those sorts of small touches are everywhere.  Saddleback seems to be a company that understands that it is the small details that are the difference between “good” and “great”, and that seems to come through in their products as well as their customer service.  I’m honestly not sure if all their tiny personal flourishes are genuine or just a well-rehearsed act…  but, this cynic found it to be entertaining without being obtrusive.  Saddleback manages to be a company that doesn’t take itself too seriously, but still takes good customer service very seriously.  I think they struck a great balance between the two and it made me all the more pleased with my purchase.

First Impression
MAN, THIS THING SMELLS AMAZING.

Any discussion of the first impression this bag makes that doesn’t begin with the overwhelming smell of leather is an incomplete discussion.  The smell is amazing and you notice it even before you have the bag out of the box and into the light.  Once you finish smelling it and start looking at it, you can immediately tell that the bag really does deliver on the basic premise:  Rugged good looks from rugged construction.  The leather is soft to the touch but pretty stiff.  I imagine it will loosen and become more supple as time goes by.  It’s a great looking bag.

The weight really isn’t too bad.  Saddleback’s website made it seem like the bag was heavy.  It is probably a bit heavier than my old briefcase, but not ridiculously so.  The weight is a non-issue for me.  The best way I know to describe my first impression is that this isn’t a “bag”, it isn’t a “fashion accessory”, it is a piece of equipment.  I’m not sure exactly what it is that leads me to make that mental distinction, but that is the best way I know to describe my first impression.  I grew up on a farm, and the construction makes me think of horse tack more than it makes me think of lattes or Hollywood starlets or CEOs in boardrooms…  and yet, it’s still a great looking bag.  There’s no mistaking though…  Saddleback’s website was honest when they said this wasn’t a “pretty boy bag”.  This is a bag meant to be used, abused even, and come out the other side actually looking better than it did beforehand. The bag makes a very solid first impression.

Things I liked

Lets get one thing out of the way right off the bat:  this thing really is as tough as advertised.  I don’t have any scientific data to back up that claim because I’ve only had the bag for a few weeks.  However, two things make me feel confident in making that statement: 1) just examining the thing 2) the 100 year warranty (that it is recommended that you include in your will, since your heirs will be fighting over the bag when you’re dead).  I’ve been over the bag with a fine-toothed comb and I just don’t see anything that I expect will break.  One especially rugged touch is the suede lining.  My old briefcase was lined with fabric and nylon.  I never realized how having a fabric lining in a briefcase changes your impression of what it is capable of.  There’s nothing to rip or shred.  I think I could carry bricks wrapped in barbed wire in this thing and not fret over the bag being damaged.  I really think that sort of mindset is the primary strength of this bag.  It is worry free ownership.  Nothing is gonna break this sucker, so don’t stress over it.  It’s hard to really describe or put into words, but I can tell you from first hand experience that it is really nice to know you’ve got a tough bag you can count on.

Beauty, of course, is in the eye of the beholder… but I also think it is a fantastic looking bag too.  It manages to walk a nice line between rugged and stylish that I happen to find really appealing.  I chose to go with the tobacco brown color.  I was torn between the dark coffee and light tobacco brown.  Ultimately, I decided to go with the tobacco brown since I could darken it if I wanted to using oils, but there was no way to lighten the dark brown one.  I’m very pleased with my choice.  It looks great right out of the box.  I’ll probably give it a few months to see if the color seems to be shifting at all and then decide if I want to darken it.  I will say that it seems to me that the pictures on Saddleback’s website tend to run a little lighter than reality (I’ve also seen a dark coffee brown product in person).  So, keep that in mind if you are struggling with a color choice.  Your actual leather may seem a tad darker than it looks on Saddleback’s website.

In thinking about this review, I knew that the bag was going to be simple, so I was a bit worried that I’d really be able to find much to say about it, good or bad.  Bag’s aren’t really complicated or feature packed devices.  It’s not like we’ve got technical specifications or bootup times to discuss here.  However, after spending some time with the bag, I’ve noticed that there are a lot of small details about the bag that really make it a pleasure to use.

One thing I like about the bag is that it addresses something that always annoyed me about my old briefcase.  My old briefcase was roughly the same size as this one, but it had 4 divided compartments inside of it.  That meant that you could only put things that were folder or laptop shaped into it.  I’d have to carry my packed lunch in a separate bag because I couldn’t fit tupperware into one of the pockets.  The Saddleback bag only has two pockets.   So there is a lot of space for oddly shaped items.  I can put bulky things like tupperware or a raincoat or an umbrella or a two-liter bottle of soda in there no problem.  That’s really nice.  In fact, beyond the good looks and tank-esque construction, I think this is my favorite thing about it.  Along the same lines, the flexible construction of the bag gives you a lot of freedom too.  If you want to really pack it full, you can.  Or, if you are traveling light, the bag will sort of collapse down and take up less space too.  That could be very useful when traveling on a full flight and looking for a space to stow your bag.  Once you get past the single main buckle (more on this later), getting your stuff back out is very easy.  There aren’t any places for your items to hide.  The bag opens up wide and you can see everything that is in it.  Getting through a security checkpoint would be pretty easy because everything is so accessible.  My laptop is a 15.4″ widescreen laptop that is slightly over 14″ wide across the chassis and it fits into the bag easily.  I might even be able to get a thin protective sleeve around the laptop, but I’m not sure.  However, there really isn’t much need for an extra sleeve because the bag itself makes a pretty good protector.  I don’t think there is any way you could drop it on a corner or anything like that.  The extra material in the briefcase would absorb a lot of the shock of any fall.

I also really appreciate the way the shoulder strap connects to the D-rings on the bag.  It uses  swiveling clips.  The swivel means that you never have to worry about your strap getting twisted.  Just pick it up and let gravity and the swivels straighten things out for you.  My old bag didn’t do that and I constantly found myself adjusting the shoulder strap after I’d put it on.  I find myself using the grab handle on the top of the Saddleback bag a lot.  The grab handle itself seems almost oversized, which is actually really nice.  It fits comfortably into my hands and gives you a nice, solid handle on the bag.  The grab handle is really well made. The two pads on the shoulder strap are also very nice.  I’m not sure how they are padded, but they are really very comfortable and rugged.  The shoulder strap itself has a HUGE range of adjustment.   I found myself thankful for it though because I needed almost the full length to make it comfortable as a backpack but I preferred it taken in quite a ways when carried over my shoulder.  Another thing that stood out was that the bag was really comfortable to carry.  It does a nice job of conforming to your shape and staying put.  It doesn’t swing around a lot or jostle you as you walk.  The thick shoulder pads feel great and really give a nice secure feeling as you carry it.  Other bags I’ve used, I felt like I had to adjust the shoulder strap every 5 steps, or worse yet, I had to hold the shoulder strap on my shoulder.  Not so here, this bag does a great job of staying where it is supposed to.

There are 3 external pockets on the bag.  One is on the back of the bag and is made for very thin items, like papers, a folder, or a magazine. The other two external pockets are located on the ends of the back section of the bag.   They are just big enough to hold a 20oz bottle of soda.  With some stretching, they could possibly hold a 20oz bottle a little easier.  These pockets are convenient for items you want to get to quickly like a cell phone, MP3 player, or glasses case.  Also, the bag has extra D-rings all over it on the outside.  That adds another nice layer of flexibility.  I’ve been carrying my cloth sunglasses case looped through one of them and that works well.  I also liked the fact that the branding is very minor and inconspicuous.  In this age of in your face advertising, it’s nice to see a company that doesn’t want to clutter up the look of their product with a logo.  The logo appears on the front of the bag underneath the main flap, meaning that when the bag is closed, there isn’t a single logo to be seen anywhere.  It’s another one of those small touches that Saddleback seems to be so good at that really adds to the timeless look of the briefcase.

Things I didn’t like
So, what doesn’t work so well with this bag?  There’s not a lot to complain about, but there were a few things that I wasn’t crazy about.  The backpack feature leaves a little bit to be desired.  Converting the bag from briefcase to backpack is pretty simple and only takes about 30 seconds once you get good at it.  However, because the strap passes loosely through a ring at the top of the bag, the slack in the strap can slip from one side to the other.  So, what happens is when you pick it up by one shoulder strap, the weight of the bag takes up all the slack and the other strap gets really short.  So, to finish putting it on to your second shoulder, you have to reach back and support the weight of the bag on the bottom while you slip your arm into the second shoulder strap and get your slack back.  Then, once you’ve got it on both shoulders, you will invariably have to adjust where the pads are and how things are riding.  Eventually, you will get it such that it is fitting you comfortably and then it really feels pretty good.  In fact, I was surprised at how comfortable it was once it was on.  But, putting it on is quite an endeavor and takes away some of the “grab and go” appeal of backpack-style.  I did get better at it with practice, but it was still a bit of a disappointment.  There are two ways you could fix this problem.  The first is to wrap the shoulder strap through the top ring twice.  With a little practice, you’ll get it so that the weight of the bag will create enough friction between the leather of the strap that it won’t slip through the ring.  That works well, but making the second loop-through is significantly more time consuming that the first, meaning that converting to and from backpack style is a several minute operation.  The other option would be a modification you’d have to make at a saddle shop or leather worker.  You would need some sort of “peg” to slip through one of the adjustment holes on the shoulder strap.  It would be placed such that the peg would stop the strap from slipping through the shoulder pad, and then the shoulder pad would stop everything from slipping when it hit the top ring.  I haven’t tried that yet, but I’m pretty sure it would work.  Quite honestly, the best solution might already be offered by Saddleback.  They currently make a very nice leather backpack with very nice real backpack straps.  I would like to see Saddleback sell the backpack style shoulder straps separately for use on the briefcases.  I, personally, would probably buy a pair.  Color matching the leather on older bags might be an issue, but for newer bags, I would expect it to match pretty well.  Here’s the bottom line with backpack-style:  You’re probably only going to really want to bother with using it when you need it for extended periods of time.  For me, I’ll probably use it at airports and when walking to class.  But, for every day “walk for 5 minutes and stop” type use, carrying it briefcase style over my shoulder seems to work much better.

I also wish that the two exterior end pockets had some sort of flap to close them with.  The dedicated backpack that Saddleback makes has similar pockets that have exactly what I’m talking about.  A simple flap to cover the pocket with a simple and quick fastener.  I wouldn’t want to walk through a crowded area with an expensive gadget of some sort just riding there in an open pocket, begging to be stolen.  I think a flap would look pretty cool there too.  Speaking of gripes about pockets, I found that I wished that there was an internal pocket dedicated for papers/magazines.  Something just like the one on the back of the bag, but inside of it somewhere.  On the back part of the middle divider would seem to be the most logical place for me.  The good news about this is that for $4.50 at my local office supply store, I was able to pick up a thin filing cabinet folder that fully closes and does just what I’m after.  It’s thin but protects loose paper in my bag.

I would also like to see the internal pockets a little deeper or mounted a little lower.  When I put my TI-89 into one of the pockets, it stuck up over the top of the bag.

I’ve also found that the main buckle takes a little practice before you can open and close it with one hand in a reasonable amount of time.  I don’t like to offer criticism that I don’t have a solution for, but I feel I need to mention it can be a little tricky.  I don’t wish that the buckle were replaced with some other sort of closure because that would compromise the durability of the bag, but it can be a little frustrating at first.  With practice, opening it with one hand did get easier, but closing is still pretty tough.

My final criticism, and this is really nitpicking, is that the secret compartment is really more “extra flap” than “secret compartment”. Basically, it is just an extra flap of suede in the bottom of the bag that you could potentially hide some small, flat items underneath.  I think when I read about the false bottom on Saddleback’s website, I was expecting something with more space that was harder to spot.  This false bottom would only pass a casual glance before being seen.  It is probably more useful for keeping something important separated from your other items than it is for smuggling the secret plans out of the evil overlord’s underground base.  Admittedly, I probably don’t need to smuggle too many secret plans and I routinely need to keep important things in a known location, so this is probably a good thing.  But, it didn’t match my expectations, so I included it here.

Other Issues
There are a couple other things that I don’t view as necessarily good or bad that I think should still be mentioned here in my review.  The first concerns the leather used to make the bags.  It does show scratches or scuffs pretty easily.  You can take your fingernail and scratch the surface of the leather and leave a visible mark.  You aren’t actually removing material, just discoloring it a little.  I, personally, think it is kinda cool.  It gives the bag a bit of a distressed look that lends it some extra character.  However, some people might expect their pristine leather to remain that way for a long time and that won’t be the case.  I expect that oiling the bag would cause the marks to diminish some, but I don’t know that for certain as my bag hasn’t required oil yet.

I also noticed that certain materials would tend to rub small bits of the suede off the inside of the bag.  My GoreTex raincoat was the first place I noticed it.  The suede, when new, will sort of transfer a bit of powder to items with certain textures.  I’ve yet to see it stain or not come off with a simple shake or pat down.  I expect that as the suede wears, it will do it less and less, so it doesn’t really bother me.  However, you might not want to carry your wedding dress in a brand new saddleback bag.

The other thing that I feel it is important to mention is that Saddleback Leather is a company proud of its Christian moral character.  In several places on the website you can find references to the Christian faith and a small booklet of scriptures was shipped with my bag.  It isn’t at all heavy-handed or obtrusive.  As a Christian myself, I found it refreshing that a company was willing to openly acknowledge religious faith.  However, some people might be put off even by this tactful religious material.  I only mention it here in the interest of being as thorough as possible.

Conclusion
So, what’s the verdict?  Quite honestly, I love this briefcase.  Love it.  I really think that this could be the last briefcase I ever own, making it a pretty awesome value even with its relatively high initial purchase price.  There are some things about it that I think could be better, but the good far outweighs the bad.  The backpack option was a little bit of a letdown, but the shoulder strap is comfortable enough and adjustable enough that you can get it really comfortable and usable in over-shoulder style for daily driving.  I’ve thrown everything I can think of at this bag.  It has been my daily briefcase, it has been an impromptu diaper bag when I took a sick kid to the doctor, it has been a backpack on trips with the family, it has been a toolbox in my lab at my job.  In every instance, it has performed well.  I didn’t get the chance to do any air travel with it, but there’s nothing about the bag that wouldn’t work well in that arena.  I find myself wanting to own other Saddleback products and wishing I had cause to use them more often so I could justify the expenditure.  I even like the company itself and I feel good about supporting what appears to be an honest to goodness family owned business with a sense of humor.  There are so many small touches to the bag that really contribute to it such that the whole is much greater than the sum of the parts.  Saddleback Leather Company has made a useful hyperbole: The Toughest Briefcase out there.  If you are in the market for a briefcase and are looking for something to use for the next 5 years or more, I strongly recommend you consider Saddleback Leather Company.

Pros

• As advertised, unbelievably rugged construction.
• Two huge pockets that can carry items of various sizes and shapes
• Awesome looking
• Great attention to functional detail, including:
  • Swiveling strap clips
  • fantastic grab handle
  • very thick and comfortable shoulder pads
• Very comfortable to carry, especially in backpack style

Cons

• Putting the bag on in backpack style is a nuisance
• No internal thin pocket
• No flap over external end pockets
• Buckles are rugged, but tricky to operate one handed

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