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4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
 Good Bag Jan 11, 2012
By JOliver
----Original review: 4 Stars ----
I spent a lot of time researching this purchase. I really wanted a bag from Saddleback but they're just too expensive for my budget right now. I was hesitant to buy from this seller for a few reasons. There wasn't much feedback for this seller. I also visited Vagabond's website and it is extremely glitchy and felt kind of sketchy to me. I'm glad I bought this bag because it is great. I really wanted to write a review for this just to get word out there that this company is legitimate despite their lack of information and suspiciously poorly maintained website(s)
Like other reviews say, it's not big. If you know that when you buy the bag, then you should be golden. I fit a couple notebooks, a textbook, 3 folders, a tablet computer, my phone charger, and a water bottle in it. In other words, it's thick enough to hold plenty of things that fit the width/length requirement. My 15" Macbook Pro does not fit in it, but just barely. Even though it's made of thick leather, it's still pretty light. I was actually standing on the bus wearing it and had a near panic attack because I didn't feel the strap on my shoulder and thought I forgot it.
I'm not sure where the trend started but the leather, old fashioned style of bag seems to be getting pretty popular. I noticed a lot of bags that imitated the outward appearance but were lined with flimsy material, or were heavily branded. Kenneth Cole makes a bag that looks just like this but the lining of the bag is a fabric with "KENNETH COLE" print all over it. This bag is the real deal though, leather all the way through with a durable lining. The only logo on it is under the flap, so you won't be a walking advertisement.
Pros:
-Looks great
-Durable. You can see rivets on top of stitching in many key points on the bag, such as the handle.
-Strap is nice, has many holes for a lot of adjustability
-not heavy
-good for when you don't need to carry much
-because of the belt buckle closure and the lack of small extra features, it seems that this bag has very few things that could break and will last a very long time.
Possible Cons you should be aware of:
-the closure is two straps with a belt buckle. A lot of similar bags have magnetic closures disguised as this style. This one you actually need to buckle/unbuckle the belt to close/open the bag. Can be time consuming. However, the buckle is also less likely to break than zippers, magnets, or other faster closures.
-The bag is slightly lighter color in person than it is in the picture on here. It also has a few blemishes and scratches on it, but I understand that's normal for leather like this. I don't really mind. This bag is likely to get beat up anyway from the use I intend to give it.
-It doesn't have a water bottle pouch on the side, which is pretty standard in bags these days. I just make sure the cap is on tight and put the water bottle inside the bag.
-It doesn't have many extra pockets. There is the main pocket, which has inside it 4 pencil loops, a cell-phone sized pouch and a few slots for cards. On the back there is a zippered pouch slightly smaller than the main compartment. So for people who like having a different pocket for each item, this bag doesn't really offer that.
Overall this bag appears to be on par with similar brands of real leather bags intended to last a lifetime. It is also cheaper than some of those companies. The only reasons it got four stars were because of the small number of flaws and because I don't think it should be that hard for a company to maintain a reputable looking website.
Update: Reducing it to 3 stars after some recent problems.
The first thing that started bugging me about the bag was the closure straps. It has three holes, and it seems like they're all off a little bit. In fact, if you look at the picture of the bag on this listing you can see plainly that the bag is tightly closed, yet it is on its loosest hole. There are two holes where you could make it tighter, but it doesn't seem like the straps will pull down to get to them. In fact, it is hard to close the bag to the tightest hole even when it's empty, and when I close it to the loosest hole, the bag has to bend in order to close. In other words, there should be more holes on here so it can be more loose when closed. I'm going to punch some new holes in it I think.
Second, a lot of the rivets are falling out. I don't really know much about rivets but I thought they were supposed to be permanent fasteners. But some of the ones on this bag seem more ornamental, because they have wiggled out after only 5 months (Which sort of defeats the purpose of even having them as ornamental, since they fall out.....).
After giving it a really thorough look, it seems like there are two different kinds of rivets. Some are smaller and seem much tighter, and the others are bigger, you can see screw heads on one side, and you can kind of spin them in place. The latter are the ornamental ones; they are also usually placed redundantly, most notably on the strap where they are riveted into an area that is already stitched. These looser rivets have been falling out like crazy, I think I've lost six so far. When the first one fell out I noticed they screw in, there is a male and female end and you stick one end through either side of it and then screw them. Unfortunately I don't notice when the rivets fall off and I haven't been able to find enough pieces to put them back in. I plan on buying new rivets and redoing it myself. I mentioned this to someone on a forum online and he said to just take them all out and put a drop of glue in their and put them back on. I plan on doing that, and I recommend you do if you buy this bag.
On the positive side, the leather is breaking in really nicely. I intend to fix up the problems with it and enjoy using this bag for a long time. Still, buying this bag in some ways amounts to a Do-It-Yourself leather bag where they send you a partially finished bag made out of really nice leather with shoddy fasteners holding it together. At first I was surprised a bag made of such nice leather came for such a low price, but after a few months I learned why. You get what you pay for after all.
For now, I would still recommend this bag to anyone who wants quality leather for a lower price, and doesn't mind putting a little extra work into it to make sure it lasts. But if you have the money and are just trying to be frugal by going for a cheaper alternative... it might be better to save yourself time and feel happier with your purchase.
6 of 7 found the following review helpful:
Nice bag! Feb 03, 2011
By Daniel Bock
"Docta' D"
Very nice bag! Thick leather! And I mean THICK! You'll have to soften the leather up but once you do, you'll be good to go. The bag looks great and feels like it is pretty rugged. Like I said, though, put some mink oil or something for greasy coated leather, especially on the straps where the buckles are. Only down side is it is much smaller than you think. If all you need it for is hauling papers to and from the office, then you have found your bag. You could probably fit a laptop in there too, but I wouldn't bet on getting much else in there. I do highly recommend this bag. Manly and rugged!
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Great, simple bag Jan 08, 2012
By SWD
I purchased this to protect my iPad to and from work. I also carry files and other items. All my other bags had room for lots of gadgets (pockets, etc.). I found myself carrying the same stuff back and forth to the office every day, but using little of it.
This bag has a place for your iPad or netbook computer along with room for 4 pens and some business cards. Other than than, nothing. It is simple, lightweight, and nice looking. I had one problem with the strap, but the vendor responded immediately and took care of it.
wonderful bag, great price, great quality Apr 18, 2012
By lac
Just received this bag and was pleasantly surprised. I was looking for a nice leather bag that would fit nicely with my Thinkpad X220, at 13" this seemed to be about the perfect size and the description sounded great but the lack of reviews and relatively low price tag had me a little trigger shy. I finally just decided to buy it after a couple weeks of looking at competitors at 2x and 3x times the cost also lacking reviews and offering sizes larger than I felt I needed.
I'm not in the least disappointed, the quality of the leather on this bag is amazing, the buckles are all polished silver, the lugs are also polished silver and can be removed/replaced (2 replacement lugs included). The interior fits my X220 very very snug, and my backup X200 fits perfectly (although the extended batteries make the velcro over strap a bit tight). With the laptop in place I have plenty of room for a charger, and some other gear to go in the bag if need be. The back pouch will be great for small things, headphones, gum, etc. Inside the main pouch is a few slots for business cards, some pen holders, and a cellphone/mp3 player holder as well. The shoulder strap is full grain leather as well and the stitching looks nice and sturdy with polished silver loops, clips, and buckles.
When it comes time to buy my next laptop case (should I get a larger laptop, have a feeling this thing is going to last me a while) I know where I'll be putting my money.
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