The Best Laptop Bag
08/04/06
Just under two years ago I was searching for a birthday present for my girlfriend. The bag that she used for school everyday was starting to fall apart so a new bag seemed in order. I started a search for the perfect bag and made up a list of criteria.
- It must be well made and durable
- It must have lots of space for textbooks
- It must have a laptop pocket
- It must look good and have some style to it
- It can't be girly. I will probably end up carrying it every once in a while and I don't want to feel silly doing it.
After a busy afternoon downtown I had narrowed the playing field down to three pretty nice bags.
The first was the Otrlieb Sling-It. I had owned this bag for the previous 3 years and it was still going strong. It had a laptop sleeve and an easy velcro closure system. The design was pretty simple and elegant, but a little too 'bicycle messenger' for what I was looking for. For $132 US, it was a great bag, but not the perfect one.
The second bag that I looked at was the Timbuk2 Messenger. It had lots of space, a sleeve for the laptop and looked really well put together. The design seemed cluttered though, with straps and pockets all over the place. The two big plastic snaps on the font looked a bit cheap, and tri-panel fabric cut, didn't really do it for me either. Prices ranged from $120 - $210 US.
The bag that I finally ended up deciding on was the Jack Spade Laptop Tech Field Bag. It blended all the elements that I was looking for into one bag. It was sleek and stylish, very functional and well made. It came with custom die cast hardware (no plastic anywhere on it) and had lots of room for papers and books. It was a bit more expensive than the other bags, running from $195 - $425 US but looked like it was worth the higher price tag.
After giving it to my girlfriend for her birthday I think I made it a couple days before I went out and bought myself the same bag but in a different color. It's been over a year and a half now and the bag is still holding up great.
While checking out the Jack Spade site recently I also found out that they've starting to sell their bags at Apple Stores.
Comments
08/04/06 - Michael Says:
I recently got a MacBook Pro and found this bag: STM Loft. It’s very nice quality for the price but if you’re looking for fancier materials then you probably got the right one for yourself.
08/04/07 - Eric Goodwin Says:
Nice. I like the Cargo model. Good prices as well.
One other feature that I was looking for was a bag that didn’t look too computer bag-esk. Not just to look less geeky, but also for security reasons. A bag has a better chance of getting stolen if the thief knows there is a laptop in it.
08/05/14 - Jen Bagelman Says:
After almost two years of lugging around my Spade bag (which brims with books and my laptop on a daily basis) it is still holding up fantastically. I love it, thanks Eric! PS: I think we should get some kind of commission for this thread.