My Saddleback Medium Satchel Review

[Brian Andrews]

This review is not a "first impression" of the bag. I have been using it for months now, and I tried to cover it in detail.

I actually wrote this for my Real Life Gear blog, but I think it is rather boring to come and post a link in a forum. Plus, it is so much more fun to read content here, so I am re-posting it.

Here you go.....

B

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I can think of no better way to kick this blog off, than to review my beloved Saddleback Leather Medium Satchel, in Dark Coffee brown.

Sticking with the theme of reviewing stuff that gets used daily, or near daily, I use this satchel a minimum of five days a week, and sometimes more, depending on what my weekend activities are. I chose the medium size very specifically to carry some of my other “real life gear” that I am not even going to mention at this time. Instead, I will save them for later reviews. Besides that stuff, it carries stuff like my reading glasses and work ID, which requires me to take this back and forth to work every day. Being that I commute almost exclusively by motorcycle much of the year, this thing even gets strapped down with a bungee net to do that commute.

I am not going to re-hash all of Saddleback’s documented features on the satchel. You can check out their website for all they have to say at http://www.saddlebackleather.com/. I will just take some pictures and note some of the features that I think are significant.

As a side note, these initial pictures were taken when my bag was new. I will show some used ones later

One of the coolest features of the satchel is the strap. It is super heavy duty. It also has two separate pads built into the single strap, which are very well made.

While slung as a satchel, only one shoulder pad is used. Although, I tend to put the second one across my chest to spread out any pressure applied there. All I can say, is that works well for me.

The addition of a large, heavy duty ring on the back of the bag allows you to convert the satchell into “backpack mode.” I personally have never done this, but I can definitely see how it could be a nice change of pace if you were carrying it for a long time, or long distance. In this situation, the reason for the dual pads is obvious.

Another cool feature of the satchell is the handle. It is used very frequently, and comfort and design is probably more important than you think. Just grabbing it out of your vehicle, packing it up, slinging it on and off your shoulder are all instances where the handle is used and I appreciate the comfort of this one.

Not so obvious is the fact that the handle is very well reinfornced. Between the outer leather, and the pigskin lining, there is a single metal bar that spans both handle attachment points. As a lover of overbuilt things, this handle is definitely not going anywhere. You probably also notice the small outside sleeve. This is very convient for small items, such as letters needing to be mailed, and I use it for that often.

The last couple of things that I want to comment on are just cosmetically nice touches, in my opinion. One is the attachment of the strap. Not only is the stitching and rivets combination the most durable method of attachment, I really like the look.

Lastly is the handsome saddleback logo. It is actually hidden under the front flap.

In this picture, you can also see in the background the metal reinforcing bar and the pigskin lining. The pigskin lining is extremely attractive, tough and easy to clean. I love it!

All right, that is enough of the features of this thing. The rest of the review will cover the good and the bad. There is no ugly

The Good

Looks

Either the looks appeal to you, or they don’t. The first time I saw this bag (in a photo), I just went gaga. Everything about the looks just do it for me. Obviously, that is a huge positive. If you carry this bag in public, it is very, very common to get a comment on it. If you don’t get a comment, you definitely notice other people checking it out It is for an eye catcher for sure.

Leather

I love everything about the leather. The particular leather I chose was the Dark Coffee Brown. It is what I understand to be a “pull up” leather. Meaning that if you stress it, or “pull up” the leather, the color will lighten, and then return to its original color. That look gives the piece its rugged look. Another characteristic of the leather is that it retain scratches. Rubbing some oil back into the scratch, either from your finger, or through the use of a conditioner, will often remove just about any trace of the scratch. Personally, I have never cleaned the bag. I like the scratches, and to me increase the character and the “look” I originally purchased the bag for.

The pictures I showed earlier were when my bag was new. Here are a couple pictures of the present state of my bag.

The back seems to get more abuse than the front. A lot has to do with the rubbing while carrying and the way I strap it to my motorcycle.

The inside of the bag is great. It is a color matched pigskin. It is tough and durable, but it cleans up very well. I can’t imagine a better way to make this style of bag.

To Be Continued.......

 

[Brian Andrews]

Size

I spent a great deal of time determining what size bag that I wanted. I made of list of the things I wanted to carry everyday (to be covered at a later time), and chose the appropriate bag. The intent was to get a satchell that was large enough to carry everything that I wanted, but not so big that I am going to be inclined to leave it behind.

For me, it is perfect. It is in no way going to fit a laptop, charger, tons of notebooks, or anything like that. While those bags are made by Saddleabck, if I had a bag that large, it also wouldn’t go on a downtown stroll with me, and I would be leaving the stuff I want with me behind. In other words, take your time here figuring out what you really want.

Convenience

I have found that a bag this size is incredibly convienent. Once you get in the habit of putting (and keeping!) all the stuff you want in there, it is just a matter of grabbing the bag. For example, I mentioned commuting often to work on my motorcycle. However, there are always times when I have to jump in the cage and ride four wheels to work. Even worse, I might have to jump into my wife’s vehicle. The big bane of switching vehicles for communiting is forgetting about my stinking ID. It is just one more thing to remember in a morning full of too much stuff to remember Having a bag that contains everything I want and need (including my work ID) is incredibly cool. From motorcycle to Jeep to hitching a ride with someone else, I have my stuff.

The Bad

I am hesitant to call this section “The Bad” because there isn’t really anything all that bad. If there were, I would not still be using it daily, and would move on to find something that did work for me. However, I have found some small quirks, or non-optimal things that I think folks should at least be aware of, in case you are considering dropping this much cash on a bag.

Strap Length

Even though I am going to comment on this, I am not sure that there is anything I would do about it either

The front strap seems pretty long. I consistently use it on the very last, or second to the last hole at most. What this means is that there is a whole lot of extra strap. When you continually set the bag down on a chair, or on the floor, the excess strap has to go somewhere. That “somewhere” ends up meaning that it gets curled up.

To me, this totally ruins the look of the bag. All neat, hard, rugged and manly lines, and then I have this curl that looks like a piggies tail. My solution is to manually curl it the other way, and sometimes tuck the strap underneath while setting it down to help minimize the curl.

On the flip side, I can see the benefit of a long strap. For example, if I had a light jacket I wanted to roll up and stuff under the flap and strap the whole ordeal down, I could. It is just not something that I do very often, and when I design my own products I design for 99% of the things I do, not the 1% that I don’t.

Raw Edges

As a knife maker, I have cut a lot (I am saying a lot) of leather in making my own sheaths. I used to do a very painful process by hand, of finishing the edges which gives a hard and durable surface on the edge. Leaving the edges “raw” basically means cutting them and leaving them as-is. For the looks of this particular, that look works great. However, raw edges usually just get better and better with age. They tend to finish themselves through wear. Not the case with mine. They seem to be getting rather fuzzy.

With all the leather I have cut, usually the cut results in a nice, smooth piece of leather. Every so often, one hide has some of this fuzz on back, or more likely, one small section of the hide has some fuzz when cut. Personally, I just don’t use it, as I don’t like it. So the fuzz bums me out a bit, and makes me think that I just didn’t get the best piece of leather for my bag.

You can say that I am “wrong” or that this is “normal” and I am crazy all you want. But the reality is, “Is this what you want your bag looking like after some wear?” The answer for me is no and yes….I am bummed.

Strap Connection

This is another thing that I would not change at all, but at least have to warn you about. The strap connect to the bag via this cool buckle.

The buckle has two overlapping “fingers.” When you pull the tab, both sides open up and grasp the ring. It works awesome, and it is a neat buckle. However, there has been more than one occasion where I grab the strap (too lazy to grab the bag handle) in order to get the bag to me. In the process of pulling it by the strap something grabs that little buckle tab and boom….the strap pops off. Just something to think about

Inside Size Deceiving

I mentioned previously that I spend a lot of time thinking about, and planning for the size of my satchel. Luckily, everything worked out. I say luckily, because the dimensions are a bit deceiving. The Saddleback website states the following:

“Dimensions are for outside of bag. Subtract 1/8” on each side for interior dimensions to allow for stitching at the seams.”

That is what I went by, plus allowing a little extra room just for good measure. Okay….I am going to have to give away one of the contents of my satchel to tell you the rest. I write, on paper, a lot. So, one of the important things for me to have in my satchel is my journal, preferably two. You can see two of them pictured here.

You can also see that they fit inside the stachel without any problem. However, the way the side is stitched in (to curl towards the inside), and then you have an inside pocket (on both sides) that also bow in towards the center, all adds up to you losing A LOT of space. It has not been a problem for me at all, and I am not complaining because I like those inside pockets. I am just saying that if you went with the sizing description from the Saddleback website, you would be under the impression that I could fit 10 of my journals inside this thing, when in fact, they do not fit in that center section. If you want to fit something specific and it needs to take up the entire interior, then beware.

Instead of losing 1/8” for stitching, I find by my measurement that you lose 3.5” of usuable space (in the center of the bag) due to construction and the interior pockets. If you look again at the picture, from the outside edge to where the full inside pocket ends, it is not hard to imagine that that distance is 1.75”.

Conclusion

You have to admit, Dave at Saddleback is a marketing genious. With pictures and videos of his bags all over the world, he knows that he is compelling people to buy something more than pieces of leather. They are buying adventure. It takes a lot of work to plan an African Safari, a lot of time of work to do it, and a lot of money to pay for all that. Who wouldn’t love to go? Since most folks never will, some part of them thinks that they can share in the part of the adventure by having the bag that went there. It is a quick and easy way for a purchase to substitute for experience, which I see happen all the time.

All I am saying is these bags will not turn you into a world traveler, and they will not suddenly change your life. If you are not traveling the world now, or having the adventures you want now, you are not likely to have them after you purchase a bag Whatever your current lifestyle, if you realistically imagine how this bag will fit in with that will probably determine if you will be happy with the bag or not.

I have pointed out some things that might seem not all that positive at first. That is mostly because I feel a review should be based on real use, and all aspects of that use should be told. Only then can you truly make an informed decision as to whether one of these bags are for you or not. I also believe in being “real” about what a purchase will get you. Don’t let your mind play tricks on you

With that in mind, even despite the things I pointed out, I absolutely LOVE my bag. I use it every day (or nearly every day), love the looks of it, the durability is great, and I have not found another product at any cost that could replace it.

Along the theme of this blog, this is truly one of the “daily use” items that I have that do bring me a bit of happiness everyday, and I believe enhance my life in some way.

 

[Buffalohump]

Superb review! Prolly the best I've read/seen of a Saddleback product. Good job.

I have been looking at these but I have concerns regarding the space available for gear and organisational ability VS the size/weight of the thing. It is all a trade off between strength and practicality. Being of a practical bent I have decided to explore other options. As great as these bags look and are no doubt built to last a LONG time, I need something with more pockets and interior space but I didnt want to go the backpack/briefcase route so I had to look elsewhere...

 

[Brian Andrews]

Hey Buffalohump,

There still might be an option for you. If you do some YouTube searches, you will find there is a guy that organizes is SB breifcase using a series of modular storage bags. That might give you the organization you desire, or maybe it will just make things more complicated Just a thought.

You are right though, it all really comes down to what you want to carry most often, and if the setup will work for you or not.

B

 

[BRL]

Three things:

1. I tuck the long extra strap tail back up under the loop. Spoils the look a bit but it anchors the extra strap material out of the way.
2. The SBL backpack system works surprisingly well. I was in Beijing earlier in the year and spent over 20 solid hours with my large briefcase in backpack mode while I was crawling through the city. It's a great feature when you can't have a real backpack.
3. Dave is an unbearably self-important tool and the SBL site & emails can be obnoxious with all his "look at me look at me please start a cult of personality" stuff. But his company makes a damn nice product and will get a lot more of my money before the warranty on my bag expires. I do appreciate that Dave and his family appear quite philanthropic.

 

[Mark in Oz]

Great review! I especially enjoyed your insight into the usable and actual width. Thanks to this review I've decided on the medium over the small, to be able to fit my 1lt (32oz) Camelback Better Bottle inside.

Is also the best review I've read or watched on a saddleback product. Thank you Brian.

 

[ishmeet]

First of all nice pics and keen observation regarding this leather satchel.

But I seriously don't prefer pig leather bags, they are really hard to carry and it looks very much fake when you talk about distressed leather. I would rather prefer Goat Hide satchel than pig leather bags. They look more vintage and has a perfect unique look.

 

[A.L.]

Thank you for the review! I read it through carefully, as this satchel is seriously on my want list.

 

[medusaoblongata]

What they offer now is the "round satchel" which is not identical to the classic satchel pictured above, so research the differences just to make sure there will be no surprises once you pay for int'l shipping.

 

[A.L.]

Good point, thanks! The round one looks as great, I would not mind having either.

 

[A.L.]

Well, got my medium satchel few weeks ago and I am very happy with it. One hellu a solid bag. Only thing that I have to say is that it is on the heavy side but for this medium size it is completely ok!

 

[choombak]

I am on the large satchel (tobacco) for almost a month and half now, and it is works fantastic as a office laptop bag. The small inner pocket holds a Mac Book Pro 13" (site claims it holds an iPad). I opted for this over other SBL office bags due to the side pockets. Shall post pictures shortly.

 

[jkingrph]

I have two a large that is apparently the newer round verision, and a small that is much older. I had to get them side by side to notice the difference, which is really apparent only at the seams at the top back. There is really not enough difference to worry about.