- Joined
- May 19, 2005
- Messages
- 12,709
I ordered a large satchel in dark coffee brown from SBL a week ago this last Thursday. It showed up yesterday, so it was a total of 8 days between order and delivery. Not bad.
Today I managed to spend some time fooling around with the bag, taking pictures, etc. Here's my first impressions of the bag.
As almost everyone else will mention when they get the bag, it is very well made, a bit on the heavy side, and stiff. I expected that, so I won't elaborate on points that almost everyone talks about.
One of the things that I really want from this bag is the ability to carry a water bottle. SBL indicates that there's water bottle pockets on the outside of the bag, but I couldn't find out how big they are, exactly.
Well, on the large satchel the pocket is just large enough to hold the 18 oz Kleen Kanteen with the sport cap. This is the bottle that I usually carry around with me, so I was relieved to find that it fits.
Note that the bottle is a little tight in the pocket, but I expect that as the leather loosens up it should fit perfectly. As it is, I don't have to worry about the bottle falling out of the pocket. On the other hand, the pocket won't fit a larger bottle, so if you prefer to carry more water than 18 oz at a time, you will probably need to carry the bottle inside your bag, or get a different bag.
Also, there are slim pockets on the inside sides of the bag, but with the water bottle on in the pocket, the pocket on that side of the bag is pretty much useless except for something really thin (you might be able to get a credit card or something in there).
Something that surprised me about the bag is that the divider inside the bag naturally forms to the shape that you'll see on the SBL site. I thought that it was like most dividers and that it would be straight across the bag. But, no, it naturally wants to form out to the middle of the bag.
There's plenty of room in that "compartment" for an iPad or (in my case) a Kindle 2 inside a case.
The bag is more than tall enough to stand the Kindle up in the pocket, if you want to set something else along side of it.
As you can see in the above pictures, I also have a flashlight placed inside the end pocket of the bag (I was just trying the fit of things). This is actually a Surefire U2 Ultra, which is largish double CR2 flashlight. It fits well inside the pocket, although I don't think I'll ultimately use the pocket for that. I also tried my wallet (a non-descript bi-fold that I got 15 years ago and which is still going strong) in the pocket, and that works too, although it's kind of annoying to try to get the wallet back out of there. Later, after I took these pictures, I found out that a small moleskine notebook fits perfectly in that pocket. I usually carry one of those around, so that's what I'll be putting in that pocket.
One of the things that I'll be doing from time to time with this bag is carrying around a DSLR. I have a Canon 20D, and the lens that I usually use is a 24-70L. That's a fairly large lens. Fortunately the bag is long enough to hold both camera and lens, if I take the lens hood off. However, I was surprised to find that the bag isn't quite wide enough to fit the camera without deforming a bit.
It helps to make sure the interior pocket is empty at the widest part of the camera. Do that and it fits a lot better.
Here's the bag closed, with the camera and everything else in there. It isn't causally obvious that the thing is loaded with a heavy, bulky camera.
One of the other questions was about the handle on the satchel. Apparently the handle on the SBL briefcase is pretty tight to the bag, which raised the question of whether the satchel is made the same way. I don't have the briefcase, but I can say that the satchel's handle is built properly. I have medium sized hands and my hand fits between the satchel and the handle with no problems at all. I believe someone with large hands would also not have a problem.
My only real complaint about the bag are the shoulder pads on the straps. I carried the bag to dinner tonight, and I found that if I carried it over my shoulder the shoulder pad was comfortable enough. However, if I carried the bag bandolier style, then the shoulder pads dig in uncomfortably. I usually carry my bags bandolier style, so my guess is that I'll eventually take the pads off the bag. But that's just a guess. If I was going to carry the bag backpack style, I suspect I'd want the pads. Also, the pads might also eventually loosen up with time and sweat. Anyway, it's something to keep playing with.
By the way, people aren't kidding when they say these bags scuff up easily. Just from this little bit of experimentation, the outside of the bag picked up a fair number of scratches.
That said, I welcome the scuff marks. Right now the bag is too nice, almost professional looking. It needs to get a bit beat up and disreputable looking before I'll be happy with it on a stylistic level. But that's just a function of time, sweat and abuse -- something that I'm looking forward to inflicting on the bag.
We'll see if it's really a 100 year bag.
Bottom line: this is a sweet bag that should be able to take whatever I throw at it, and just keep looking better and better as I do it. I'm glad I bought the bag. For me, it's money well spent.
Today I managed to spend some time fooling around with the bag, taking pictures, etc. Here's my first impressions of the bag.
As almost everyone else will mention when they get the bag, it is very well made, a bit on the heavy side, and stiff. I expected that, so I won't elaborate on points that almost everyone talks about.
One of the things that I really want from this bag is the ability to carry a water bottle. SBL indicates that there's water bottle pockets on the outside of the bag, but I couldn't find out how big they are, exactly.
Well, on the large satchel the pocket is just large enough to hold the 18 oz Kleen Kanteen with the sport cap. This is the bottle that I usually carry around with me, so I was relieved to find that it fits.
Note that the bottle is a little tight in the pocket, but I expect that as the leather loosens up it should fit perfectly. As it is, I don't have to worry about the bottle falling out of the pocket. On the other hand, the pocket won't fit a larger bottle, so if you prefer to carry more water than 18 oz at a time, you will probably need to carry the bottle inside your bag, or get a different bag.
Also, there are slim pockets on the inside sides of the bag, but with the water bottle on in the pocket, the pocket on that side of the bag is pretty much useless except for something really thin (you might be able to get a credit card or something in there).
Something that surprised me about the bag is that the divider inside the bag naturally forms to the shape that you'll see on the SBL site. I thought that it was like most dividers and that it would be straight across the bag. But, no, it naturally wants to form out to the middle of the bag.
There's plenty of room in that "compartment" for an iPad or (in my case) a Kindle 2 inside a case.
The bag is more than tall enough to stand the Kindle up in the pocket, if you want to set something else along side of it.
As you can see in the above pictures, I also have a flashlight placed inside the end pocket of the bag (I was just trying the fit of things). This is actually a Surefire U2 Ultra, which is largish double CR2 flashlight. It fits well inside the pocket, although I don't think I'll ultimately use the pocket for that. I also tried my wallet (a non-descript bi-fold that I got 15 years ago and which is still going strong) in the pocket, and that works too, although it's kind of annoying to try to get the wallet back out of there. Later, after I took these pictures, I found out that a small moleskine notebook fits perfectly in that pocket. I usually carry one of those around, so that's what I'll be putting in that pocket.
One of the things that I'll be doing from time to time with this bag is carrying around a DSLR. I have a Canon 20D, and the lens that I usually use is a 24-70L. That's a fairly large lens. Fortunately the bag is long enough to hold both camera and lens, if I take the lens hood off. However, I was surprised to find that the bag isn't quite wide enough to fit the camera without deforming a bit.
It helps to make sure the interior pocket is empty at the widest part of the camera. Do that and it fits a lot better.
Here's the bag closed, with the camera and everything else in there. It isn't causally obvious that the thing is loaded with a heavy, bulky camera.
One of the other questions was about the handle on the satchel. Apparently the handle on the SBL briefcase is pretty tight to the bag, which raised the question of whether the satchel is made the same way. I don't have the briefcase, but I can say that the satchel's handle is built properly. I have medium sized hands and my hand fits between the satchel and the handle with no problems at all. I believe someone with large hands would also not have a problem.
My only real complaint about the bag are the shoulder pads on the straps. I carried the bag to dinner tonight, and I found that if I carried it over my shoulder the shoulder pad was comfortable enough. However, if I carried the bag bandolier style, then the shoulder pads dig in uncomfortably. I usually carry my bags bandolier style, so my guess is that I'll eventually take the pads off the bag. But that's just a guess. If I was going to carry the bag backpack style, I suspect I'd want the pads. Also, the pads might also eventually loosen up with time and sweat. Anyway, it's something to keep playing with.
By the way, people aren't kidding when they say these bags scuff up easily. Just from this little bit of experimentation, the outside of the bag picked up a fair number of scratches.
That said, I welcome the scuff marks. Right now the bag is too nice, almost professional looking. It needs to get a bit beat up and disreputable looking before I'll be happy with it on a stylistic level. But that's just a function of time, sweat and abuse -- something that I'm looking forward to inflicting on the bag.
We'll see if it's really a 100 year bag.
Bottom line: this is a sweet bag that should be able to take whatever I throw at it, and just keep looking better and better as I do it. I'm glad I bought the bag. For me, it's money well spent.
