Saddleback Leather Bags - Page 3

The bag's heavy leather construction means indeed that they are not lightweight bags. The heft is nice, unless you fear getting a hernia

My "leather" just arrived in the mail today and I thought I'd contribute a few thoughts since I came upon this forum while googling for reviews on Saddleback's products. I got the medium 14" briefcase in chestnut. Let me begin by saying I'm female. I know these products are supposed to cater more to the male audience since they're advertised as rugged and indestructable and for the man who's looking to unleash his inner Indiana Jones but I thought the design looked gorgeous and I've been searching for an all-in-one bag for so long so I figured I'd give this a shot. It also reminds me of those vintage British briefcases, especially the looping straps which you can use to hold down an umbrella or a jacket. The leather is very thick and the construction is solid. The stitching was consistent and overall everything seemed to live up to the quality promised. The shoulder strap is especially "stiff" and "strong" but I'm hoping that with use, it'll soften up and mold to my body. I'm about 5'3 and on the skinny side and the 14" does look big on me but I decided to go with the medium over the small because I wanted to make sure it'll fit my 15" Macbook Pro. It does but probably not with a protective sleeve. No biggie since I'm going to step down to a 13" Macbook soon anyway and then everything will work out. Also, the briefcase does feel heavy even when empty, which worries me b/c with all my stuff in it, it feels like I'm carrying around a ton of bricks. This isn't particularly uplifting but I'm trying to convince myself that I simply need to break it in and get used to it. Plus, I think I'll be using it when I'm traveling as opposed to for everyday/office purposes. Because I wanted a bag that I won't be afraid to put down on the floor or let it get roughed up, which I would most certainly freak out over if it were my other designer bags. Also, I wanted to address the quality control issues other people seem to have. I ordered mine from Amazon soon after I got sucked in by all the fantastic testimontials on Saddleback's official website. I read two more in-depth reviews - one from Gadgeteer and another from MobilitySite and didn't actually take the time to read the comments so I didn't see all the negative reviews until a few days later, after I had already ordered. Then I FREAKED OUT. I was especially upset when I read all those comments about how the company tried to drum up enthusiasm for their products with "fake comments". I started to get buyer's remorse and was fully expecting to be delivered a crappy bag, with uneven buckles, poor stitching, sharp cuts in the leather, etc. and even mentally prepared myself for the annoying exchange process but then a perfect specimen showed up at my door and I was sooo relieved. So maybe I got really lucky? Anyway, it's still my first day with the bag so I'll have to see how it stands up after I really try it out tomorrow. :-) Just wanted to add my 2 cents.

what is with the viral astroturf marketing. there are a bunch of one posters in the aaac thread too.

If it's viral marketing, it's clever viral marketing I'll give them that.

Wait, are you referring to my post? Yes, it was my first post but I'm not one of those viral marketers. Actually I didn't even know companies did that until a few days ago when I was alerted to the fact that my gullible nature has been manipulated by their clever marketing schemes, which is why I got so angry and freaked out after I've placed my order. I just signed up for SF yesterday b/c I wanted to contribute to this thread since I found the comments made by other members to have been very useful to me while I was struggling with my decision. Plus, SF is more of a male-oriented forum and I'm more of a regular on TFS and Purseblog. Although, I've been combing through some of the other threads on SF and am currently drooling over the Watch Porn one so maybe I'll stick around.

Do stick around, especially if you're enjoying the content of the forum. There are a few female posters, but not many, and we could always use a little more diversification.

You can't blame these guys too much for thinking your post might be Viral marketing, as you've noted, it's everywhere these days and can be hard to spot. Combine that with your first post, and fact that you use proper punctuation and don't type all in lower case, you can see how suspicions could be aroused.

Welcome.

I own a 16" SBL Briefcase and i love it. I've had no issues with quality after 6 months of daily use. I'm fully confident it will last my life time and beyond. It's also a serious attention getter. I've literally had people chase me down on the street to ask about it. My sister and brother in law just picked up matching suitcases and overnight bags in chestnut and they are probably the nicest pieces of luggage i have ever seen/ handled in person. They are insanely heavy though, which is something to keep in mind, particularly with the suitcases. It's a shame to hear that some people have had quality issues, but based on my experiences, i feel like they are probably in the minority.

"They'll fight over it when you're dead."

That's an awesome slogan!

so why are the carbon black leather messengers not desirable?

The carbon black leather doesnt look as nice as the others once it starts aging, and it doesnt show much patina or variation in shades/tones of color as the other leathers do, so I guess mainly that and the fact that the style of the bag looks better in variantions of brown than just strait black, I mean an all black leather briefcase or messenger is usually a more formal or serious looking piece whereas these are made to show wear (scuffs and scratches, etc) and look more rugged than the traditional leather briefcase, therefore imo they just look better in shades of brown than strait black.

http://www.saddlebackleather.com/cat...-Thin-Chestnut Does anyone have any experience or real life photos of the thin briefcase?

It must be very new, I don't remember seeing it before. I like it -- it seems more structured than most Saddlebacks, which has a place, I think. ~ H

Yeah that's definitely new, looks amazing though. Too many leathers that I want to buy these days...

I bought my wife the large satchel in Chestnut brown as an early Christmas present. She is thrilled with the bag. Her coworkers have already asked her where she got it and are checking them out for themselves. Now I am envious. My puny Fossil messenger, which up to this point I thought looked great as it was just starting to get a rally nice patina, looks like a child's plaything in comparison.

Hey Everyone, My name is Jonathan, brother of Dave, the President of Saddleback. We're an affiliate on Style Forum in Men's Clothing and I participate on the forum as an official spokesmen for Saddleback. It's great to read all the feedback in this thread. We appreciate the compliments and the critiques. It helps us to continually make our products better. I just wanted to quickly address the "fake comments" controversy. When we first read the AAAC post, we didn't even know what shilling was or how forums really worked. Let me be clear, Saddleback does not shill and only did one time in the past. It was in 2007 on this forum. I didn't work for Saddleback at the time and the company only had about 3 employees. My brother shilled with the launch of our second or third product without knowing he was shilling. He was incredibly obvious, got blasted by members here and was promptly kicked off the forum. He learned his lesson the hard way and never did it again. Unfortunately, as a result, every time someone posts a lone positive comment in a thread about Saddleback, inevitably someone surfaces accusing that person of being a secret undercover Saddleback shiller. It's actually kind of amusing to read the posts of people trying to convince everyone they're not a shiller for Saddleback. I know shilling in a forum today is akin to being a secret communist in the U.S. in the 1950s. Please know we know that and don't shill. The quality of our products speak for themselves. With that out of the way, I'd like to invite you to join us on some other venues. We are constantly having contests, giveaways and promotions on different sites and here are a few places you can find out about them: http://www.facebook.com/saddlebackleather http://twitter.com/saddlebackbags http://community.artofmanliness.com/saddlebackbags http://www.styleforum.net/showthread...59#post2765459 Check out this contest on Ars Technica we're currently running. Deadline to enter is Dec 31st. http://arstechnica.com/staff/palatin...y-be-merry.ars Okay, sorry for interrupting the conversation. Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! Cheers, Jonathan