Colors
Saddleback Leather Briefcases and products come in four colors.
From left to right, in the picture below, the colors are as follows:
Dark Coffee Brown ... Carbon Black ... Chestnut Reddish Brown ... and Light Tobacco Brown.
Durability
I made this bag for myself. I wanted the most useful and toughest bag there was. At the same time, I designed it to look real good too; I'm kind of vain. Basically, I wanted my grandkids to fight over it when I was dead. Read ahead to find out all about this bag in its Materials and Design as well as to see my personal bags around the world. P.S. I took all of these pictures myself.
Briefcases in our storeMaterials
If you've recently bought (3 years ago or less)
a leather bag or sofa or jacket and it's gone from Ferrari to sorry in record time, then you need to read
every word of this next section. If the leather you buy lasts you for years and years and is as nice or
better than the day you bought it, skip to the next section, you don't need to read this.
Leather Quality
If you've bought something of leather in the past and it went from Ferrari to Sorry in 4.3 seconds, then you need to read on. Saddleback Leather bags are made of 4 - 5 ounce Full Grain leather and tanned with various oils to keep them from being destroyed early by dryness and moisture. Full Grain is one of the four grades of leather.
Full
Grain Leather is the best leather money can buy and the only leather good enough for Saddleback Leather
products. It comes from the top layer of the hide which is the toughest part. From he middle layer of the
leather to the top, there are fibers woven together vertically making it very strong. The natural surface
of full grain leather burnishes and beautifies with use. Some companies sort of spray paint their inferior
leather to try to make it look like full grain leather, but it just ends up looking like someone spray
painted some cheap leather. From what I've seen, maybe 2% of all bags are made of Full Grain, and those
rarely sell under $400. This leather is expensive for me to buy and very difficult to work.
I haven't done anything to my bags to add character. The marks and scrapes and scars are all natural.
Where the cow had been gored, scraped by barbed wire or cactus or mesquite thorns... been bitten by a coyote...
or branded, the color sets in deep and stands out a bit (you can see the full grain running through the hide
in the form of veins too). Your bag may have a few small scars and imperfections, but those just lend a
tremendous amount of character to it. Ride it hard; it'll look better.
Top Grain Leather
is the second highest grade of leather. The leather is split from the top layer of blemished hide then sanded
and refinished. This is how they get rid of scars and scrapes and light cow brands.
Top grain leather does not easily burnish and beautify with use. It is strong and durable, but not good enough
for Saddleback to use since a large part of the strongest fibers are now gone leaving mainly the horizontal (easily pulled apart) fibers of the leather. By the way, did you know that the leather shavings are used in cheap dog food?
Genuine Leather is the third grade of leather and is produced
from the layers of hide that remain after the top is split off for the better grades. The surface is
usually refinished (spray painted) to resemble a higher grade. It can be smooth or rough. Caution:
This inferior quality of leather becomes evident with use since the fibers are horizontal and not as
tightly woven. Bonded Leather is leather's bottom. Leftover scraps are
ground together with glue and resurfaced in a process similar to vinyl manufacture. Bonded leather is weak
and degrades quickly with use. Most Bibles are covered with this. By the way, my Bible covers are cooler
than Christmas.
Hidden Nylon Straps
A German leather craftsman once taught me a great trick. He sews a nylon strap between the leather pieces of all important parts of his horse equipment. Anything that gets stressed or sustains weight gets a piece of nylon. He said that nylon doesn't stretch and therefore the leather won't stretch either. Well, I don't know about you, but to me that screams quality. I now do the same thing inside the handle, in the pieces that the handle is attached to, inside the center strap, and in the side pieces where the shoulder strap attaches to the bag. All areas that would normally stretch now have a nylon strap permanently sewn between the leather pieces.
Inner Lining
You'll find that most trendy pretty boy bags are lined with some sort of cute shiny fabric usually with an antique world map design to make you feel adventurous. This bag is lined with solid pieces of suede. Did you know that cowboys and ranch hands often use suede on the outside of their chaps so they get a double life out of the leather? The more suede gets rubbed and touched, the harder and more durable it becomes.
Thread
Heavy-duty high quality synthetic thread
(double zero). Be careful not to buy a bag sewn with cheap cotton thread. It wears quickly and your
bag will fall apart. This is one of the differences between a $200 and a $700 bag. Free helpful hint:
Here's how to test thread or material. Light the end of it with a match. If it turns to ash, it's cotton.
If it smells like hair, it's silk or wool. If it balls up, it's the good synthetic stuff that doesn't rot
with humidity and sweat.
Heavy-Duty Rivets
This is almost like killing a fly with a shotgun,
but my bags have heavy-duty reinforced riveted corners. The bottom corners are usually the first places for the
thread to wear away after years and years of use. Even rocks wear away. So each corner has a well-placed
rivet to make it an ever-stout and sturdy bag.
Stiff Upper Rigidity
Hidden between the leather and suede beneath the handle is a durable strip of metal to keep the bag from flexing and losing its form when you lift it by the handle.
Stitching
Because Saddleback Leather bags are each
individually made by human hands, the stitching is sometimes a little bit crooked. Only those laser
guided computerized machines make perfect lines.
The Design
My sisters all say that all I ever think about is me. Well, when I was designing this bag, it was true for sure. I designed this bag with me in mind. This was the bag that I, personally, would be using for the rest of my life. I wanted it to look good, last a long time and also to be as functional as a bag could be. Below tells all about the design including the backpack feature, the false bottom and the belts with a purpose.
Construction
The reason it didn't tear apart is because every Saddleback Leather bag is made of 4 wide or long solid pieces
of leather... the front, the back (that comes over the top) and two long sides that make up the bottom too.
Most bag makers sew many small and shorter pieces of leather together to make one piece with many seams.
Those bags are put together like quilts. They can utilize almost every single inch of the cow's hide that way.
Caution: The more seams... the weaker the bag and the lower the cost of production
for the manufacturer. If that croc had bitten a bag with lots of seams, it would have torn to pieces lightning
fast. Saddleback Leather bags have only three major seams.
This bag is constructed super tough.
In Australia, I got an ugly green crocodile to come up to the boat and chomp down on my bag. We pulled
and pulled and when he went for a bigger bite, we yanked it out. I was happy to get it back, but disappointed
to find that he only scraped it up and hardly damaged it at all. (I wanted some souvenir bite marks).
Dimensions
There are four sizes of bags/briefcases.
All sizes are in inches and vary based on where you measure, but they're all pretty much the same.
The small has only one compartment, but the
others have two compartments that have an inside that is 5" deep and an outer that is 4". These bags are
designed for folders, laptops, Frisbees, etc. There are no zippers, snaps or buttons. Those things always
break or tear out with use no matter what the quality. Saddleback Leather bags are only equipped with solid
metal buckles that won't break.
Backpack
I've used my bag quite a bit as a backpack.
Fully loaded on an especially long trip through Poland, Croatia etc. it worked out great. The shoulder
strap detaches from the sides and re-attaches to make it into a backpack. It also has two shoulder pads
so as to be more comfortable. I am 6'3" and 215 lbs. and it fits me just fine, but may not fit you.
My brother-in-law, Tim, works for Cisco Systems and uses his daily as a backpack over just one shoulder.
Last year, I was on a small island off the coast
of Panama and was making my way to a fabled surf spot called Wizard Beach, only accessible by foot. The boat
dropped me off and I started up the trail (my little brother was already there waiting for me with the board),
but little did I know that the 25 minute hike was all mud, slicker than snot. In order to concentrate on
not slipping, I turned my bag into a backpack and only fell once. It is a real convenient feature. As it
turned out, the waves were way too big that day, so we didn't surf.
Rings
The small pouch/satchel clips right on perfectly to the rings on either side. The rings can also be tied onto. The rings on the bottom also act as buffers between the ground and the bag. On a hitchhiking/surfing trip through the jungles and along the beaches of far southern Mexico, I tied my hammock to one side of my bag, my thin serape blanket to the other and my flippers to the bottom.
Two Security Straps
Made of two solid pieces of leather with two
solid pieces of suede, these are very important if you're traveling in places like the subway in New York
City or in Guatemala City where the thieves have really quick hands. They'll steal your fillings if you yawn
too long. Lots of
people put their umbrellas and camera tripods under them. Did I mention that they
conveniently double as belts for a size 36 waste (size 38 if you suck in)? I've also used them as a dog
leash more than once.
False Bottom
I usually carry a copy of my passport and some extra cash in there. Chances are, someone is going to try to steal your bag, not just the contents, but at least they won't get the satisfaction of spending your money. They'll never find it. Free helpful hint: Always carry a 6-pack of Coca Cola while driving in Latin America. Pop one for yourself and then offer one to the cop when he first approaches and he'll always let you go without asking for a bribe. The culture teaches that it's impolite to refuse a gift. If he doesn't accept it, you're toast. Negotiate your way down to $5 and get on your way.
Outer Pockets
Side outer pocket for harmonicas, a cell phone,
compass, map or sunglasses. Kept my little camera in there in Costa Rica. Nice to keep that handy.
Did I mention that I saw a monkey riding on a dog's back?
Inner Compartments with Large Pockets
There are two inner
compartments with four pockets designed for a
GPS, phone, pens, palm pilot, and coins. Very sturdy ones I might add. By the way, they're just
the right size for an
extra laptop battery. [Exception: the small 12 inch bag has only one compartment with four pockets]
Inner Side Pockets
Situated to conveniently place pens and pocket knives. They're on the inside of each side of the outer compartment.
Key Strap/Clip
Handier than a pocket on a shirt. It's long enough to open the front door without taking the key off the clip. I also keep a mini LED flashlight clipped on mine.
Shoulder Strap
Comfortable and adjustable solid pieces of
leather with suede backing and real tough swiveling clips on the ends from Spain. The clips are normally
used for horse tack. They detach quickly to make into a backpack and also to attach the bag to things.
I connect the bag strap through my guitar case handle and attach it to the bed of my truck so no one
will snatch it out when I'm stopped at a light.
