City-hopper Backpack

I really wanted to love this pack. It checks all the right boxes on paper. Minimal without being boring, no college pack aesthetic, ventilated back, comfortable looking straps, and space for a water bottle. It does look quite nice in person, the nubuck has a great hand feel, and the main buckle is great. Sadly that is where the compliments end. Out of the box, the smell the pack had was extremely bad, clearly a chemical remnant of the tanning process. I let the pack air-out for a month before use and even after 3 mo the smell still can be noticed. The biggest surprise was the overall quality of the materials was far lower than I am used to from other leather packs I own. The nubuck is thin and the vachetta trim feels exactly like plastic, the interior lining is cheap and scratchy making a surprising amount of noise when moved. The pocket zipper leather ripped in my hand when closing it normally. The straps have a design flaw, so while nicely padded, the straight up design makes the edge piping leather dig into your shoulders instead of resting on the padding. I have traveled with this bag for months now and it does soften up okay over time, while picking up marks quite easily (they do not ruin the look). Executed better this design could be home-run, but as-is it is a solid 3 star product - there are better options in the $300+ price range.

Still in my 100 day trial period but so far, I'm a fan. Bag is gorgeous inside and out. It works well as a laptop bag with enough other space for an iPad or similar, a typical sized Yeti or similar, as well as your earbuds, some chargers and a few snacks. If you are looking for a bag you can stash almost everything you could want to carry and max out what you can get on an airplane as your personal item, this bag isn't very functional for that, although it does have a rollerbag handle sleeve so it could be used that way. Its just a bit small for that. The other consideration is that the nuback and vegetable tanned leather accents definitely will need a lot of care. But did I mention its gorgeous...I was originally going to return it due to the functionality concerns and high price tag but I'm rethinking that and using the trial period to determine if I can live with some shortcomings there.