It took three months, but I’ve finally found a replacement laptop backpack. As I wrote earlier, my almost-four-year-old Booq Boa XL blew a zipper last May. Booq failed to honor its warranty and I’ve been searching, off and on, ever since for a non-Booq replacement.
I’m tough on my bags, but I don’t mind paying for quality and expect them to last. I have Tumi and Tenba bags that are 20 years old and still in excellent condition. They’re terribly scuffed and dirty, but all the parts still work. That’s what I expect. Tumi has even sent redesigned replacement parts for two of our bags (wheelie pop-up handles) because they were seeing unusually high rates of failure. That was years ago. So far, only one of the bags needed the new part.
I need a backpack because I want both hands free and I want the weight of my bag distributed as I tend to walk fairly long distances—the enormous University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus (I still can’t believe how much physical space it takes up) is distributed between two campuses about seven miles apart, and the College of Design occupies buildings on both campuses.
Today I bought a Briggs & Riley 17-inch clamshell. It’s as well constructed as any of my Tumi bags and even more thoughtfully designed. I couldn’t decide between the 17-inch clamshell and the Glide. I liked the straps on the Glide better, but I liked the interior design and water-resistant zippers of the clamshell. And the middle section of the Glide didn’t go all the way to the bottom (it’s taken up by a cable compartment at the bottom). And there was a US$50 price difference. The owner of Luggage World (highly recommended; don’t let their website fool you—they have a lot more in stock than they show) offered to give me US$30 off on the clamshell and I bit. He said if I didn’t like it, I could run it over a few times with my car and he’d still take it back with a full refund. And Briggs & Riley comes with a no-questions forever repair warranty, even if the airlines mangle the bag.
I haven’t had it out in the field yet, but so far I like it. Because it’s a clamshell, making my way through airport security will be a breeze (the laptop can stay in the bag; the bag opens like a clam to pass through x-ray). And it holds just as much as the Booq and is a full inch less deep, at 6.5 inches. Most of the other bags I looked at were at least twice as deep. You might think a deeper bag is better (hey, look at all the shit I can put in here), but it’s significantly worse. Just because you can put all that crap in there probably means you will. And then you’re looking at hoisting and carrying 50 pounds of all that crap around. A smaller depth bag forces you to pack thoughtfully.
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