09/28/07 (or “Why Saddleback Leather Fails to Live Up To Its Own Hype”)

*NOTE: See update at end of post — Saddleback failed in 2007, but they’re a much improved product in 2010.

4:34 p.m.
Pardon my absence — I’ve been incredibly distracted by the roller-coaster of the financial market this past week. I swear, it’s as if anyone associated with Wall Street has collectively lost his/her mind. One writer has termed recent investor behavior as paranoid-schizoid:

“A paranoid-schizoid state dominates and anxiety that might spell caution is denied. Doubters are dismissed. When the bubble bursts, we see panic and revulsion, then anger and blame, but surprisingly little guilt or learning. Typically, investors blame others for allowing them to be caught up.”

So watching recent market developments and listening to analysts crow about how “the bulls are back in town” has been pretty much an exercise in incredulity on my part, especially as more and more bad news piles on and the dollar continues to drop in value . . . but the bulls are back!!!

But enough about the market, what I really want to talk about is my new Henry Beguelin laptop bag!

I’ve been searching obsessively for a brown leather bag that will hold my laptop, phone, books, papers, keys, etc. and I thought that maybe I’d found it when I ordered a bag from the Saddleback Leather Company, but despite the rapturous descriptions on the Saddleback website about the high quality of their bags and how your kids will be fighting over the thing after you die, blah blah blah, when the bag finally arrived via UPS, I was not impressed.

The materials were decent enough — tough, durable leather and sturdy hooks and buckles — but the craftsmanship that went into putting the bag together was really sloppy (to put it mildly). The bags themselves aren’t terribly expensive in comparison to, say, Henry Beguelin, but if you put a Saddleback bag next to a Beguelin bag, you’ll immediately understand why Beguelin gets away with charging easily three times the price. It’s all about the difference between Italian craftsmanship and Mexican craftsmanship.

For example, my Beguelin bag is a gorgeous rich brown, the leather is strong yet super soft, there’s as much care and attention paid to the quality of materials and level of finish inside of the bag as there is to the outside, and all the handles, pockets, hardware holders and seams are perfectly stitched. The Saddleback website claims that the irregular stitching on their bags is because someone is allegedly stitching it by hand, but I don’t buy that at all. What it really looked like was a rushed, sloppy job with a sewing machine, leaving gaps in the leather at the bottom four corners of the bag and an unfavorable presentation to the item as a whole, with stitching that wanders about rather than staying put and getting the job done.

***Note: the Saddleback people state that their bags are no longer made in Mexico, due to recurring problems with defective manufacturing.

Don’t get me wrong — if you’re looking for a mid-priced, tough, heavy-duty leather travel bag that you can kick around the world without a second thought, then the Saddleback Leather Company might be a great choice, but when they put up a link to the Louis Vuitton website and dare you to compare their bags to Vuitton, well . . . I recently purchased a Vuitton messenger bag for Brian, and it’s a stunning piece of work, with top shelf materials and not a stitch out of place. It might not last for as many generations as a Saddleback bag, but he’ll sure enjoy using it a whole lot more, and besides, isn’t that what buying a bag is about — your own personal enjoyment rather than leaving it to your kids? I mean, if I’m dead, why should I give a rat’s ass about how long the damn bag lasts?

So I packed up the Saddlebag bag today and shipped it back for a refund. I never used it, just stuck it on a shelf in the closet, thinking one day I might pull it out, but I was so unhappy with how it was put together that I left it collecting dust instead. That’s when I made the decision to run downstairs and next door to the Henry Beguelin store where I found the perfect happy ending to my search for the perfect brown leather laptop bag. No more sloppy Saddleback for me!

Thank god for the Italians — what would we all do for great bags and shoes without them?

UPDATE (May, 2008):

I was sorting through the spam-comments and found this one, left on March 19th:

“You have no idea how much of a hipster dufus yuppie you sound like..If u cant appreciate the craftmanship than my insult to you is right. This clearly isnt made for the “Harvard” assholes. This bag is made for the person that is looking for something that they can take on a Indiana Jones adventure to recover the Lost Arc…not a simple trip to golf course or down to wall street. I knew when u posted the picture what type of person u were.”

Obviously, the criticisms on blogs of the lousy workmanship on the bags have struck a nerve, and rightly so. I needed a bag that could double as a laptop bag to take to the coffee shop as well as handle trips around the world — shoved into airline compartments, trunks of taxi cabs, hauled through city streets with books, guides, clothes and cameras in any and all kinds of weather — their bag was a poor excuse for any of the above. Why would I want a bag with gaping holes in the seams? The first real downpour and anything valuable I carried in it would be ruined.

Hilariously prickly and touchy, though. I’ll happily cop to the “dufus” part, but I’m hardly a “hipster” and true yuppies would be deeply offended to be lumped in with the likes of me. Love the parts about Harvard, golf and Wall Street, as I didn’t go to Harvard, don’t know how to play golf and have nothing to do with any investment firms, on or off Wall Street, so . . . “clueless” is the word that fits the commenter best.

UPDATE (12/18/09):

After a commenter recently alerted me to the fact that the Saddleback bags had gone through a (much needed) redesign process, I checked out the Saddleback Leather site again and, to my surprise, their bags actually do look like (at least from the photos) as if they’ve vastly improved in both design and workmanship.

The Saddleback blog has a post about their decision to bring production in-house, raise prices and hire better workers: Raising Our Prices — the decision seems to have paid off, as the bags they’re showing on their site now are not the bags that I had such a problem with back when I ordered one in 2007.

I felt it was only fair that I mention that.

UPDATE (08/21/10):

The Saddleback Leather company, much to my surprise, recently sent me a briefcase of theirs to review. They knew I was unhappy with the workmanship on the one I’d purchased in 2007, but since then, they’ve restructured their company and now have their own “in-house” factory in Mexico where they directly oversee the production of their bags.

I was skeptical when I first received the package, but then stunned after I opened it up and inspected the bag. Their prices have gone up, but so has the level of workmanship. If I’d have received this bag when I placed my order almost three years ago, I never would have sent it back.

I’m presently working on a new full review of their briefcase, including photographs of the bag and an interview with the owner of the company, and I’ll post a link here when it’s up and running.

UPDATE (09/07/10):

Here are the links to the new Saddleback posts: “Saddleback Leather: New and Improved” Part 1 and Part 2