Patagonia. Sorry.- 05.11.05
I love Patagonia. I love their older model of the Atom Bag. I have always wanted one of their messenger bags. It has just never been perfect enough. And i thought that had ended today…
Enter: the brand new Half-Mass bag… i go to A16 to buy a sleeping bag, and with their extremely personable knowledgable staff, i get shown the brand new line of Patagonia Messenger Bags. WOOHOO, it was gorgeous, (i love that dark chocolate color… their name not mine)… EXTREMELY light for a padded multi-compartmented computer bag… so what could go wrong?
I bought it. 79$ not bad at all… until i tried my computer in it.
So i’m a little anal when it comes to my laptop, my first 12” ibook (clear on white casing, with the silverish base)… had it in a zippered sony neoprene case. The zips eventually created gashes down the sides of my laptop… As careful as you are, with constant in and out use, it was inevitable. So now, NO ZIPPERS.
Now i’m on my 15” new powerbook. The man at the store told me 17” no way, 15” guarenteed to fit.
UM, barely, see those two pieces that kind of jut inwards over the main compartment? It takes far too much work to get it in there, and barely makes it through, it’s fine once its in, but its a bit scary possibly dropping it in a rush trying to get it in.
Now for my zipper thing, INSIDE the padded laptop compartment is a ZIPPERED small pocket., meaning as my powerbook jumbles around inside, while nicely padded there is a metal zipper working its way into its casing, SURE to scratch it up… not to mention when putting it in and taking it out as well.
So that is my gripe, everything else about this bag is a godsend. Light, great colors, reflective, good shoulder padding, good shape and velcro.
BUT. Someday, i wish i could help design bags for patagonia, they have so much potential, they are so environmentally friendly. They have everything right, but a few anal details.
