I was turned on to this company, Saddleback Leather, through a Rivendell Owner’s discussion group.

A number of items caught my eye.
The wallets all seem to be a great value. I’ve been needing a new wallet, so this pulled me in right away. It’s got most of the features I’m looking for: small, simple, fits in a pocket, and is built to last:

The business card holders would be a nice touch, and useful:

This last year I’ve been trying to replace one of those terrible rolling carry-on suitcases that busted. So far I haven’t found the perfect replacement. If I had $500 to spend on the perfect replacement, this would be it:

I haven’t needed a giant suitcase in over 8 years, but I plan on one day being a distinguished, International Man of Mystery-type traveler. When those days come, this is the suitcase I’ll take with me:

The bag I settled on, of course, is a daily use bag. The kind I love to lust after from afar: The Saddleback Leather Messenger Bag.  Usually, when you hear Messenger Bag, you think shiny and plastic. That’s not what I want, and that’s not what I get with this bag.

Here are my criteria for a bag:

1. High level of craftsmanship. I’ve discussed here how frustrated I’ve grown with what passes ‘quality checks’ these days.

2. Durability. If I’m going to be paying for craftsmanship, I want it to last. Forever.

3. Distinguished good looks. When I develop distinguished good looks in 20-30 years, I want my bag to be there waiting for me. In the meantime, it can help signal to people that I’m not 18 years old.

Here is the bag (Since I don’t own one of these yet, I stole all the photos off of this excellent review of the bag):

It can be simply transformed into a backpack:

And has all the hefty, destruction resistant features you could ask for: rivets at stress points, D rings, leather straps, no breakable parts.

These pictures are of the Dark Tobacco Brown color. If it were me, I’d go with the Dark Coffee Brown in this photo:

It costs a pretty penny, but comes with a 100 year warranty. That’s right, 100 years.

Rugged, good looking, distinguished and built to last. What more could you ask for?

I was helping a friend load up his moving van when I came across this old school Kelty backpack, I couldn’t help but yell out to him, “This is a great backpack!” and snap a picture.

The colors hint at a Rastafarian phase long past. It is well used, but no worse for it. The sign of a well made product put to the test.

It passed.

And now it is in a huge truck on its way to Utah.

I hope Pendleton Woolen Mills is going to bust out of its late 30s-early 40s age-group-rut with the clothes soon as well.

I made my visit to the Portland company yesterday, after getting tipped off by Michael Williams over at A Continuous Lean earlier this week. The first thing you notice when arriving at their space is that it’s not that noticeable. The shop is in a residential area. It’s the kind of place you could walk by a couple dozen times or more with your dog or kids before wondering what was going on inside there. It’s unadorned, inconspicuous.

I went on in and the building is divided into two areas. One-third is the store front area, with canvas bags, tents, and accessories hanging and stacked. The back two-thirds is the workspace area.

Kathy, the owner, greeted me kindly. As we started to talk I gathered that they were a bit overwhelmed by the rush of online orders that had unexpectedly come by way of ACL. I asked about a couple of bags I was interested in, and she said they were out of the Possibilities Bag, but that one was being sewn up as we spoke. This gave me a chance to poke around and take some pictures.

The Kit Bag (above left) is as big a bag as you’d really want. At 14″ x 17″ x 23″ it’s too big to carry-on the airplane, and fully loaded, it’s going to be tricky to haul without the shoulder strap. Even with it your shoulder might start to ache on the long walk down the terminal. The Roundabout Bag (above middle) is like a mid-sized duffle/gym bag. It’s 26 inches long and rounded. If you want to carry a decent amount and use the shoulder strap this is the bag for you. The drawback is that the opening doesn’t go as wide as either the War Bag (above right) or the Possibilities Bag (still being sewn at this point). How wide open do the war and possibilities go? This wide open:

Which makes for very easy loading. Both the War Bag and the Possibilities Bag (which are essentially the same model, just different sizes) fit within airline standards for carry-on luggage. I wouldn’t advise using the shoulder strap with either of them (although Kathy assured me there’s no problem using it with the War Bag), as the balance  and comfort carrying the bag while using the strap isn’t optimal. She said the possibilities bag will occasionally flip upside down.

The finishing touches were now being made on the bag, which gave me a last chance to ask some more questions. She answered them well.

Here are the details. Beckel Canvas began in 1964, it’s family owned and Kathy represents the second generation. The mission of Beckel Canvas has always been to produce high quality canvas products that are functional and simple, and to deliver them at a reasonable price. They started with tents that were specifically for elk hunting, and the tents are still their bread and butter. But since then they branched off into horse packs and trail riding, along the way they started making the bags as well.

One of my main concerns when viewing products like this online has to do with quality. Is that thing going to hold up the way I’d like? Beckel Products are guaranteed for life, and if anything goes wrong you’ve just got to send it on in for repair. Kathy mentioned that there have been a handful of people who have taken advantage of that offer over the years. They strive to keep the customer happy. I took a few detail shots to give you an idea of what’s going on here (as with all the photos click the thumbnail to see a larger image):

By this time the Possibilities Bag was all stitched up, so I got a few photos of the whole lot, as if I were setting off on an expedition this afternoon.

And from top to bottom (possibilities, war, roundabout, and kit bags)

After getting my hands on it, I finally decided the Possibilities Bag was indeed the bag for me. It just felt like the right size, and will complement well my leather duffel that’s the approximate shape of the roundabout bag. Before I left I found a couple of treasures. First, this custom tote:

It would have come home with me for Meg if I had been sure she would love it (I was about 60% sure, but that wasn’t sure enough).

The second came up when Kathy was telling me about the horse-travel tents and accessories. I jokingly asked if they had anything for bikes yet. She said, “Actually, we’ve got something.” and showed me this:

That’s the tarp tent. The tarp tent is something I’d been looking into at the tail end of last summer to facilitate overnight bicycle adventures. Very light, easy to put up and take down. Shelter for the night on a long bike journey. The idea of extended bike travel is a bit of a stretch for me at this point in my life, but I appreciated the price point this one comes in at. Very reasonable.

As I headed out the door with my purchase, another customer had arrived and was asking about the Possibilities Bag, “She’s just finishing one up in back,” said Kathy. And when he started asking about the details and ideas for a few custom changes she responded with, “We can do that.”

•••

When I got home I snapped a few more photos with the bag loaded up for a weekend getaway. Here they are:

If you can’t see very well, in there you’ve got a pair of pants, a pair of shorts, two shirts, a Sigg lunchbox (9×5), a 27 ox Kleen Kanteen, and my loafers. It’s still not full. All packed for display, not for fit. I could get quite a bit more in there, I’m sure.

It’s almost a briefcase, it’s all leather, and it looks like it will hold up for a lifetime. All things that interest me in a bag. Not to mention that it makes me think that if I purchased it I’d somehow be able to go back in time and be a mail carrier for the Pony Express in the old west. I think my bike could be the modern equivalent.