Macworld USA – August 2019

AUGUST 2019 MACWORLD 29

looking closely, nothing
appears to be wrong with
the actual leather.
I suspect it’s related to
the finish for the dark
coffee brown model, so I’d
keep this in mind when
buying the brown version
unless you don’t mind your
new bag looking like it’s
five years old before the
month is out. Normally, I’m
open to the idea that this
kind of wear enhances the
“rugged” aesthetic, and
some scuffing is common with
Saddleback’s full-grain bags. But this
degree of scuffing seems excessive for a
mere 14 days, considering the price.

WATCH YOUR WEIGHT
This is more subjective, but you also might
have a problem with the weight. That’s
hardly a surprise: Saddleback’s leather
messenger and shoulder bags tend to be
easy on the eyes but hard on the shoulder.
This is a valiant effort at minimalism,
though, considering its three-inch width. It
occupies a welcome middle ground
between bags like the overly tiny Front
Pocket Leather Satchel (go.macworld.com/
pktl) and the gargantuan 7-pound Classic
Leather Briefcase. But it’s also a hefty boy.
Empty, it weighs 3.6 pounds, and with the

added padded strap it weighs in at 4.3

pounds. Toss in a 13-inch MacBook Pro

into the loose pigskin divider along the

back of the interior—if you’re like me, you’ll

almost always have one in there—and it

suddenly balloons to a base of 7.3 pounds.

By the time I’d try to cram in everything

from an umbrella and a water bottle to the

case for my Bose QuietComfort 35

headphones—all of which did fit in the

main compartment, by the way—I could

joke to myself that it was called the

“Thirteener” because it weighed 13

pounds. As a result, my time with the

Thirteener encouraged me to learn to

keep my loads to a minimum. I consider

that a good thing. That’s also probably why

Saddleback is careful to call it a “briefcase”

rather than a messenger bag, as you can

And, minus the large headphone case, this is basically what I

consider the basics.