WaterField Designs Vertigo Laptop Bag
- Product:
- WaterField Designs Vertigo Laptop Bag (company site)
- What's Good:
- Compact, tough, made by a great company.
- What's Bad:
- Premium price, mediocre laptop protection.
Last spring, the nice people at WaterField, here in San Francisco, emailed me and asked if I'd like to review on of their courier bags here on the Stuff site. I chose one of their smallish bags, the Vertigo, and I've been putting it through its paces over the summer, fall, and now into the winter.
First off, the form factor of the bag is superb. It's just big enough that you can jam a laptop and a sweater in it and even a second laptop at a pinch. This is really the ideal size for everyday use. The front pocket is also handy as you can easily stuff a small bike lock in there for quick access.
However, it's not all perfect. The bag's designers chose to avoid the common flap style lid, leaving a single zip as the closure on the top of the bag. That makes it less waterproof and I really prefer the aesthetic of the flap. The design also means you can't really try the magic santa bag trick - keep on putting stuff in and watch it disappear inside. I already have a similar sized bag that has velcro and a flap top and I seem to be able to fit more into it in a pinch.
The bag also came with a top-loading laptop sleeve. It's made of neoprene covered in another material on the outside. It fits my 12" iBook laptop like a tight glove... and like a tight glove sometimes it's hard to get off. The neoprene's grippy texture combined with the smooth plastic surface of an iBook can make it a little tricky to quickly get the laptop out in a security screening point or other rushed areas. You really need to use both hands to extract it. Like the bag, the sleeve is also designed without a flap top. A single velcro strap holds the laptop in. While it's effective at keeping things in, I've slipped with the sleeve before and the laptop fell onto the unprotected side.
All that said, one of my coworkers recently purchased the horizontal shaped sleeve from WaterField for his Thinkpad. It had a flap over the top to offer much better protection and the soft metal finish of the Thinkpads slides much more easily over the inside surface of the bag.
The construction of the bag is top notch. Aside from the complaints above, I've been using the bag frequently on the commute to work and it has received some abuse and kept it's chin up. The fabric is robust and shows no signs of wear.
It's a good bag from a really good company. Part of the premium you pay (and these bags are relatively expensive) is for the local manufacturing. As they say on their website: "No mass production or overseas workforce. WaterField bags are designed and made in San Francisco, where rent is high, labor is expensive and competition is intense."
Comments
Jessica - June 20, 2007 5:46 pm
The neoprene's grippy texture combined with the smooth plastic surface of an iBook can make it a little tricky to quickly get the laptop out in a security screening point or other rushed areas.<div style="display:none">
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Janet - August 8, 2008 2:37 pm
I've been using the VertiGo and I love it. I like that I can use it with the sleeve as a laptop/work bag or take out the sleeve and just use it as a day bag. (It's "cool" enough that my husband doesn't mind holding it for me now and again.)