REVIEW – What’s defines heritage? How about a company that’s been making cycling and equestrian gear since 1886! Today I’m reviewing the Pitfield Backpack from Brooks England, and it’s a beauty. Let’s take a ride!

What is it?

It’s an all-weather backpack designed for biking that has the capacity for all of your daily essentials… including your bike helmet.

Hardware specs

• 12.6” wide by 21.6” tall by 6.7” deep
• 2.9 pounds
• 24-28 liter capacity
• Waterproof PU Coated Nylon 66 & Cordura
• YKK Aquaguard Zips
• Padded Compartments
• High Grade Aluminim Hardware
• 100% Recycled Lining

Design and features

The Brooks Pitfield Backpack is a sneaky operator. It’s a working bag designed with the cyclist in mind, but the clean & understated profile looks good enough to rock in the office. At a 24-28 liter capacity, it’s a bigger bag but feels smaller due to its streamlined profile and some very clever pocketing design. It’s kind of like a stealth bomber.

The Brooks Pitfield Backpack is built to handle the elements. Water resistance comes from a combination of waterproof PU coated nylon, Cordura, and YKK Aquaguard zips. An interesting combination of textures combined with Aluminum hardware add subtle style. It will take a downpour, and look good doing it.

The interior lining boasts a cheeky pattern that pays homage to Brooks England’s heritage. I love little details like this!

Your laptop rides in its own padded 18” by 12” compartment that sits on your back, and has a separate side zip for access. A 15” laptop fits easily in there along with a tablet.

The main compartment is positioned in the center of the bag, accessed from a flap-over lid that is closed with two sturdy aluminum hooks that connect to loops on the flap. Adjustable straps allow you to cinch-down or expand the compartment based on what you’re carrying. There’s also an 8” deep divider at the bottom of the compartment to help organize your stuff.

Those locking straps are actually set at 45-degree angles to the front face of the bag, to accommodate the Pitfield’s most unique feature: an 11” by 15” front panel compartment that stretches to accommodate larger items like a bike helmet!

A vertical zip opens this compartment, which also includes two small stash pockets (3-1/2” by 6” and 4-1/2” by 8-1/2” respectively) with zips built along the centerline for easy access when the main pocket is opened. A 7” deep open pocket at the bottom of the space wrangles loose items, while a hanging loop at the top of the compartment gives you a place to dangle your keys on a strap or carabiner.

There’s an additional pocket on either side of the bag, accessed by vertical zippers. The left pocket is 9” by 6”, perfect for your smartphone or wallet. The right pocket features a pop-out elastic water bottle net that fits oversized bottles. I’m seeing this on a lot of packs these days, and it’s a great feature that tucks away neatly when not needed.

Finally, there’s also a 10” by 4” horizontal pocket accessed from a zip under the top carry handle, made from a stretchy mesh material.

The carry system features moderately-padded straps that are curved for comfort & fit. Custom aluminum buckles on the adjustment straps use a double-loop strap insertion method and curved profiles to prevent unwanted slippage, and a built-in sternum strap adds some stability to your ride. The back panel padding is marvelous, with deep perforations to promote air circulation. It won’t slip and slide around on you, either.

The build is full of little quality details. External zips are hooded to prevent leakage in the bag. Every strap has a sliding collar to lock down extra flappy bits when adjusted. The zips don’t quite run the length of the pockets, creating a nesting space in each pocket so things don’t tumble out when they are opened. Every seam is reinforced. It’s a nicely detailed build, backed by a 10 year warranty that shows Brooks England’s commitment to quality.

Performance

I am not a cyclist, but I tend to favor bike-oriented packs for daily use for comfort, weather resistance, and overall usability. The Brooks Pitfield’s design is so well executed that it works just as well on or off the bike. It’s ridiculously easy to live with.

The Pitfield is on the bigger side of a daypack, but it doesn’t feel like it. The tall, wide format of the bag may be an issue if you have a smaller frame, but check out how nicely the profile compresses!

I love the streamlined harness system. While it looks fairly light, it’s actually super-comfortable to wear all day, even when you’ve maxed out capacity on the bag. It also an office-friendly: slipping the bag on and off is easy, and you’re look is not dominated by massive shoulder straps if you’re dressed up. The whole system hugs the body well and provides excellent balance. Despite the larger size, I don’t feel that a waist stabilizer is required here.

Pocket design is a delight. You have just enough of a variety of places to organize your less-used stuff (like chargers), with secure locations for important stuff (like your wallet) and dump n’ grab places for things you need on the run (like sunglasses). I really like the overall accessibility of the external pockets. The beefy zipper tabs make for easy manipulation, and all the pockets are wide enough to get in and out of without straining your fingers. And you won’t find a single piece of Velcro anywhere to fight with. I kinda love that.

With all of the external compartments for your tech and travel bits, that leaves the main compartment wide-open for a change of clothes, a packed lunch, or groceries on the way home. Those aluminum hooks & loop points are actually very effective here for smooth one-handed operation. The divider in the space is nice to tuck a notebook or tablet in there for easy removal but doesn’t get in the way if not needed.

If there is one knock on the bag that I have found, it’s that the matte fabrics seem to pick up marks in use. Most of what I’ve seen so far wipes off easily, but I’ve collected some scars. I will be curious to see if these marks start to collect over an extended period of time.

What I like

• Great build with careful attention to details.
• Streamlined, sophisticated profile.
• Ready to handle the elements.
• Excellent accessibility and pocket design.

What needs to be improved

• Some external surfaces may show wear over extended use.
• Tall, wide format may not work for people with a smaller frame.

Final thoughts

The Brooks Pitfield Backpack is a stealth warrior that is buttoned-up enough for the office, yet packed with features for tackling the road. The usability is dialed in on this design, making it easy to live with both on and off the bike. It is one of my favorite bags so far in 2018.

Price: $200.00
Where to buy: Brooks England
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Brooks England.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Backpack

Brooks England Pitfield Backpack review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 24, 2018 at 9:00 am.

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REVIEW – I’ve used Waterfield gear for many years and continue to add to my collection when need be. With even my oldest WF slipper case (think first gen 17″ MacBook) still going strong, having been repurposed many times. Over the years, Waterfield has continued to evolve and design new products as the tech-landscape changes. Recently, Waterfield has released a premium collection for those executives needing a sophisticated EDC bag with great looks, features, and functions. In this case, they sent me their new Pro Executive Laptop Backpack for this review, let’s see if they hit the mark…

What is it?

The Waterfield Pro Executive Laptop Backpack is a premium EDC bag that “blends sophisticated style with serious functionality”. The Pro laptop backpack has a very well thought-out, crowd-sourced design with a professional-look worthy enough for any boardroom, airport executive lounge, or exclusive sports club.

Design and features

Waterfield developed this “Boardroom Backpack” in collaboration with their customers. Their goal was “to create a professional-looking backpack that balanced functionality with style elegant enough for the boardroom. The Pro Backpack blends sophisticated style with serious functionality. It’s highly organized with two compartments, strategically-placed pockets, and a removable Executive Folio for taking to short meetings”.

Layout:

The main face of the Executive Pro backpack has two quick-access, zippered pockets engineered to hold a smartphone, keys, business & misc cards, wallet, pocket knife, pens, etc. One of these pockets is accessible from the top and the other from either side of the front (see below). Both pockets placement are very convenient and easily accessible on the fly.

The center compartment is surprisingly spacious and is able to hold a good amount of gear. It easily fits my workout clothes and leftovers for lunch with room to spare. While the zippers do not open fully, the opening is large enough to accommodate more or less whatever you need to jam into the void.

The back compartment has two slipper pockets, one on either side spanning the height of the backpack for your laptop and tablet. There is also space between the two for holding Waterfield’s optional Executive Folio.

The front slipper pocket is unlined and fits my 10.5″ iPad Pro nicely.  The slipper pocket meant for your laptop is lined/padded with a soft felt that sits against your back for greatest protection.

Like the rest of the Pro Executive Laptop Backpack, the two zippered side pockets are nicely placed, well organized, and very convenient. Located symmetrically on either side, each compartment has three elastic slots of various width to hold your EDC gear and a few power bars as well . They are also tall enough to accommodate a decent sized water bottle.

Material and construction quality:

The Pro Executive laptop backpack material and build quality are excellent. The 1050 Denier ballistic nylon, full-grain leather, zippers, rivets, and stitching are all nicely constructed and built to last. In addition to strength, the premium full-grain accent leather adds a quality look and style to the backpack.

All of the zippers are low profile, covered, and waterproof with a solid but easy pull to them.

Specifications:

Material:

• 1050 Denier black Ballistic nylon
• Full-grain leather accents

Dimensions & Weight:

• Pro Executive Backpack:
  One size: 13.5″ (L) x 16.5″ (H) x 7.0″ (W), 2.9 lbs.
  Volume: 25.5 liters
• Executive Folio:
  -13” size: 10.25” (L) x 13.25” (H) x 1.75” (W), 1 lb.
  -15” size: 11.0” (L) x 15.0” (H) x 1.75” (W), 1.2 lbs.

Features:

• Crowd-sourced design with customers to create a stylish and functional backpack for professionals.
• Includes an optional Executive Folio to take for short meetings.
• Stands upright when it’s set down.
• Two main chambers: back chamber zips down to carry laptop or tablet, documents, and the Executive Folio. Front chamber is spacious enough to hold other items needed for a day at the office.
• Premium full-grain leather front panel and handle.
• Two zip pockets on the front panel to quickly access items when swinging the backpack from the shoulder.
• Two large side pockets for water bottle and small items.
• Top front pocket that’s deep enough to hold items securely.
• Back slot for slipping onto suitcase handles.
• Top handle is premium leather for a more comfortable grip.
• Comfortable shoulder straps.
• Sleek, waterproof zippers throughout.

Functionality:

One of the best features of the Waterfield Pro Executive Backpack is that it can stand on its own. Instead of needing to lean against anything or be laid flat, it stays upright where you set it.

As you can see and would expect, this bag has a classic backpack design and wears accordingly. The Pro Executive Laptop Backpack rides very comfortably on a single or both shoulders. Empty, the bag weighs less than 3 pounds and even with all my EDC gear, laptop, and full water bottle the total weight isn’t too heavy at all.

The reinforced, built-in handle carries comfortably as well. The handle is wrapped in the same full-grain leather as the front of the backpack, for a solid grip and greater durability. As I mentioned, even with all my gear, this bag isn’t all that heavy, especially considering it is approximately two plus pounds lighter than my all-leather Colonel Littleton Navigator bag.

The back of the Pro backpack has a pass-through slot for slipping onto wheeled suitcase handles.

I took this backpack on several long, hectic trips during this review. It came thru with flying colors. It was the perfect size to carry everything I needed on my go-go-go travels, all while keeping a ton of my gear organized and easily accessible.

What I like

• Excellent material quality and craftsmanship
• Well designed/thought out
• Stylish, professional design
• Wheeled-suitcase handle pass-through
• Relatively lightweight

What needs to be improved

• Expensive

One More Thing…

Waterfield offers a matching (optional) folio made from the same ballistic nylon and full-grain leather as the rest of their executive line. The Executive Folio is designed as a grab and go when you don’t need all your EDC gear, just some of the basics.

The Executive Folio has slipper pockets for your laptop, tablet, pens, paperwork, etc.

In addition to the chocolate accent leather you see in this review, the Waterfield Pro Executive Laptop Backpack is also available in black, crimson, and grey leathers.

Waterfield Designs backs all of their products with a (limited) lifetime warranty.

Final thoughts

The Waterfield Boardroom Backpack is excellent. Other than being pricey, I have nothing negative to say about this stylish, very well made EDC bag. Waterfield’s crowd-sourced, collaborative effort has hit the mark, creating an exceptionally functional, nicely laid out backpack with a sophisticated look suitable for any business situation. Roomy enough to carry all your EDC gear, workout clothes, and lunch while not weighing you down.

Price: $349.00 / optional folio adds $49
Where to buy: Waterfield Designs.
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Waterfield Designs.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Backpack

Waterfield Pro Executive Laptop Backpack review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 12, 2018 at 9:30 am.

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REVIEW – A good looking backpack with a clean silhouette, lots of pockets and organization at a great price? Sign me up, please. Click on through to find out more.

What is it?

The Everyday Max Backpack is an all-purpose pack from Velocity Collection of Solo NY that’s meant to tackle all your needs in a single bag. Capable of carrying a 17″ laptop, gym clothes, water bottle and almost anything else you’re likely to need in an average day, it does a really good job of living up to it’s name and purpose.

Hardware specs

No hardware here, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have specs…

• Dimensions: 21 x 13 x  8″
• Weight: 2.4 lbs
• 17.3″ laptop compartment
• Internal iPad/Tablet pocket
• Separate shoe/gym compartment
• Large zippered side pockets
• 6 additional pockets
• Large centered ‘duffle’ opening
• Padded carry handles (4!)
• Padded straps and back panels

Design and features

Streamlined is the best word I can think of to describe this bag. The outside surface doesn’t have bulges or unnecessary dangling things. When it’s all zipped up it just looks clean. It’s meant to hug your back and feel comfortable when hanging there.

The outer materials are compromised of three main materials; a heathered ripstop in the lower third of the bag, a smooth twill in the upper two thirds and a tight air mesh used on the underside of the straps and the entire back panel.

The other details are as follows. The zipper pulls are all small T-handles threaded through the metal pulls in a typical outdoorsy way.

The handles and webbing are a slightly muted, but still bright yellow webbing with the former having a structural padded interior that amazing maintains its form over time and is comfortable to carry.

Setup

With a backpack, there is a setup step. Well at least for me there is. This is the step where you figure out what you’re going to keep in each pocket and where your critical items live.

Some of these are obvious. The laptop, an iPad. Others like earbuds, cables, sunglasses may have multiple options… or none?

Let’s lay out the bag, the organization and where all these pockets are…

The back panel is fully padded along with the undersides of the straps. This material compresses well, doesn’t thin out over time (so far) and isn’t very slippery on top of outerwear. The straps have a durable webbing that holds its position well, not slowly slipping or being so hard to move that it’s a pain.

The side panels both sport large zippered pockets that are large enough to hold tall water bottles. As someone who’s been hit in the head by my own bottle when bending over it’s hard to understate how awesome this is, plus it’s still separated from all the other stuff I’m carrying if my water bottle were to start leaking.

On the top, there are two zippers. The flat one opens into the laptop and tablet pocket. The other is on a bias and opens into the main compartment. Four zipper pulls on the top makes it very easy to open the wrong pocket. I’ll likely cut off one of the two pulls for the laptop compartment to simplify a bit.

The above photo shows my 15″ laptop sliding into place. Here is also my largest concern with the bag. There is very little cushioning at the bottom of the laptop sleeve. If you are not holding the bag off the ground when you slide your laptop into place, you will hear it make contact. Later if you are setting the backpack down you’ll want to do so gently as the ‘thunk’ is noticeable. I really hope they can make a running change as this is a critical issue.

The large opening into the main pocket is great for loading and unloading, but not so great for getting into the many pockets you’ll see staring back at you, which is where the next feature is so handy.

On the front of the bag, there’s a small stash pocket and a long u-shaped zipper that opens up the whole interior of the bag like a duffle. With this flap unzipped you have unrestricted access to the two interior side pockets and the two pockets on the flap’s inside.

The other thing you’ll find at the bottom of the inside is a small elastic and velcro tether for securing a collapsible bag that’s accessed from the outside bottom pocket. This is great as you can ignore it until you need it. I’ve used it for shoes, power adapters, and lunches. In can eat up a considerable amount of space depending on what you put in there. Most of the time I have a hoodie or jacket in there for quick deployment if I’m hoping on my bike or if the SF weather does what it does. This bottom zipper has yellow teeth hidden behind the black zipper tape creating a cool hit of color when using the zipper.

Performance

Overall this pack is exceptionally comfortable. I’m 6’3″ and the shoulder straps are long enough and the back pad strikes the right blend of comfort without a weight penalty. That’s something I should call out. Solo lists this bag at 2.4 lbs, but it’s one of the lightest packs I’ve used so I’m thinking that’s packaged shipping weight. Heavily loaded or traveling light it’s been comfortable the whole time.

Regarding daily use, there are definitely scenarios where you’re carrying a pack like a briefcase, or lifting it into an overhead bin on a plane. Solo clearly wanted to make sure that you were never reaching for a handle that wasn’t there as there’s 4! One on each side. These grab handles are comfortable and hold their shape standing slightly off the bag as if begging to be handled.

Let’s talk about the interior pockets. The two inside-side pockets are long (or tall) and work great provided you don’t have a water bottle in the corresponding outside pocket (which you’re very likely to). With the duffle panel open you have easy access to these and you’ll find yourself using them frequently as well as occasionally forgetting that’s where you put something.

The remaining 3 interior pockets I definitely have some issues with. Like the pocket shown above, the first one closest to the opening has a clear material that lets you see what’s in there. This is great until you unzip and all of it falls out because the flap is now flayed open and the zipper is on the downhill side of the pocket.

The second pocket inexplicably has the zipper right through the middle of the usable space. Something like a passport will fit, but it’s a slide in, pry the other side and bend the passport scenario. The last pocket is on the underside of what is the top of the bag. It makes sense to get into it from the duffle opening, but it’s not very visible that way. From the top opening, the zipper of the pocket is at the bottom, so I’ve ended up flipping the top inside out to use this pocket. Feels weird.

The last pocket is one that I typically use more than any other on a pack, and fight with on the Everyday pack. The outside front stash pocket. It’s well placed and ideal for earbuds, gum, or dumping your phone as you go through TSA. My complaint is how narrow it is. I can get my four fingers in there, but not my thumb which makes it hard to get stuff back out.

Again, in everyday (see what I did there?) use these issues have not been able to overpower the strengths of the bag which I can boil down to a great weight, comfort, accessibility and storage volume as well as a great aesthetic. Even the critical laptop padding issue has not kept me from wanting to use this bag. Since my laptop is smaller than the pocket I’ll cut a piece of closed cell foam to place down in the bottom. Let’s wrap this up.

What I like

• The weight, or lack-thereof more specifically
• Comfort; padded back and straps
• Side pockets (fully enclosed water bottle!)
• Bottom shoe/gym pocket
• The multiple grab handles

What needs to be improved

• Lack of non-compressing padding for the bottom of laptop compartment – Please fix!
• Width of front stash pocket
• Every pocket on the duffle flap
• Tether for interior shoe pocket needs adjustability

Final thoughts

If it wasn’t apparent in the review above, I have a love/hate relationship with backpacks. I usually get excited about, then buy a pack only to find a ‘fatal’ flaw in the first couple weeks. That’s what stands out about the Everyday Max pack here. It’s been a solid two months (review way overdue) and I’m still running it. All the photos above were shot at the end of this period of time. It’s been with me to Shenzhen, Shanghai, Taiwan, Singapore, Barcelona, and Paris along with daily commuting from Oakland to San Francisco by car, Bart, ferry, bus, bicycle, and moped. It’s taken everything I can throw at it including a 350W Bafang hub motor, large 48v e-bike battery, and all my EDC stuff. While I have some pocketry gripes, its missing sunglass-specific pocket and a dangerous lack of padding under the laptop it’s still maybe the best backpack I’ve used. That’s a hard statement to write considering what I’ve spent on some other packs. Time will tell as I revisit packs frequently and rediscover why I abandoned them to my closet of carrying. Looking like this one may be different. Let’s hope.

Price: $79.99
Where to buy: solo-ny.com and Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Solo NY.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Backpack

Solo NY Everyday Max Backpack review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 26, 2018 at 9:00 am.

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