I don’t know about you but when it comes to the word leather it educes, in conjunction, a few other words in my mind. These words often are, Quality, Craftsmanship and Time. I’ve had my hands on making a simple leather card holder once and it took me, painstakingly, a couple of hours and it didn’t even turn out that well, explains why I stick to writing.
But that doesn’t mean I lack any appreciation for such an admirable craft (the reason why I love watches too). This brings us to the fine folks over at Faire Leather where they sent us a beauteous, the Bond CG Everyday Padfolio bag.
If you have not heard about them, they are actually co-owned by Tocco Toscano a leather goods label with over 30 years of experience in the industry. That’s how they cut their costs due to relations in the leather industry.
Alright.. I know, enough of the introduction and let’s see what’s so great about this bag.
Packaging
I’ll go through the unboxing process, thoughts and every detail of the Bond CG Everyday Padfolio. I am someone who values the product as much as the experience of the unboxing process. In simpler terms, we can call it as first impressions.
I think such minuscule details matter, think of it as, when someone nails the trivial aspect of things (think psychology), you can certainly be sure that the product is of quality. Even more so when it can be associated with a possibly high level of craftsmanship.
At the end, I’ll give a few ratings based on considerations any working professionals might consider prior to the purchase of any bag. These ratings will be; Quality, Practicality and let’s face it, Aesthetics. At the end of the day, you want to feel good about your purchase, boosting your confidence (a little bit of consumer behaviour and psychology).
I was greeted by 3 cards and I’ll go through 2 of them as we go along. Wait.. what about the last one? Don’t worry, only 2 consists of information. Like I said, my thoughts and every detail possible. As of now, the quality of the cards (GSM) are pretty good, which was what I was expecting so no biggie.
The product itself came wrapped in a cloth bag together with a shoulder strap and I must say I am impressed with the quality of the box, cloth and packaging overall.
Here comes the first card reveal, for those who just wants to see the bag you can skip this section. But those who are detail oriented and only want the best from their purchase, you can stick with me on this one. No offense to the former though!
The first card I read was a tri-fold-like card where it talks about their story, materials and the process of making the bag.
Due to my thirst for knowledge, I’ve actually picked up quite a bit from the type of leather they use, to how they ensure optimal thickness for each compartment for the sake of ergonomics and functionality.
Voila! so here’s the bag, I’ve got mine in black cross-grain but there are 2 other different types of leather surfaces to it, Epsom Leather and Vegetable Tanned. The one with Epsom Leather is sold out within 3 months after they launched it but you still can get your hands on them by pre-ordering! If you don’t already know the differences for the materials you can check out their blog which they’ve explained in remarkable detail, the link to that article is here.
Before I go into details of the compartments… 2nd card reveal! And as usual, you can skip this part if you want to dive down deep and under. I feel like Sqkii the mouse, revealing clues and keeping people in suspense.
As for this card, Faire Leather greets you in an intimate manner as though speaking to you. It talks about how much of value you just received from this bag and how you should feel a sense of pride carrying it which, to be honest, with their attention to detail thus far, they’re right.
And as you may have noticed, the interior of the bag are in Burgundy which makes the overall appearance really pleasing.
Laptop & Pen holder
Moving on to the compartments!
Starting off with the laptop and pen holder, it nicely fits my 13 inch MacBook pro. The process of putting the laptop in and taking it out is seamless, with enough room for your hands, the bag does not obstruct any of that motion. And as for the pen holder, well.. it’s a pen holder. Oh wait, they’ve even factored in a large and medium-sized pen holders with the one in the image being the medium. Well done.
For those of you who wonder whether your laptop will fit, take a look at the sizing chart which can be found on their website below.
Wallet Compartment
The next compartment features a very interesting mechanism which can be found in some wallets and conveniently in Faire Leather’s Specter Bifold Wallet as well. It usually helps with pulling your ‘hard to access’ cards out, but this time, it pulls your wallet out!
The pulling tab feels snug when pulled and the touch of adding on a ‘button’ on the tab makes the compartment not only that much appealing but so much easier to grip. I wonder whose idea was that… Joseph or Ryan? Oh if I haven’t mentioned, those two gentlemen are the founders, you can read more about them here.
Phone & Cables Compartment
Moving on with the train.. We have the phone, portable charger and cables compartment which is right beside the wallet compartment.
You are able to clip in 2 cables but I’ve used the other one to put my keys which they’ve also provided a key ring. I’ve only tried clipping in my iPhone cable and it fits really well, probably the way you organise the cable beforehand matters too but I don’t think it will fit any cables thicker than that.
The phone I was using to fit into the compartment is an iPhone 8, it could fit much more deeper in but due to practicality I don’t think anyone would do that, having the assurance that you are able to though, feels really good. They’ve also provided a list of phones that you’re able to fit inside the compartment on the product description page but I foresee no problems.
On the left, I chose to fit my portable charger but you can really get 2 phones in there if you fancy (a business phone maybe?). The intangible feeling of sliding the phone and portable in smoothly and flawlessly really got me there. Just imagine the exaggerated *zewp* sound but only this time, not exaggerated.
On the surface of that compartment, you can also choose to hang your keys there with the D-ring or perhaps clip a card holder which they’ve shown on their website.
Business Card Compartment
Right underneath the wallet compartment, you can easily access your business cards. They did not mention how many you can fit but I managed to slide in at least 40 of it conveniently, definitely could hold a lot more. But really? would you really need that many? However, if you’d like to leave your whole stash in there, it does get you covered.
Zippers
Moving on to what holds everything together!
Have you ever thought that perhaps the most crucial part of your bag is the zippers? I mean you can still squeeze the zipper holder and open the bag when the zipper comes off but ever got stuck with the zippers when unzipping? Add this to a zipper which came off and you’ll going to get one hell of a time, especially in front of the clients you’re meeting.
I think Faire Leather understood that perfectly and of course, sourced for the market leader of zippers, YKK. Their whole hardware is made from Zamak and Brass while adding an ingenious touch to it. You see the small little hardware on top of the zipper in the image? That’s actually a magnet and it secures the zip onto it whenever you close the bag so you don’t have any zippers zipping around. Really shows their intuition and train of thoughts when designing a bag for the first world.
Shoulder Strap
Remember the shoulder strap they provided? This means that you have options of switching your bag to a sling bag for a formal regard or taking it off for a casual outlook.
Luggage Slot
One more feature that I didn’t manage to try was the trolley slot strap.
Business travelers rejoice! You have got yourself a bag that slips right on your luggage. You do not even need to take the bag out from your luggage to retrieve your essentials like your laptop the next time you’re waiting for your flight, what a bonus.
Verdict
On that note, I really enjoyed the time with the bag and appreciate the efforts placed in the minute details, really admirable.
To end things off, let’s finally give ratings to the categories mentioned at the start of the article, Quality, Practicality and Aesthetics.
Quality: 10/10
Hands down a 10/10 for the quality and if you’ve followed me along throughout the article, you would have noticed that I’ve factored in everything from the packaging to the product and none of it is lacking.
Practicality: 10/10
I mean being built with functionality in mind, I’d like to think they better nail this one. With seamless access to your laptop, phone, cables and other essentials and appropriate dimensions for the bag which is (L34 H25 W3 cm) and with a weight of 0.8 kg, I really think they’ve got this right. Don’t forget about the luggage slot strap for you business travelers.
Aesthetics: 8/10
Don’t get me wrong, I think they managed to pull this one off and I understand the bag aims for a simple and elegant design and I really love it but having those of you who prefer splattering some of your personality on the bag in mind, you’ll probably appreciate the bag much more. However, for something that you’ll bring to meet your clients, I don’t think you would want something too loud. At the end of the day, for each his own.
Let me remind you about the magnetic zipper too. on point.
If you would like to get your hands on this affordable luxury or any of their other products, be sure to use our promo code “TheNomad360” which grants you 10% off for regular products excluding pre-orders from 1st of May till 31st July ONLY!
You can also opt for their 0% interest installment plan for ALL PRODUCTS when you checkout with Hoolah on Faire Leather’s website!