Swiss Army Bag and Marware Sleeve review

Hello everyone:

This is a review of the the Swiss Army Bag and the Marware sleeve that I bought for my Toshiba M50.

It took me about four months to finally find a bag, not because my wife is picky, but it's because she is only five feet tall and her back is not very big. You see, most bags are made for:
1) men and
2) men.

Sorry, but all you ladies out their know what I'm talking about. Also, if there are any bags for ladies, they are also for average size women and my wife, at five feet tall, is definately not an average size. So as you can see, for us, it was quite an ordeal.

So, after going to Best Buy, Future Shop, Fairway Mall, Markville Mall, Vaughan Mills etc, etc, you get the idea, we've been everywhere and we still couldn't find a bag. We looked on the net and found lots of bags, but I've got issues with all of the companies that sell over the internet.

1) Most of them don't have enough pictures to accurately determine if it's a good bag or not and most of them never have pictures of the inside with the bag loaded with stuff to show what will fit and what won't.

2) Almost all of the companies are in the States and they either don't ship to Canada or they don't give you any information on shipping to Canada, like, oh say the shipping rate?

So we were forced to shop locally and we found what we thought was the perfect bag made by a company called Heys. It's a company located here in Toronto and everything about it was perfect, except it was a little to big, and the bottom sagged when you put the books in it.

Then we found the Swiss Army bag and we found the perfect bag. It has everything, three different pockets for books, laptop, pens, pencils etc a side pocket for the mouse and two pockets for water. The back of the bag and the straps have lots of padding to help protect and support the back. One of the best parts of the bag is the bottom. It's reinforced with extra plastic to help protect the stuff inside and it also has hard plastic feet. You'd be amazed at how many bags don't have any extra protection on the bottom. The bag is also not as big as all the rest of the bags which was another plus. The only problem that my wife has with the bag is the colour, it has none. It's all black and she would like one with colour.



Next:
The last thing to buy was a laptop sleeve. This one didn't take as long as the bag, but to find a good one in Toronto or even Canada, was difficult. I found that looking at or buying a laptop sleeve over the internet was the same as looking ator buying a bag over the internet, so once again, we were forced to buy locally. We found one at a place called CompuSmart in Toronto. It's called Marware and they're made for ibooks. The M50 is a 14" laptop and they had a 14" sleeve, but it was to small, so we bought a 15" sleeve and it fits perfectly. It's made of Neoprene and it has a zipper and it has a reinforced bottom for extra protection. It also has a cover on the inside of the zipper that sits between the zipper and your laptop to prevent any scratches from happening and to also add a little more cushion and support for the laptop. Best of all, it fits our new bag perfectly.

In conclusion, all I have to say is that the laptop is great and the bag and sleeve work well together to provide all the protection that is needed.

So there you go, one review of three different items that we bought for my wife to go to school. If you want any more information, please make sure to ask any questions and I'll try to answer them. Here are some pictures.


http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/3719/p10204982fq.jpg

http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/6366/p10205073jv.jpg

http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/3025/p10205120fl.jpg

http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/9333/p10205095mz.jpg

http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/7705/p10204933nl.jpg

http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/968/p10204947xd.jpg

http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/1396/p10204961dh.jpg

I think that's enough, I have more pictures if anybody wants to see them, let me know.

 

Nice review!

That's a REALLY HUGE bag. Does your wife usually carry that much around?

I just got myself a Crumpler bag off ebay, I emailed a couple of the ebay stores from US, most of them charge twice as much to ship to Canada. (Which is a rip since USPS isn't expensive to ship to Canada) I eventually found one that had a warehouse in Canada and doesn't charge a lot for shipping. Now just waiting for it to come.

 

Actually, it's not a very big bag at all. I'd say about 98% of all the bags that we looked at hung down to the bottom of wife's bottom. This bag is not as long, it only goes down to her lower back, but it is deep and no, she usually doesn't carry that many books in the bag. I just put all those books in it so people could see how much it can carry.

You'll have to post some picks when your bag comes in and let us know how it is. You're bang on about the shipping rates. I guess that it's good for all te local stores, but now they have to start stocking more laptop accessories and not the usual stuff, but some different things as well.

I found some nice bags and sleeves at www.booqbags.com and they even sell their bags through a company in Toronto called Creative Technology: http://www.creativetechnology.ca/home.html however, the stores are located in downtown Toronto near the CN Tower and in Burlingtion, far away from where I live. Then, they opened a new store in Vaughan Mills, but it's only an MP3 store. You see, I can't win, but I'm happy with what we bought.

 

I'll take some pictures and do a little review of the bag when i get it in the mail.

Yeah, I was looking into Booqbags before I looked at Crumpler since I preferred messenger style of bag.

Too bad creativetech doesn't have price listed on the website, not going to drive all the way downtown to just check out the prices especially when gas is so expensive.

 

Thanks for the creative tech tip. Had no idea they carried booqbag sleeves. I've been looking for a sleeve but was a apprehensive about buying online without actually seeing one and also ordering it from the States.

If you're interested I could post some of the prices for the sleeves. Creative Tech isn't too far from where I work. Probably will check it out some time this week.

 

Their website is not very good. They're not a store, they're a corporate office and they sell stuff out of the office to companies and to individuals. For us individuals tho, they have a "store" in the main office to buy stuff.

Also, they don't have everything that is on the Booq website, so it could be a hit or miss if you go. Let us know what the place is like. I think it would help people who are still looking for laptop stuff to buy.

 

Awesome, thanks for your offer.

I'm looking to get a smaller bag on top of my Crumpler bag in case I don't need the extra space. (Perhaps the Powersleeve 15)

 

i was in the nag market for quite some time, and trust me i understand yre ordeal....it is definetly a much smaller back pack....but has definetly alot of room for all that stuff. I bought a crumpler kigsingle....im gona be writing a review shortly.

 

Hi,

I've just purchased my first notebook, and it's on its way so I'll have to be getting a bag myself very soon. I think that Wenger backpack looks great, plus it'll match my luggage, and I was wondering where you got it so that I can take a look there as well.

Thanks.

 

Cool!

You weren't the only Canadian with toubles buying a bag, I had to get it off eBay!

I've seen Heys billboards and they do look nice - although I haven't seen them myself.

BTW - I'm looking at a King Single as well

I'm gonna try and sell my Very Busy Man(It's way too huge heh) and my 2915 Wireless card, hope to sell thoser to pay for the king single

 

I bought the bag at a store called Bentley in Yorkdale Mall. I know that this store is in other malls, but I don't know which ones. You may have to call the stores to see if they still carry them or if they may be sold out.

If you can't find it, let me know and I'll see if I can find a serial number on the bag to help you find it somewhere else. Good Luck.

 

I've went to various Bently's, never seen any laptop bags though...

The one in Markville doesn't for sure, since I go there often but for the others - haven't been there for a few months, they might of restocked therm

 

Don't forget, I bought mine at the right time, in mid-August, right before school started and they had about 5 or 6 of them. They could be out of stock because they only bought a certain amount for back to school kids.

 

Nice review, I've been meaning to research some bags, u just did some for me... excellent.