The materials in my beloved (decade old) Clive Front are now so degraded there isn’t much point in sending it away for warranty service over and over – the coatings on the nylon are peeling and the thinner internal material has degraded to the extent that it shreds if you look at it funny. One of the side pouches perforated into the main compartment shortly after the last round of warranty, and I started looking into replacements. There really isn’t an equivalent bag on the market (What happened to lightly padded external pockets?), and I quickly found myself in the land of hipster brands and tacticool bags looking for a suitable replacement. I ended up getting myself a Timbuk2 Shotwell, as it was the bag that came closest to what I wanted. It was also only about $65 with creative shopping, which is enormously cheaper than most of the other contenders. (fair warning: I was lazy and uploaded camera resolution pictures, the linked images are huge)
I’ve been using it for a couple weeks now, and couldn’t find a much in the way of independent reviews when I ordered, so, some notes, in no particular order:
- The materials quality is really quite nice. Good, well treated nylon with finer weave lining.
- The workmanship on the bag is also good – tight seams, most of which are corded (or wrapped?) toward the inside of the bag. For the curious it was apparently manufactured in the Philippines.
- The fabric this thing is made of is better at attracting cat hair than most of those brushes for getting pet hair off of furniture. Set it down on something that has been furred, and it will be covered for days.
- The strap design is merely OK – the straps are square and fairly narrowly mounted, which does make it ride close and snug to the body, but isn’t quite as comfortable as yoke-style straps a lot of bags have.
- The front pockets are kind of vestigial — too small for a CD, too shallow for much of anything. I have some candy and one of those little first aid kit boxes stuffed in them, and it bulges a bit.
- I’m not impressed with the internally facing organizer. I would really prefer it if the center patch of the bag were a fold-out compartment with the organizer, or there was at least a surround/cover for the internal one. That said, it holds things pretty well (compact camera, post-its, some pens, etc.), and the zippered pouch behind it is easily large enough for the CD case of oft-needed media, and quite inobtrusive. I couldn’t find a picture of it when I ordered mine, so:
- The peculiar bottom pouch is pretty clever. It is separated from the main compartment by a flexible liner, will “grab” a (or at least my) glasses case in the vertical orientation at the tall end, and can easily accommodate a power brick, some cables, and a few odds and ends. It is set up so that it will push out rather than being crushed by the contents of the main compartment. For the students, scientists, and engineering types, this is the only pouch other than the main compartment large enough for a full-sized calculator.
- The umbrella/water bottle sleeve on the side is the best designed one I’ve encountered. The elastic is loaded enough that it goes flush when empty, and the surface is snag-proof, unlike certain other vendor’s free-hanging mesh monstrosities.
- The internal laptop sleeve is likewise better thought out than most. Instead of padding the hell out of it, and making a bulky, mildewing mess, it is just a flat piece of nylon and elastic, that pulls the laptop up off the bottom of the bag and against the padding in the back of the bag. It is just barely large enough to accommodate my 15.6″ T510 with a 9-cell battery – the machine can be forced in with a neoprene sleeve on the laptop, but it is a better fit without.
- This is an interaction quibble, but the 9-cell battery bulge on my T510 tends to catch the back zipper/zipper cover when pulling it out of the sleeve. I’ve also noticed some faint scrapes in the T510’s Thinkpad Finish which appear to be from the top edge of the sleeve.
- The total capacity is rather low, to maintain the bag’s low profile. There is room for two full one-inch binders (to pick a standard-sized reference) in addition to the laptop, and that is about it. This mostly suits me, since I’m usually just carrying a laptop and a pad holder with some paper, but I can’t stick a bunch of groceries in there like I could with it’s predecessor.
- The bottle opener on the strap is a stupid gimmick. It sticks up, it clanks, and it isn’t really useful for anything. I wonder if it will void my warranty if I just slice it off…
I’m pretty pleased with it overall.
