XL Classic Briefcase in Tobacco Brown Day 1

Happy Fathers Day to me!  2014 marks my first ever Father's Day, and my 6 month old nailed it!  This bag, like my child was made with love.

I love this bag!  I had a belt pouch already so I added that and this great bottle opener from a guy in Canada Naz Forge.  The color is great, and I can't believe how sturdy this bag is.  It is a beast!

The bag is very thick at the bottom when empty.  It gives the bag a stable stance when sitting on the ground.  This bag isn't just going to fall over.

There is an awesome mark on the back pocket!  Because this is where the bag will get significant wear quickly as it rests against the body most of the time, I can't want to see how this area looks after a few months of use.

To the left of the ring there are some really sweet scars running across the bag.

A nice little bug bite to the right of the strap.

Nice scar on the gusset.

This area should also start looking really good from the flap rubbing against it daily.

There were some cool marks on the pigskin as well.

Fits a 17 inch laptop with ease.

The bag really fits me well.  I am 6'5 360lbs and this is the XL.

Feels great in backpack mode. 

The bag isn't as heavy as people say but again I am also a beast.  

All and all I am very pleased with this bag.  I am excited to take it out and give it a real work out.  I will be using this bag as my every day work briefcase as well as my weekend bag and cary on luggage.  That is what is so great about the XL Classic Briefcase, it is versatile.  So this is the life of my leather, XL CB in Tobacco Brown.

Tobacco Brown Notepad Holder Day 1

My Saddleback Leather tobacco brown medium notepad holder arrived and this thing is a beast!  I actually have a meeting tomorrow night and I can't wait to bring this bad boy out.

It is not as stiff as I thought it would be which is a plus I was afraid there would be a really long break in time.  This piece to date is the largest that I received from Saddleback leather. I was hoping to see some great scaring and I was not disappointed.  You can see below that the later patches are actually calluses.  There are also some great scars that run almost the entire width of the notepad holder.

The scar below actually runs right through the stitching which I think is a neat touch.

I was pleasantly surprised that the interior was not as tight as I had imagined. The notepad easily slid in and the other pockets or easily filled.  There were also some great bug bites on the pigskin lining.

I like that there's plenty of space in the middle which means I can stuff this thing for papers if I need to.

There is some imprinting from the stitching on the left side imprinted on the right side, but this will not likely be a huge issue because once you slide the notepad in it won't be resting against itself.

Loose papers of particular importance on the left and my notepad on the right the ability to fit probably two pens, one in from the top and another one in from the bottom.

Having a nice soft surface to write on is phenomenal?  There is a great soft neoprene feeling material between the pigskin and the leather on the two main panels so that he gives your writing a nice comfortable cushion and really allows the ink to sit nicely on the paper you're not just writing one the letter there's a nice soft cution almost like you would see in a desk pad that really makes this a joy work with.  This pad is not on the spine, I believe so it is easier to open and close.  You can see a slight rise in the pigskin where this pad is.

The copper rivet is very shiny for now, and a really nice touch.

I have a conference for work coming up in about two weeks I am so excited to break this thing out and really put it through its paces at the conference.  I will report back more once I used it a little bit more and can attest to the functionality of the notepad holder.  So these are my initial thoughts on the Saddleback Leather notepad holder and this is "The Life Of My Leather" medium tobacco brown notepad holder addition Day 1.