09 May 2010 | MBloom

If you have a wife, girlfriend, female aquaintance, or have simply spent any amount of time with a woman, you know that if there’s one thing a girl loves, it’s her purse.  I take that back – it’s her purses, plural.  Don’t believe me?  Ask my wife.  She has half a closet dedicated to housing her collection of hand bags, and I’m pretty sure she’s been secretly meeting with an architect to discuss building them their own guest house.

Men, we do things a little differently.  First, we don’t have purses, we have briefcases.  Second, we’re loyal.  We may own multiple briefcases, but when we find the one we love, it becomes an extension of ourselves.  We don’t change briefcases based on our mood or what color pants we’re wearing.  It’s like that perfectly broken in baseball glove or the perfectly worn pair of jeans – when you have the one you love, you don’t need anything else.

If you don’t know the feeling, it’s because you still haven’t found that special briefcase, but today I’m going to help change that.  Seeking the perfect briefcase, you may be inclined to look at the larger name brands.  Forget them.  There’s a company in the great state of Texas that goes by the name of Saddleback Leather Co., and they specialize in… you guessed it… leather.  Leather luggage, leather messenger bags, leather overnight bags, and the first Saddleback product that came to being:  the Saddleback Leather briefcase.

Typically I’d take this opportunity to tell you about Saddleback Leather’s history, but the fact is I really can’t do it justice.  I can tell you that the story begins in Southern Mexico, when Saddleback Leather’s founder Dave was volunteering as an English teacher to the local kids.  He sought the perfect bag, and after partaking in a bull fight, he found the perfect material to create it.  With the help of a small Mexican leather shop, Dave’s first design (and the first Saddleback briefcase) was born, and the rest, as they say is history.  Sort of.  Because along the way, Dave’s story took a variety of turns.  A crooked Federale was sent to kill Dave. On two occasions, Dave traded his black lab Blue’s puppies for 100 tacos.  For a couple years Dave lived in a $100/month apartment in Juarez, Mexico with no hot water.  And along the way, Dave met his wife (who played/plays an integral role in Saddleback Leather) on MySpace.  It’s an incredible story, and well worth reading to gain insight into Saddleback’s history and principles.

Which brings us to the Saddleback Leather Briefcase today.  After over a decade of using his briefcases day-in and day-out, Dave has fine-tuned their construction to make them as durable (yet handsome) as possible.  First, they’re constructed from 100% thick full grain boot leather.  If you’re unfamiliar with the various leather types, here’s a page that describes the differences in leather quality.  If you’re not in the mood to read the details, trust me, you’re not going to find a tougher bag.  Secondly, Saddleback briefcases feature no breakable parts.  If you’re on the road, there’s nothing worse than having a briefcase you can’t use.  With the Saddleback, it’s not going to happen.  Thirdly, industrial Polyster thread (the best on the market), hidden nylon reinforcement straps and rivets at the key stress points each serve to add another layer of strength to the Saddleback briefcase.  As a result, Saddleback Leather backs the briefcase with a 100 year warranty, fully transferrable to whoever’s fortunate enough to get their hands on the briefcase once you’re in the grave.

From a functional standpoint, the Saddleback Leather briefcase works exactly as you’d expect – it protects your gear in ruggedly good-looking fashion.  Saddleback’s interiors are suede or pigskin lined, there’s no pretty fabrics to ruin its strength.  There’s a key strap, eight exterior D-rings, a couple side exterior pockets for a GPS or water bottle, and a back newspaper pocket.  Inside, there’s a pair open pockets for your gadgets along with two side pen pockets.  If you’re on the go, the removable shoulder strap can be fed through the briefcases top-most ring, easily converting it into a backpack.  Size wise, I find the large to be perfect.  It measures 16″w X 12″h X 9″d, making it just large enough to fit my 17″ Macbook Pro (it’s tight but it works).  There’s a medium and extra large as well, with the dimensions available on the Saddleback briefcases page (under specifics).  As for weight, the large briefcase weighs 7.5 lbs with the other sizes moving down a pound for the medium or up a half pound for the extra large.  I can’t emphasize enough the build quality of the Saddleback, and the weight is simply a testament to this fact.

All of this brings to me conclude, if you’re looking for the perfect briefcase, the Saddleback Leather briefcase may very well be it.  It’s beautifully crafted, will last a lifetime, and it’s so good looking you’ll likely have to fend off admirers multiple times a day when you carry it.  I picked up the large chestnut Saddleback briefcase for $555, and I’d buy another in a heartbeat – it’s that great.  If you need a briefcase, get one, you won’t regret it.

In fact, we’re so in love with Saddleback Leather Briefcase that we’re giving one away:  a large Saddleback Leather Briefcase in Chestnut, to be precise.  As with our previous giveaway, winning it is simple.  All you need to do is register with eMercedesBenz, leave a comment in this post telling us you want one, and we’ll pick a winner at random, exactly one week from today.  No, we’re not going to send you spam, we’re not going to sell your account info, and we’re not going to harass you in any way.  We’re doing it because we want you to be involved with eMercedesBenz, and we want you to experience firsthand the products we love and that we think you’ll enjoy.  That’s all there is to it.  So sign up, get your comments in (one per account please), and best of luck.  And remember, if you don’t win, get one anyways – you’ll love it.

Before I go, a bit of legal info to avoid any potential lawsuits:

*No purchase necessary. This giveaway is void where prohibited by law. The winner(s) will be chosen at random by a member of the eMercedesBenz editorial staff. Taxes if applicable are the responsibility of the winner. eMercedesBenz is not liable for anything relating to this giveaway.

Update:  As of 5:00 PM CST, we are no longer accepting new comments for the Saddleback Leather Briefcase Giveaway.  We’re going to go through the comments tonight to take out any duplicates, and we’ll announce the winner tomorrow morning after selecting one completely at random.  A huge thanks to everyone that entered, and if your name’s on the list, best of luck.

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