Update (March 2017): Sadly, Kendal & Hyde is no longer in business. Many of their designs have been revived by SALT Co. Great leather bag options from other companies here.
From Kendal & Hyde we have a new line of modular computer briefcases in their Classic Attache. Another product launched with a very successful Kickstarter campaign, these beautiful briefs with a formal touch are offered in a concise array of options to suit buyers’ personal taste and needs.
ABOUT KENDAL & HYDE
Kendal & Hyde have been in the leather hardgoods scene for a few years now and are based out of California and Utah. The company has developed a strong reputation on Kickstarter, with eight successfully funded projects including a few Kickstarter staff picks. Kendal is constantly looking for ways to meet timeless looks with modern needs in his designs which has resonated soundly with his backers.
CONSTRUCTION
Kendal & Hyde pride themselves on products with no excess. With the exception of what’s become their signature authentic buffalo nickel on the handle, every aspect of the Classic Attache has a purpose that, first and foremost, enhances its functionality.
For starters, no corners have been cut in the construction materials: the leather is North American sourced, full-grain, and vegetable tanned; the thread is marine-grade polyester; the hardware is custom solid brass. The main body is made of 2-3mm (5-8oz) leather, layered together more often than not for the external walls, giving a fairly rigid, formal briefcase structure made of solid leather–no lining or padding is used. The straps are made of 4.5mm (12oz) belt leather.
Going beyond the basics, numerous clever design additions are what really make me love the Classic Attache.
The front and back panels extend past the sides enough to create a rigid lip that the bag can rest on. The closing strap that goes around the entire bag is extended through this lip to ensure it doesn’t rest on the ground, providing additional stability for the bag and protecting the strap from wear.
Numerous critical rivets are carefully placed so that stress comes from the side, rather than directly pulling apart at the rivet connection.
A small piece of leather connects the shoulder strap hardware to the sides, preventing hardware from rubbing against the attache.
To ensure the elements don’t make it to your items, the top flap extends beyond the side walls, and short flaps attached to the side walls extend over the main pocket.
The shoulder pad is stuffed with soft leather for padding, which helps maintain shape and prevent ridges that dig into your shoulder. In response to customer feedback (which Kendal & Hyde are great at), they’ve gently roughed the leather on the bottom side of the pad–a very effective solution for slipping.
- The Classic Attache also comes in a small variety of options:
- Narrow (3”) or wide (5”)? The narrow serves as a laptop bag with some room to spare, and the wide can carry more with a more stable base. The inner pockets and layout remain the same with either option.
- Single or double strap? Two straps does provide a more secure closure, but this choice is also based on aesthetic preference.
- Front pockets, or no? This will affect both your storage and aesthetic. The single strap offers two pockets, and the double strap offers one.
The selection process is simple, but ensures you get the customized bag you truly want by allowing you to meet your own functional and aesthetic preferences.
FUNCTION
The Classic Attache is divided into a few pockets and a main storage area. The largest pocket is designed for a laptop up to 15”. There are smaller pockets for items such as chargers or small tablets, in addition to loops for pens and keys. It’s compatible with Kendal & Hyde’s add-on accessories.
Unfortunately, we’ve so far only been able to experience the Classic Attache briefly for first impression purposes. While this short time has given the impression of a product that will function to all expectations, more detail on the functionality from daily use will be given once we’ve had a chance to more rigorously test a production model.
AESTHETIC
The beauty of the Kendal & Hyde Classic Attache comes from a refreshing combination of timeless inspiration and simplicity. There aren’t any flashy design aspects added to the Classic Attache. Instead, the gorgeous leather, other quality material, and strong, functional design speaks for itself.
CONCLUSION
This is a great option for someone who needs a laptop bag (customized to your needs) with a classic, somewhat formal look that will last a lifetime. The Kickstarter project has ended, but Kendal & Hyde are still offering pre-order discounts on their website at the time of writing. The Kendal & Hyde Classic Attache is a highly recommended Buy It For Life product.
Watch out for K+H preorders and kickstarters. Lots of people (myself included) waiting on bags after paying upfront. Months of little (or misleading) communication. I’d recommend only ordering through the website and paying with paypal. I’m watching the date to ensure I can contest this thing if I don’t see some movement soon. Lots of questions, not a lot of answers.
Hopefully you’ve contacted Kendal & Hyde directly and aren’t just trolling every single review or article on the Web (like you are here on our BestLeather). I certainly don’t mind the comment expressing displeasure with your interaction with a company – but, I hope you’re doing more than just this in an attempt to rectify the issue you are experiencing. Kendal & Hyde are good folks and they’re working hard to fulfill every single pre-order, Kickstarter order, and website order. They’ve encountered quite a few unexpected hurdles in hitting manufacturing goals…many of those issues completely out of their control. However,… Read more »
Thanks, I’ve contacted them multiple times. I hope you’re right, but every time I reach out I’m given a different timeline, and I find that’s the only time I’ve given timelines. The bags look great in pictures and reviews like this (hence why I paid nearly $500 for one), but it’s pretty maddening to be counting on a delivery date, miss it, reach out, and here “Oh, here’s the new delivery date.” Not just me, right now their facebook page has numerous posts from people upset with no updates, ignored emails, etc. Right now the tanning (a six week process… Read more »
Hi imfb, sorry I never responded when you posted these comments. Have you gotten your bag yet? I too have seen the numerous concerns posted on their Facebook page. I’ve worked with enough leather companies to have an idea of how much they’re dealing with right now. Kendal & Hyde are far younger, more inundated with orders, and strict about quality than most companies, and that means delays are going to happen. There isn’t any doubt in my mind that your concerns will vanish once you see and use your new bag. Even if you do decide it isn’t worth… Read more »
Troll
Yup, you got me.
imfb, have you received your satchel now? I believe all pre-orders have shipped. How do you like it? Worth the wait?
“Watch out?”… I can understand your frustration and suspicion and looking for a venue to vent but having been where you are 6 months ago, I can assure you as someone not at all associated with K&H, they do deliver. Kendal and Hydes designs are Addictive. For me, with the shapes of their cuts, brass hardware and leather, I couldn’t help but trepidatiously spend the $425 for a large Classic Satchel. It took 3 months of waiting. But I give them a hall pass because the bags are made at a factory where other manufacturers bags are made and it… Read more »
Hey Robert, nice review. What size laptop sleeve are you showing in the last picture (it looks like the K&H sleeve?)? I was wondering if a 13 inch retina macbook pro in one of the sleeves would fit into the laptop pocket in the classic satchel. Sorry if this is slightly off topic, but I noticed you had also reviewed the satchel so thought you could give me some input. Thanks!
Kenny, first of all, allow me to apologize for being terribly late to reply to this! Somehow I missed your comment. Hopefully this information is still helpful to you. You are correct, that is Kendal & Hyde’s Macbook sleeve, the 13″ version, holding my 13″ 2015 Retina Macbook Pro. It fits the Retina version just a tiny bit loosely, and my 13″ 2010 Macbook Pro is extremely tight–it would take some conditioning to get a proper fit. I actually have never tried to fit my Retina MBP into the laptop sleeve of my (medium size) 2015 Classic Satchel with the… Read more »
Hi Kenny, sorry I didn’t see your comment before (I actually thought I’d replied a while back…must have not worked). That is indeed K&H’s 13″ laptop sleeve, and yes, with a 2015 13″ Retina MBP, it will fit into the laptop pocket in the medium sized 2015 Classic Satchel. It’s a bit tight, and that is a ridiculous amount of protection! Your laptop would probably be fine if you dropped that combo out of an airplane. I usually only use the sleeve when I’m carrying my laptop in some that doesn’t have the kind of protection the Classic Satchel offers.… Read more »
Bought their attache in march and they was promising 10-12 weeks delivery. Fast forward to May, they updated us with delay, cool we waited. Then in June another update was sent out, and they claimed that any delay is unacceptable and they had a back up plan, sounds pretty neat. But now it is August, along the way there was 0 updates for a long period of time, and when people start to question them, they changed their kickstarter privacy where that is the one and only source of updates we can rely on. As dissatisfied customer starts to complain… Read more »
Maybe Kendal and Hyde do produce good products, but a lot of their customers have spent top dollar and haven’t gotten their products for over a year. Their website makes no mention of them being a startup. Products are listed as being in stock with estimated delivery time of 1-2 weeks, then aren’t delivered. They have no address or phone number listed to contact them. I have emailed them twice with no reply. One thing about this company that does work quickly… they take your money the day after you make your order. If you are okay with paying $400… Read more »
My experience with K&H’s poor communication was similar to IMFBs. I ordered my attaché July 9, 2016, and finally gave up on December 16 and asked to cancel my order. I followed up and still have not heard back. I am only writing this comment in the hope that someone will know how else I can cancel my order. I do not want the bag, and am afraid they will ignore me until they just ship it…someday.
Brad, I hope you’re able to get through with K&H. They’ve been working like crazy to fulfill all their orders and answer emails. Make sure to use the “order status” tool on their website to see if anything with your order has changed. My suspicion is they’ll manage to cancel your order before it fulfills. They’re in a tough position to be a small company absolutely overwhelmed by demand, I feel for both K&H and their anxious customers.
Hello Robert,
I am one of the kickstarters who kickstarted the weekender duffle for K&H. Is there any way you can get in touch with Kendal to see what is the status of the project/company? It seems like all communication with the kickstarters and the facebook has lapsed although we were initially promised weekly updates with the reorganization. With how precarious their situation seems to be any communication would be appreciated.
Hi! To be honest I too am a little disappointed that the momentum that seemed to be gained communication-wise seems to have ceased. I am in touch with Kendal, but he more than anything else is the designer. I’ll pose the question to him, though.
For what it’s worth, I did just discover that updates have been more regular on Kickstarter recently than they have been on Facebook. Hope that’s helpful.
Hello Robert, Thank you so much for getting back to me. I have been following the kickstarter updates, but the concern right now is that the promised weekly updates have actually stopped with the last one being January 20th. I am not optimistic that we will be getting an update this week either. Not only that, it seems like there is a Better Business Bureau complaint lodged a few days ago from the company that provided transport for their products from Mexico to the U.S. stating that they had not been paid and are not able to get in touch… Read more »
Hello Robert,
I am sorry to trouble you with this again, but have you had heard anything back from Kendal yet? We are now going into the 3rd week of radio silence on the kickstarter, and it now looks like the K&H facebook is shut down. If you have any news at all it really would be appreciated.
No worries, KPW. Sadly I don’t have any updates for you. If I do, I’ll be sure to post.
Hi KPW, I’ve received an update for you. Shortly put, an intense effort is being made to try to deliver all outstanding orders. It appears a lot of sacrifice has been necessary. Negativity on social media become a very real hindrance to this process.
Their Facebook Page has disappeared now. I am out $450.00 since May of last year. No response anywhere. DO NOT buy anything from this site. The only Kendal & Hyde on Facebook is a group formed by all those who got robbed. I just filed a complaint with the FTC.
I suggest you stay well clear of this company. I ordered a built last year but cancelled the order and receive confirmation that it was cancelled. They charged my credit card immediately and did not refund the charge. I repeated the cancellation months later when they emailed a shipping date notice and again got email confirmation that the order was cancelled and would not ship. They shipped it anyway. I’ve tried to return the item, sending it the return address on their label. It was returned with a note that they were not at that address. I’ve contacted them twice… Read more »
Any idea what happened to the prototype bags you reviewed/were shown on the website? They’re apparently the only versions of this bag ever made, and if I could get one, I’d be very happy. I ordered one from them pre-bankruptcy (clearly didn’t get it) and have yet to find a bag that matches it in terms of looks and functionality. It’s a shame they couldn’t make it work, but good design eye does not mean good business competency.
Hey Will, I can’t be sure, but I believe the prototype I was able to review was Kendal’s personal prototype. It is a terrible shame that K&H went under. I only hope Kendal’s talents aren’t lost to us forever.