You can spend big bucks on laptops, especially Apple MacBooks With the standard sizing of laptops and as valuable they are to our every day life, it makes sense to protect them. Stylishly, of course.
Introducing the Saddleback Leather Laptop Sleeve. That isn’t the name Saddleback has given it though, they call it the MacBook sleeve. Probably because someone who buys a $500 plastic laptop isn’t going to spend around $100 to sheath it in full grain leather. However, this sleeve will fit many non-MacBook laptops so the title is a bit disingenuous, if well targeted.
construction
This is a hefty sleeve in every sense. It’s full thickness, full grain, and relatively heavy at about a pound. Polystyrene industrial thread holds the sheets of leather together. It is single stitched and double stitched, which is ridiculously strong.
The edges will receive the most abuse in average use so it is comforting to see how both sides have strong impact absorbing edges where the leather sheets together.
function
Its job is to protect your laptop. The thick leather, excellent stitching, and thick impact absorbing edges will do a good job of this. Much of the impact force is distributed along the edge of the sleeve, leaving much less force for your laptop to deal with. Considering how strong the aluminum cases are on the MacBook Pros, this ups your laptops chance of avoiding a nasty dent by cushioning the fall.
Sliding a MacBook in and out is very easy and snug. It is possible to have a case like a Speck on as well but that would require some serious softening of the leather. Slipping the MacBook in with the Speck case was relatively easy but the dramatic difficulty of removing it elicited laughter from fellow patrons.
Putting the MacBook in the sleeve and then the combo in the Saddleback Thin Briefcase proved likewise problematic. The combination went in, but removing it was a comedically forceful process. If you were determined to use both just be prepared to soften the leather up with oil and spend time working the leather out. The Saddleback Thin Briefcase is slightly larger across than the Saddleback Classic Briefcase so this issue seems compounded if you have the Classic Briefcase. If you have a different type of case then check these measurements against the dimensions of your carrying case. The dimensions are listed for the interior sizing, but exterior will not be much larger.
- Small (13 ¼” x 9 ½” x 1″) – 13″ diagonal
- Medium (14 ¾” x 10 ¼” x 1″) – 15″ diagonal
- Large (15 ¾” x 11″ x 1″) – 17″ diagonal
aesthetic
It’s bulky, rigid, and somewhat heavy. By some definitions it isn’t stylish.
As for the dedicated leather lover, it is a magnificent bulky, rigid, and a somewhat heavy sleeve that will serve them well for a long time.
It is up to you which you are. You can check it out here.
Photos by Kristin Kastning.
Best Leather conclusion
Certainly this sleeve is not for everyone. If your idea of every day carry is lightweight then definitely don’t buy this. If you don’t mind the extra work out and you want your goodies to last a long time (probably much longer than we will be packing computers around) then get it.
Available here from Saddleback Leather and on Amazon
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