Posts filed under Bag Review

Maruman Sketch Bag Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And check out her first novel, The Bone Weaver’s Orchard, now available where books are sold!)

My recent trip to New Orleans was the first time my husband and I have ever traveled without our kids. To celebrate not having to carry diapers and car seats through airport connections, we decided to pack as lightly as possible. Our five-day trip would include everything from riding pontoon boats through swamps, to 5-star, jacket-required dining. With that kind of wardrobe variety, minimalist packing can be a bit tricky, but we were determined--no checked bag, no suitcase, no wheelie-that-won't wheel--nothing for the overhead bin that just gets checked anyway because (surprise!) your flight is oversold. Just a backpack each. A challenge, yes, but it can totally be done, if you have a good backpack.

The Maruman Sketch Bag is a good backpack. It was the perfect travel bag, and it is now my official journey bag. I have four more trips planned over the next three months, and I know I won't need anything but this backpack for all of them.

The first thing I noticed about the bag is that it is extremely light. The fabric is a PU-coated nylon that's so thin it almost feels like tissue paper. The structure of the bag is created with thin, light foam. It feels fragile, but it's not. I did not go easy on this bag--I was actually curious to see if it would tear, so I put it through plenty of abuse, but it doesn't even show a scratch. My return flights from New Orleans were not nearly as minimalistic as my flights there (heh), and I can tell you that you can cram this bag full of cans of chicory coffee and books and drag it out from under airplane seats, and (somehow) it holds up just fine. The only downside to that ultra-light fabric? Sometimes it gets caught in the zipper. It doesn't happen if you're careful, and it's a small price to pay for a bag that's light enough that you can fill it full of books and still lift it.

This backpack has an excellent balance of small and large pockets. There's one main large compartment that's great for clothes (or books). Inside that main compartment is one large pocket and two small mesh pockets. Behind that is another large compartment, this one with some foam padding for a computer. The specs say it will fit a 15" laptop, but you could totally fit a desktop computer in there if you wanted to. It's roomy. Or, you know, more books. On the front of the bag is another large zipper compartment with two small pockets inside and one pen pocket. And on the front of that is another small zipper pouch, great for fast-access items. On each side of the bag is a drawstring pouch, fit for an umbrella and water bottle. And on on the side facing your back is yet another padded, medium zipper pouch, perfect for valuables and small electronics. I did use a Lihit Lab bag-in-bag and a few NockCo cases for some extra small-item organization, but I do that even in my everyday purse.

The straps are well padded with foam and very comfortable. There is a sternum strap with a buckle, as well, to help support the weight of all those books. It can be adjusted by width AND height, for which I am very grateful. I'm quite short, so I often can't use a sternum strap. It was very nice to be able to make use of this one.

The only time I had any difficulty with the bag at all was trying to get it out from under the seat on the smaller plane on the way home. When stuffed totally full, it barely fits under the seat in front of you, and I may have had to remove the floatation cushion on my seat to get it out. This is, of course, a fault of the ridiculously small seating space of the airplane and not a fault of the bag--but a travel issue nonetheless. It's possibly also the fault of whoever decided to buy that many books on vacation, but whatever.

I'm very happy to have what I feel is the perfect travel bag. And I'm already planning what to pack for my next trip--to the Chicago Pen Show! I hope to see you there! And speaking of packing books, I'll have copies of my novel, The Bone Weaver’s Orchard, with me to sign and sell at the show. Hit me up if you're interested! And feel free to find out how many will fit in your backpack. If you've got a Maruman Sketch Bag, you could have them all and then some--just remember that your seat cushion can be removed in case of water landing or book overload.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes. This post contains Amazon Affiliate links.)

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Posted on April 11, 2019 by Sarah Read and filed under Maruman, Backpack, Bag Review.

Lihit Lab Smart Fit A6 Carry Pouch Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

You can never have too many bags. This is a dangerous motto to adopt, but it does carry a certain truth. As humans, we're wired to sort and store our stuff so we know where it is and to make it easy to transport. This can sometimes get us in trouble because bags and cases can get expensive, but that doesn't stop the urge to collect all the bags.

But what do you do when it comes organizing the inside of all these great bags? Well, one option is to use a bag-in-bag system. A smaller, slim bag that slides into your larger bag to provide compartments to stow your belongings is a great system. It's much cheaper than buying new bags, but it also moves between your bags easily.

With the Lihit Lab Smart Fit A6 carry pouch, you're afforded a small organizing pouch that can slide into your bag, but it can also be used with a shoulder strap as a stand-alone bag. There are some nifty attachment points on the back of the pouch that allow you to strap it to your belt, but I haven't tested out that particular carry method yet (doubt I will). Instead, I've been incredibly happy with using this pouch in my GORUCK GR1, which has MOLLE straps on the interior of the bag for organizing the cavernous compartment. The carry pouch isn't quite as robust as the ruck, but it's incredibly useful for storing small things in the main compartment instead of losing them down in the bottom.

No matter how you use it, there's plenty of space in this little A6 pouch. The front flap secures to the pouch with velcro, and the velcro strip is long enough to give you plenty of expansion room.

Moving around the outside, there are two D-rings on both sides of the top, and then two snap straps on the back. The snaps are strong and hold on even when you pull the flap open.

The inside of the pouch has one main compartment that has enough depth to store a couple of A6 notebooks, a Kindle, or something else of a similar size. In front of the main compartment, there's a slightler shorter sleeve pocket that goes to the bottom of the pouch. Finally, there are two small pockets on the front. One is wide enough for some phones, while the other is wide enough to comfortably fit a single fountain pen (possibly two gel pens if they have slim bodies).

The stitching and materials are well done. The Cordura fabric should last a long time inside other bags and being thrown around. The velcro could use some additional strength, as I find it a bit too easy to open. On the plus side, it's also very quiet for velcro.

All in all, this is an extremely useful pouch. It's small, but offers a surprising amount of capacity and organization. With several options for carrying and stowing, it makes a great companion to your other favorite bags. The price point makes it attractive as well. There are several fun colors to choose from, including the Olive featured here, Orange, Houndstooth, Navy, Camouflage, and Black.

If you're looking for something with more space, there's also a similar pouch in the B5 size. This seems like more of a messenger bag, but it is still small enough to fit inside most bags.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!

Posted on March 27, 2019 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Lihit Labs, Bag Review.

Doughnut Denver Messenger Bag Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter.)

If there's anything I love as much as my pens and notebooks, it's the bags I carry them in. I'm always looking for the perfect bag, and always hoping I never find it--because then I wouldn't have an excuse to try more bags. When I first saw the Doughnut Denver Messenger Bag, I got a little concerned. Is it The One? Is the search over already? It sure looked promising. Fortunately, great as it is, I have a few nitpicks that allow me to say no--this is not the one perfect bag. It came close. But I'm free to keep looking. (Thank goodness.)

This messenger bag solves so many problems that it creates new ones. I now understand what the kids at my work mean when they say something is "extra". I suspect what it really is is overdesigned. I love so many of the features individually, but together they become overwhelming.

This bag has a lot of pockets. Twelve of them! I've joked before that you can never have too many pockets--but, hey, you totally can. There is the main large pocket, which is very high capacity. It can hold up to B4 size paper. Inside that pocket is a mesh zipper pouch, a Velcro compartment, and two side compartments for water bottles/umbrellas/cables, etc. This compartment has a volume of extra fabric at the top zipper so taller items can fit inside. I did use that feature once or twice, but mostly all that extra fabric got in the way. I was constantly pushing it aside to get to things in the main compartment.

Behind the main compartment, there is a padded laptop/tablet pocket that can be accessed from the main opening, or through a waterproof zipper at the back of the bag. It can hold items up to 13". I used this back zipper more often than the main one, to avoid having to get past the jellyfish of fabric. I could reach most of what I needed through that back zipper, though it was difficult to see items toward the front of the bag.

Below the main top zipper, there's an A5-sized zip pocket. It has a Velcro pocket and two smaller pockets inside. On the front of that pocket are two horizontal zipper pockets for fast-access items. Though these are all mostly covered by the flap, the vertical zips allowed access to these pockets from the side. They were very handy--though I found that if the bag was very full, not much would fit in these pockets.

The flap folds down over the whole front and secures both with Velcro and with a slide buckle at each strap for extra security. I rarely used the buckles. They were just another thing between me and what I needed. But when the bag was stuffed, they kept the flap from springing open, so they were handy at times. There are also two leather snap straps for securing things to the front of the flap.

The strap is a soft seatbelt-like woven band. It does not swivel, which was often irritating. It is a bit too flimsy for this bag, I think. It kept folding and twisting so that it was uncomfortable to wear but annoying to constantly straighten. I think this strap was my main complaint about the bag. Every other nitpick still had its good points, but I think this bag really needs a more substantial strap.

Part of the reason it needs a hefty strap is because it is a BIG bag. It doesn't look it, but it feels massive and carries a boatload of gear. It's 17.7 x 11 x 5.3 inches. When filled, it gets quite heavy. When not filled, it is difficult to find things in its multitude of cavernous compartments.

For everyday use, this is too much space and too many features for me. I think for travel it would be great. I could also see it making a good bag for a commuter who needs a bag to hold their whole day's worth of stuff. But I don't think it's ideal even for day outings, as it gets heavy and the strap doesn't support its weight comfortably. It did make a pretty good purse/diaper bag combo--and the compartments allowed me to keep the kiddo's gear separate from mine. That was probably the best use I found for all its features--but the strap was still a bother.

Ultimately this is a fairly ingenious bag, where the designers thought a lot about what people might need, and then managed to fit it all on one (large) bag. Honestly, I think if it had backpack straps, or just a better strap system in general, my bag quest would have been in serious peril. I like what Doughnut is doing and I hope I'll get to nitpick more of their bags in the future.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!