A briefcase as expensive as a cheap bicycle or an annual fitness studio membership…
Is this briefcase worth the money? To be honest yes, it is, but even though I could, I wouldn’t buy from this guy. The only thing this person is after is money. He doesn’t really car for anything else and his latest video is the proof.
So this is the bag as it’s offered by Saddleback:
- Extra Large Chestnut now shipping with lighter colored, suede side of pigskin lining
- Free shipping, 30-day satisfaction guarantee – longer for gifts.
- The bag that started it all
- Covered by our 100 year warranty
- Works in the courtroom as well as the mountain trail
- Converts to backpack for impromptu hikes
- 1 or 3 strap closure system, you choose
- 2 side straps on briefcase can be used as belts, tie downs or tourniquets
- Can be used as a carry-on during airplane travel and fits under most airline seats
- Extra flap of leather acts as a false bottom to hide your passport, cash, spare keys and more
- 8 exterior D-rings can be used to tether tripods, slumber bags, blankets, or firewood
- 4 interior pockets: 2 side pockets for pens, flashdrives, gum, and other small items and 2 pockets on center divider for cables, small notebooks
- 2 exterior side pockets for sunglasses and water bottles
- 1 rear pocket for magazines, newspapers, and airline tickets
- Internal key strap for runaway keys
- No breakable parts, e.g. zippers, snaps, buttons, etc.
- Made of tough full-grain leather, which takes hits well and looks even better with age
- Built with only a few pieces of leather, minimizing seams and weak points
- Lined with strong supportive pigskin
- Stitched with marine-grade thread, and reinforced with copper rivets
- Because of natural oils shade may vary
- Dimensions (approximate size):
- Adjustable strap length: 34 ¼” – 59 ¼”
Medium
Exterior: 14” W x 11” H x 9” D
Interior: 13 ½” W x 10 ½” H x 8 ½” D
Holds up to a 13″ Macbook, and most 13″ laptops
6.6 lbs
Large
Exterior: 16″ W x 12” H x 9″ D
Interior: 15 ½” W x 11 ½” H x 8 ½” D
Holds up to a 15″ Macbook, and most 15″ laptops
7.6 lbs
Extra Large
Exterior: 18″ W x 13” H x 9″ D
Interior: 17 ½” W x 12 ½” H x 8 ½” D
Holds up to a 17″ Macbook, and most 17″ laptops
8 lbs
Did you watch the video all the way through? Did you notice how affixed he is to money? Well one could say in his defense that he’s also telling what others are doing when they are copying his briefcase and that they aren’t worth their money and they are only making money because of his bag’s reputation which is very good. If I wouldn’t be able to build it myself, I would download a pattern like the one from BigHouseDaddy.
Let’s sum up what the briefcase actually costs and we’ll only use the best possible material available on the market.
We’ll need pull-up leather. About 52 items is what he mentioned. So will need about 1 hide at the cost of what your local market offers. To me this an average of 80 EUR. So let’s say we will have to pay 100 EUR for the hide give or take just make up for price changes in various markets. We won’t use anything that can rust on this briefcase. They are not using solid brass material. Is it expensive? Well it’s not really cheap, but we aren’t after cheap, we’re after quality and best possible bag we can have. Saddleback uses some copper rivets. I was searching for them and yes there are some, but the rest is just a standard rivet you’ll find just anywhere. They are about a cent each. Okay, maybe 2 cents. There’s a metal “ruler”, looking like aluminium being added to reinforce the handle and distribute the weight. We’ll be using brass or stainless steel. Just a higher quality and will not rust. The only difference is that it is a little heavier and requires a minute of extra work. With stainless steel more than with brass, as brass is quite soft. Cost for the flat bar of brass or stainless steel is about 5 to 10 EUR. At 5 minutes 18 seconds you’re seeing the only 3 copper rivets being used in this briefcase. Cost? Let’s be generous and say 3 EUR. The whole briefcase is lined with pigskin. In fact only the flap is lined. The gussets are just plain. No good craftsman would do that, but we’re not going to tell anybody, because he says it right in the video – the people won’t notice… That ain’t that much, but let’s add another 40 EUR to be on the safe side.
At 5:35 minutes you’re seeing the edges of the this bag. I’ve seen worse of beginners, but in a bag for $579 – $669 I expect them to be at least good. Those look like they were chewed off. Turn off the sound and watch the video again. You’ll look at it in a whole different way and aren’t distracted by the BS the guy is saying.
I’m not going to count the standard rivets (18 to 22 rivets) used in the briefcase. That’s just a position under 2 EUR in total. 12 D-Rings are used (4 EUR), 1 steel ring (50 cents). 2 large snap links, 1 small snap link and 1 key ring. My supplier doesn’t have the same cheap snap links, so I used the figure for the most expensive stainless steel snap link they carry, which is under 5 EUR a piece. Brass ones are half price. Brass is less in general. Brass doesn’t rust, but ages in time and which would be nice with a bag like this.
Now in regards of the thread they’re using. Let’s be honest about it. They are using a Gueterman thread as shown in the video. The one shown in the video is 5 Eur a spool. I would suggest using a Serafil thread for this bag, which is a bit stronger than the one used, but also more expensive. The spool is about 9 EUR. In a size 20 there are 600 m on the one spool. You’d make a few of those bags from just one spool. In a rough guess I would assume that you are going to use 30 to 40 meters on one bag. The glue and polyester will be around 5 to 10 EUR per bag. Did I forget some material? I’ll just add another 15 EUR for whatever, just in case. The steel buckles are under 3 EUR a piece and 3 buckles are used.
So we’re having 140 EUR in leather. Hardware is under 30 EUR. Thread, glue and polyester webbing is 15 EUR and we’re adding a 15 EUR buffer. All in all the material cost is around 200 EUR. And that is only if we’re not going to cut down the cost with some market research for the best rates. Please note that you will have spare leather for other goods from the leather you have to get. You won’t use it all. The costs will cut down to about 150 EUR if not less, if you would price it out by the square meter.
The child friendly person in the video is manufacturing in Mexico. Don’t you think there’s a reason? Well it’s all about the money and he isn’t manufacturing in Mexico because of the great infrastructure there.
How long does it take to build the bag? If you’re using clicker dies you’ll cut down labour time to a fraction, so I’m not going to count that in with more than 10 minutes per bag. Gluing and sewing will take up the most time with about 2 hours. This time includes the installation of the hardware. Adding some buffer and I’ll be generous about it with an hour, the whole bag will be made within 3 hours in his factory. Everything else would not be feasible. Guessing that the Mexicans are not making more than 10 EUR an hour the whole bag has a manufacturing cost of 180 to 230 EUR. That means Saddleback is selling it to you at more than 150% on top of the manufacturing cost. Of course buildings, hydro etc. isn’t deducted from that, but that’s not the way one could calculate that anyways.
Is the price fair? Well that’s up to you. I mentioned some of the flaws in this briefcase already. A fair price for a bag like this and for the materials being used is at around 100 EUR less than what it is sold for. However, a small saddlery would have to ask just that price but would probably use better materials and make it more professional than what is seen in the video.
Now if you look at the pictures at BigHouseDaddy’s page you’ll notice that there is an extra pouch in the interior and no small pockets on the left and right gusset. So they aren’t the absolute same bag, but very close to each other.
This satchel includes an extra pocket for your laptop. It’s geared towards business use more than the Saddleback one. Add the d-rings and the the additional steel ring to this satchel and you’ll have a briefcase you won’t just be happy with for a life-time but also have one that’s built like a real saddler would built it.