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Bellroy Laneway Tote Pack (Quick Look) - A Mixed Bag
We take a look at Bellroy's new Tote, which contains some great design choices, and some things we're not too sure about.
Audio transcription
"Hello everyone and welcome to another Gamereactor Quick Look.
Bellroy is one of my favorite bag manufacturers in general.
The Tokyo Tote Bag, the beige backpack we've had, even the more expensive Apex one, we've had them here on camera and I think they do an absolutely fantastic job of combining visually distinct aesthetics with great material usage."
"They just, they do me a solid every time and I just, I love them.
But I can't say the same for this, this is the latest one that they've sent, it's called the Laneway Tote and it is meant to be a sort of a cross between a, basically a tote pack meaning that you would carry it like this or around your shoulder with shoulder straps meaning that you can wear it as a backpack."
"In fact, Bellroy makes a big riff on these three distinct carrying modes in their promotional material for the Laneway Tote.
But I find that this probably is the first time where I've had a Bellroy product where it's kind of like a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none and I'll get to why."
"First and foremost, I don't know if you can tell on camera or from the sound, but Bellroy says that this is made in durable nylon fabrics which sounds great.
And it's very, very light, like one of the lightest bags that can pose as a backpack that I've ever held in my hands."
"And it is also sustainable materials which also, as always, earns a thumbs up from me.
But this material feels cheap.
It feels too cheap for paying €175 which isn't necessarily a lot in the everyday carry tech space where we're used to paying €200 or €300 for something from like Peak Design and this is not meant to go directly against those kinds of backpacks."
"But still, this is an enthusiast backpack for €175 and you're not getting enough for your money.
This material feels too cheap.
It is certainly waterproof which is great and there are certainly cool touches here and there."
"I like this little Bellroy logo here.
I think it's made in a nice sort of little rubberized patch which works very well.
And they also haven't cut any corners with this little owl icon and message where it always says, this bag is designed to go with you, twist, turns, leaps and bounds for years to come."
"I love it.
I think it's a personal touch that makes it stand out from the masses.
But apart from that, this is just too flimsy.
And there's a couple of different problems with this three-way carrying modus."
"For one, it's a bit too short, meaning that it looks odd on a back.
It either sits way up in your neck or it slumps down.
As soon as you put things in it, it becomes very bottom heavy, meaning that it sticks out way too much than this thin profile would otherwise suggest."
"There is a bit of a limitation in terms of actual pockets go.
This is cool.
The way that they've done this is they've divided each of these two rooms into two separate rooms each, meaning that you get four or you get three, to be honest, because this is just one."
"But that means keys, wallets, AirPods can go in separate compartments, which is nice.
Inside, we do find a separate laptop compartment, but they say that this is for a 14-inch laptop, but a MacBook Pro 14 barely fits here.
It sticks up well beyond the limits of the pocket and almost reaches the zipper here, meaning that if you're uncareful, you'll have metal on metal and scratches on your MacBook when you place it in here, and forget about using a thick sleeve, like something made of leather and with padding, because then it just won't fit."
"Now, there are two sort of inside pockets for, say, a water bottle or a pair of sunglasses, but I would have loved those to be mounted on the outside, where they are much easier to reach.
A water bottle is something that you would want to get, first of all, to use quickly without having to open the bag, and first and foremost, or secondly, rather, when you have a water bottle inside, it's inside with all of your consumer electronics or paper, like if you're carrying books around and you're studying."
"So a lot of other bags, like Bellroy, mount them on the outside, but here, they're on the inside in order to get this uniform profile.
And there are more problems, I think.
When you unpack the bag, these shoulder straps are tugged inside here, which is fine, because not everyone wants to use a tote with shoulder straps, but if you want to switch easily between these different modalities, tugging them back in is something that you simply cannot do."
"There is no way, for instance, if the slits for it were here and you could tug them in like this, you could quickly stow them away when you don't need them so they don't flap about.
But when you've latched them here at the bottom, they're there, meaning that if you want to tug them away, you're going to have to unlatch them like so and then tug them into this carrying compartment here, meaning that only then does it become a truly camouflaged tote bag."
"And this is a bit uncomfortable as well, but I'm doing this as a demonstration to prove that this is just not the correct way to do this.
Now, this is nice.
It's a carrying net of sorts, like a tote, and it works very well, but now latching the shoulder straps if I want to carry it on my back for whatever reason, it's not nice."
"And the thing is, when you're charging €175, you really ought to get thicker shoulder straps than this.
If you're just carrying a MacBook Pro 14, some charging cables, a bottle of water, you know, it quickly becomes three, four kilograms of weight, which doesn't seem like much, but when you have this little padding and this thin strap, it starts gnawing in your shoulders if you're carrying it around for more than half an hour."
"And €175, it's a lot of money, man.
And you can get a lot of backpacks for €175 that offers a lot more than this.
So Bellroy made the Tokyo Tote Bag.
I think it's more expensive than this, but it's also just a way better take on the tote."
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