Although at first glance it has a similar silhouette to their Via Backpack, instead of being made for everyday commuting, Bellroy’s Transit Backpack is intended more for quick trips out of town.

This is evident from the moment you open the 28-liter main compartment, which unzips all the way down for easy access to your stuff and has compression straps to keep it all in place, along with two mesh compartments along the flap for smaller necessities.

Behind that main compartment is a separate zippered 16″ padded laptop sleeve and another zipper pocket where you can stash a phone and charging stuff, both of which make it easier to get through airport checks.

You also have a few external-access scattered around for storing keys, sunglasses, a passport, a wallet, a water bottle, etc.

The Transit was made for comfort as well, which can be attributed to the padded shoulder straps, contoured foam back panel, and detachable sternum strap that can be slid up and down to best suit your chest shape.

Get the Bellroy Transit Backpack for $179 on Amazon in your choice of Nightsky, Black, or Ranger Green. If you’re planning on a slightly longer trip away, check out the 38-liter Transit Plus ($319).

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In an email press release yesterday, Bellroy dropped the inside scoop on (among other things) their upcoming Tokyo Wonder Tote, an upgraded version of their popular Tokyo Tote. Available in 12-liter ($159) and 15-liter ($169) sizes, this bag is ready for both your everyday work life and your travel adventures.

Whereas the front side of the previous edition had only one small zip pocket, the Wonder Tote now offers two divided slip pockets — with interior organizers of their own — that hold more of your daily essentials so your pant pockets don’t have to:

There’s also now a document slip pocket with button enclosure on the back of the bag, and on the front of that is an added luggage handle passthrough:

Another change involves the padded laptop sleeve inside, which used to hold laptops up to only 13″ (in both bag sizes) but can now handle devices up to 14″ and 16″, depending on which size Wonder Tote you buy.

Things that stayed the same include the full-length zip enclosure with wide opening for the main compartment (so it’s always easy to get at what you need), the vertical pockets on each end of the interior (for drink bottles or umbrellas), and a built-in key clip in the front storage.

Pre-order the 12L or 15L Tokyo Wonder Tote, which starts shipping a week from this writing on August 22nd, 2023.

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The Bellroy Classic Backpack has been a constant companion of mine over the past five years. It’s been with me pretty much everywhere across the US, and it’s got the wear to prove it. Despite the beating it’s taken in all that time, it’s holding up strong to this day and I still trust it 100% to keep my iPad + daily essentials safe everywhere I go.

But I gotta say man, their new “Via” Backpack has me looking like the distracted boyfriend meme.

Similar to the Classic model, the Via is a well-made, commuter-friendly pack that sports a clean, minimalist look and offers maximum comfort for all-day wear. However, one area where they definitely improved with the Via is the new drop-down front panel that gives you easier access to the internal mesh zip pocket:

If you look closely, you’ll see they designed that pocket to open at a diagonal, so no matter if you have the front panel upright or folded down, the contents stay contained within the mesh as you unzip it. Pretty clever.

Aside from that, you’ve got the standard internal 16″ padded laptop sleeve, a built-in key clip, an external pocket up top (pictured below) for sunglasses or “secret stash” stuff, water-resistant zippers and fabric (made from 100% recycled materials!), padded shoulder straps, a rolled-edge webbing grab handle, and a contoured padded back panel.

Get this handsome and budget-friendly minimalist commuter for $129 on Amazon in your choice of Navy, Black, “Saltbush” (white/cream), or “Slate” (dark grey).

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Bellroy’s new Market Tote Plus takes everything that made the original Market Tote awesome and made it…well, bigger. They’ve expanded the storage capacity from 15L to an even more generous 25L, making it perfect for beach days, big shopping hauls, overnight/weekend trips, packing all the toys and essentials your kid might need for a babysitter, and more.

What makes the Market Tote Plus awesome is that it can stand open and upright during packing, is easy to grab on your way out the door (using either the long shoulder straps or the shorter grab handles), and when your adventure of the day is over, it folds into a flat square for easy stowaway storage.

Moreover, they’ve also considered a few finer details worth your attention, like the way those short grab handles can snap together to hold everything inside, the pair of internal slip pockets for holding precious/squishable/easily lost items up above the bag’s larger contents, and their use of recycled woven fabrics that help keep plastic water bottles from sitting in landfills.

This clever tote is a big upgrade on most reusable shopping bags you’ve used in the past, and it comes in a spectrum of vibrant, summer-ready colors. Get the Market Tote Plus for $49 on Amazon in your choice of “Hot Sauce” red, Copper, “True Blue”, or Black.

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A MacBook has never exactly been a cheap purchase to make, and you want to make sure yours is protected as well as it can be, even from the other stuff in your daily carry bag. Bellroy’s Lite Laptop Sleeve is everything you could want in this department.

With an exterior made from a sleek matte diamond-patterned ripstop material, this sleeve manages to be both featherlight and protective against water splashes and scratches, while its two different types of lightweight foam padding keep the laptop safe from bumps and bangs.

This is one of those laptop cases that just feels great in the hand, in a squishably soft way. It gives off the luxury vibes of a high-end leather case, with the “feels good” that comes from knowing it’s actually made from 100% recycled PET plastic bottles.

The Lite Laptop Sleeve comes in two sizes, each with three color options:

• 14-inch ($39): Chalk / Copper / Shadow
• 16-inch ($45): Chalk / Copper / Shadow

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Look, the product I’m about to mention is a pretty simple one, so there’s no need to belabor the point: Bellroy’s Tech Kit Compact is a small and slim zip pouch for all your tech accessories. That’s really all you need to know. You want to keep your cables, adapters, dongles, and earbuds neat and organized? This is the organizer for you.

If you really want details, you should know that the Tech Kit Compact’s exterior (at least in the “Limestone” colorway) features a water-resistant and pebble-textured material they call Looma Weave, a soft and flexible leather-free fabric made from a blend of 100% recycled plastic bottles and polyester. Here’s what the stuff looks and behaves like in the hand:

However, they do also have an environmentally certified leather (aka “Bronze”) variant:

…as well as a “Midnight” edition made from Canva Ripstop (which we’ve mentioned previously):

The pouch unzips flat for easy access to everything stored inside, all of which is held in place by a combination of stretch mesh pockets and wide elastic loops. There’s also a slip pocket with a magnetic closure that’s perfect for fitting a power bank into.

All colors of the Tech Kit Compact are $55 on Amazon.

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Bellroy’s new leather Key Case is for those of you who like to keep your EDC smooth and minimal. I say ‘smooth’ because of the thumb flipper mechanism that allows you to flick out your keys and use whichever one you need, all single-handedly, like a boss.

Watch how it works:

Wrapped around the polymer hardshell case is a soft and smooth eco-tanned leather exterior that comes in your choice of Terracotta (tan), Cobalt (blue), Racing Green, Basalt (grey), or Black.

The Key Case can hold 3–5 keys max, which should be plenty for most peoples’ everyday needs. An adjustable winder allows you to set the friction wherever you like within that range, so your keys are always held securely yet accessible when you need them.

One nice touch is the included fob loop that hooks through your bigger car key/fob and locks into place after being inserted into the Key Case:

Get the Bellroy Key Case for $55 at their official shop.

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Bellroy’s “Transit” workpack is a classy and functional backpack for your daily work/commute/city-exploration needs. It’s the smaller, nimbler cousin to the more travel-focused 28-liter model, and while it does have a smidgen less storage capacity in comparison, it’s still plenty enough for your everyday carry needs.

Like all Bellroy bags, the details, construction, and materials are all top-notch — and well they should be, since you’re dropping a couple Benjamins to buy the thing.

It’s made from environmentally certified leather and water-resistant recycled woven fabric that’s lightweight and comfortable enough to tote around all day, whether you’re wearing it to work, the gym, or elsewhere.

On the top and sides you have hidden zip pockets to keep your wallet, phone, water bottle, or sunglasses stashed out of sight yet easily accessible when you need them. Inside the main compartment is a stretch mesh pocket where you can keep a pair of shoes separate from the rest of your stuff.

The laptop/tablet compartment (which has its own internal storage pouch) is also separated from the main body and is accessed from the top of the bag, so you don’t have to rummage through clothes and other stuff to find your work gear and tech accessories.

Get the Bellroy Transit Workpack for $199 on Amazon in one of three colors.

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There’s no denying we love Bellroy’s stuff around here, most of which falls into the territory of wallet, bag, or pouch. Now they’ve added an Apple Watch strap to their lineup, and it’s every bit as awesome as you’d expect.

In an interesting move, they’ve paired a premium eco-tanned leather exterior with a durable and flexible polymer base layer, so you’ve got all the style and class of a city watch with the comfort and utility of a sport band.

Both the 38–40mm and 42mm–44mm sizes are $69 at Bellroy and come in a handful of color choices:

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Bellroy’s upcoming Flip Case Wallet is of a similar size to the Nomad Card Wallet I wrote about the other day, and is even similarly made from soft leather that’s been molded around a durable frame, except this one’s an actual hardshell as opposed to a reinforced fabric lining.

But there’s a key difference in its design: Rather than giving you exterior card slots to use, the Flip Case uses a pair of magnetic trapdoors to fully enclose a small stack of cards and cash, with a middle divider to keep those things separate. When it’s time to pay, just open whichever side you need to access.

There’s something so satisfying about that magnetic *snap*:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5GIuye9J34

As of this writing (June 18th, 2021) the Bellroy site says the Flip Case will begin shipping in a few weeks, no exact date. If you want to ensure you get one ASAP, pre-order one of the five color options for $89.

Pre-order

Released as part of their “Recycled” collection, Bellroy’s Campus Backpack is constructed from “Canva Ripstop,” a material made of 100% recycled plastic water bottles that would’ve otherwise ended up in a landfill somewhere to sit for probably hundreds of years.

https://youtu.be/v9acXKB7F5M

With its 16-liter capacity and a padded inner sleeve that holds and protects laptops up to 16″, this casual backpack keeps all your essentials within easy reach, and it’s absolutely comfortable enough for all-day carry as well.

One of my favorite little features is the quick-access pocket on the front where your keys and phone live nicely:

Also love that forest green color

That recycled plastic material is inherently a bit water-resistant and the bag uses YKK Aquaguard zips for additional weather protection, so it’s also the sort of bag you can wear in mild rainfall without fear of ruining your valuables inside.

Get the recycled-material Campus Backpack for $75 on Amazon.

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Bellroy’s new “Marine Blue” range of bags follows on the heels of their “Red Earth” collection in that they’re made from recycled materials, except these materials are sourced from pre-consumer industrial waste that form the basis of the company’s own “Baida” nylon.

Named for the ocean and based on the Korean word for ‘sea’ (bada 바다), this high-performance recycled nylon is naturally durable and lightweight, featuring a heat-treated yarn for an intriguing and unique crinkle-textured matte finish, along with a compact weave for added robustness in the face of both the elements and everyday wear-and-tear.

As a bonus, the fabric has also been treated with an environmentally friendly water-resistant coating.

Chase Reeves talks a lot about the look and feel of this nylon in his review of the Bellroy “Apex” bag (which was the first to test the fabric):

Mildly NSFW for language

This is a material that performs admirably in the outdoors while meeting the aesthetic and sensory needs of indoor settings. You’re gonna love it.

The Marine Blue collection spans a number of bag styles — most of which are pictured above — including backpacks, slings, and totes, plus some newly released travel-specific backpacks and weekenders (which will be fantastic when we’re all able to venture out into the world again):

• Classic Backpack (20L) ($139) and Classic Backpack Plus (30L) ($179) — Can’t go wrong with this all-rounder style.
• Sling ($99) and Sling Mini ($89) — An agile pouch for hands-free trips in the city, that keeps your pockets light.
• Tokyo Tote ($129) — A clever kind of carry-all.
• Duo Totepack ($289) — Successfully marries the look of a backpack with the functionality of a tote bag.
• Weekender 30L ($249) (also available in 45L for $279) — A weekend and travel bag with easy organization.
• Flight Bag ($329) — A professional carry-on that goes from the office to the airport.
• Transit Backpack ($239) and Transit Backpack Plus ($289) — An extra capacity backpack for big adventures.

They’ve also got plans to add a Classic Pouch, Dopp Kit, Pencil Case, and Tech Kit to the lineup, so stay tuned for those.

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One of my favorite products of the last five or six years has been the Bellroy Note Sleeve. I bounced around from wallet to wallet for years, searching high and low for a wallet I thought looked good, felt good, lasted a long time, and carried everything I needed.

The Note Sleeve was an end-game wallet for me in 2016, and I haven’t looked for a new one since.

I’ve changed somewhat though. I no longer need a wallet that can carry Canadian polymer cash, American greenbacks, and Euros or Pounds Sterling all at once. I almost never need coins anymore. And the little pull-tab section of the Note Sleeve has accumulated more than enough junk to cause the wallet to become noticeable in my pants pocket.

There’s still plenty of life left in my Note Sleeve. Maybe I’ll return to it one day. But right now, I wanted something I could pull out of a pair of dress pants or a suit jacket and not look out of place. And, more than anything, I wanted something just a bit slimmer for tighter-fitting jeans and pants.

 

Enter Bellroy’s Hide & Seek. The Hide & Seek is essentially Bellroy’s “other” top-selling wallet. It’s a more traditional bi-fold, in the sense that it carries cards horizontally on the right and left, has a cash slot at the top, and folds in half to fit in your pocket. But there are a range of hidden features in this wallet — hence the name “Hide & Seek” — which I’ve come to really appreciate over the last few weeks.

Like the Note Sleeve, the Hide & Seek is not a perfect wallet. But for my current stage in life — the sedentary, go-to-the-office-everyday sort of life stage — the Hide & Seek fits the bill perfectly. Pun intended.

Materials and Leather

There’s so much leather in my life. I adore leather. I have a leather couch, leather Bibles, leather Field Notes covers, leather Midori Traveler’s Notebooks, leather baseball gloves, and of course, leather wallets. (No leather jackets though.)

It’s nice being able to compare each type of leather to their intended use. It makes a lot of sense that a leather wallet isn’t the same type or cut of leather as, say, a brand new Wilson baseball glove.

 

 

But, the differences are much more subtle when you compare alike tools, such as two different wallets. My Bellroy Note Sleeve is made of a “dressed” leather (per Bellroy), while this Hide & Seek is of Bellroy’s “Designers Edition” line. Bellroy’s description:

We’ve selected unique, environmentally certified leathers that are distinguished by their level of complexity in texture, finish and soft touch. These leathers are the cornerstone of the Designers Edition range, distinguished by their complexity in texture, finish and soft touch. Where possible, this leather has been left to sweep or wrap through each product to minimize corners, maximize space and enhance the flow of leather.

The differences between the two leathers are very, very subtle. Noticeable, but subtle.

 

“Distinctive and Complex” is how Bellroy’s subtitle reads, which aren’t the two adjectives that come to my mind when looking at and feeling the Hide & Seek’s leather. To my mind, the Hide & Seek’s European leather feels softer to the touch, but stiffer in use. The burnished edges are nicely finished, with the black stitching rounding the edges in perfect fashion.

The black leather color doesn’t show wear as quickly as my colored Note Sleeve, and provides a subtly sophisticated silhouette when you pull it from your pocket.

 

 

Above, you can see how the “Dressed” leather ages over three years of use.

Now, this is my best depiction of the Hide & Seek Designers Edition line, but you don’t need to purchase the Designers Edition Hide & Seek to take advantage of the Hide & Seek’s features.

If you go with the standard “dressed” leather version, you get the same leather quality and feel as the Note Sleeve seen in these photos, plus you have added color options and a physical, metal version of Bellroy’s owl emblem on the front.

 

On my specific version of the Hide & Seek, the Bellroy owl logo is gold foil-stamped to the bottom right of the wallet’s front, while “Bellroy, Designers Edition” is gold foil-stamped on the inside left of the wallet. I’m unsure how well these gold foil logos will age, or whether they’ll wear away.

The Hide & Seek is leather from nearly top to bottom, with the only non-leather materials I can find being in the billfold at the top. Inside the billfold appears to be a beige nylon material which helps keep the overall Hide & Seek package as slim as possible.

This particular Hide & Seek has RFID protection to help fight against any card skimmers out there. I’m unsure if RFID protection is either practical or has an actual use in real life — to the contrary, I’ve heard it doesn’t actually provide any security at all — but it’s built into this wallet if you need it.

Overall, there’s little in the way of imagination when it comes to the Hide & Seek’s leather and materials. This wallet has Bellroy’s very best leathers, designed in such a way as to maintain thinness, increase durability, and ensure that its sleek appearance will be maintained for years on end.

Key Wallet Features

From here on out, the Hide & Seek Designers Edition is effectively the same as any of Bellroy’s other Hide & Seek wallets.

The simple Hide & Seek bifold design appears to be a traditional wallet upon first view, but can somehow jam 12+ cards, coins, and multiple sets of currencies into its thin frame.

 

On the right are three horizontal quick-access card slots for your most used cards. Each card slot was extremely tight when I first inserted all my bank cards — this wallet requires a bit of use before it’ll meet expectations. But after a little massaging, each card fits snugly and securely and won’t be sliding out inadvertently.

On the left is an additional horizontal quick-access card slot, as well as a much thicker/wider slot for cramming in less-used cards. In this slot, I keep my Air Miles rewards card, some health and medical cards, an emergency credit card, and other essential papers.

Even after hammering in this number of cards, there’s still plenty of room to be had. I don’t think I’d struggle to insert at least another three cards before the wallet started to feel thick.

 

The angled cut-outs for this slot make it extra flexible, providing easier access to the stuffed slot.

 

You’ll notice that the way this slot is cut and stitched helps provide more room and flexibility for storing less-used cards. The top right section of the slot is cut and stitched at an angle to the main wallet body, while the bottom left of the slot is also angled. This angled cut provides more flexibility in the leather and highlights Bellroy’s inquisitive thinking in its wallet designs.

 

The main billfold comes in two different sizes, depending on your needs:

1. “Lo” for bills shorter than 74mm (this is the one you see listed on Amazon)
2. “Hi” for bills taller than 74mm (only available from Bellroy’s site)

Both wallets cost the same amount, so you simply need to decide which currency sizes you carry around most often. This is one of those features that falls short of the Note Sleeve’s design — the Note Sleeve is a “Hi” wallet by default due to its vertical card slots (more on that below) and can fit multiple heights of currency with ease.

However! The Hide & Seek, due to its horizontal card slots, provides more horizontal space for fitting in currency. So while it’s not capable of holding multiple currencies, it’s significantly easier to insert and take out cash from the Hide & Seek.

 

On the inside, inverse of the billfold is one additional card slot for hiding other cards. It’s designed to be a thicker card slot that can hold multiple cards, but I’ve nestled just my drivers license into this slot. My drivers license card is somewhat shiny and slippery, meaning it slides in and out of this thicker card slot quite easily. It hasn’t slid out of the wallet or anything, but it’s very easy to remove the card from this slot.

I’d say it’s wise to keep two cards in this slot instead of just one.

 

 

If you pull back the back leather strip, you’ll reveal a second billfold section for hiding a second set of currency. This is where the “Hide & Seek” moniker comes into play — you can very easily hide another set of currency or some emergency cash in this back part of your wallet without ever knowing its there.

If you prefer, you can fold this leather strip down and use the two separate billfold slots for storing two different currencies, or for separating currency from receipts. I personally keep a little American cash in this back billfold slot and fold the leather strip to hide the cash.

Directly Compared to the Note Sleeve

 

Since the Hide & Seek and the Note Sleeve are two of Bellroy’s most popular wallet lines, it’d be best to understand what each one excels at and where each falls short.

The way each wallet positions its card slots provides fundamental differences in how these wallets work and how they sit in your pocket. The Hide & Seek has horizontal card slots like more traditional wallets. This makes the Hide & Seek a larger overall wallet than the Note Sleeve, which is surprisingly noticeable in my pants pocket.

The thickness of the Note Sleeve, albeit after three years of smooshing and flattening in my pocket.

The Hide & Seek package is longer than the Note Sleeve, but also has a thinner profile than the Note Sleeve.

I get that the Hide & Seek doesn’t look as thin as the Note Sleeve, but I haven’t had the chance to really compact this one yet.

If you have small square pockets, the Note Sleeve may well fit better than the Hide & Seek. The Hide & Seek’s thinner profile, however, fits nicer in tighter pants with longer pockets.

 

 

The horizontal vs vertical card slot dichotomy also has an impact on inserting and removing both cards and cash. I’ve found I prefer removing cards from vertical card slots in the Note Sleeve, as it’s easier to slide the card out of the slot with your thumb.

However, the Hide & Seek’s thicker “catch-all” card slot doesn’t require the pull tab found in the Note Sleeve. In this instance, I’ve found it easier to find and remove my required card from the Hide & Seek’s catch-all card slot.

 

Notice how snugly the cash fits into the Note Sleeve. There’s much more space in the Hide & Seek.

Removing and inserting cash from the Hide & Seek is a major improvement over the Note Sleeve. Canadian cash in particular fits into the Note Sleeve quite snugly, at least horizontally — the tolerance between the length of Canadian cash and the length of the Note Sleeve is pretty small. The Hide & Seek is a bit longer, providing more forgiveness when inserting cash into the billfold.

This doesn’t seem like a huge improvement — until you’re in the middle of a conversation with the cashier and have to break your focus to insert bills into the snug billfold of the Note Sleeve. With the Hide & Seek, you don’t need to break eye contact and can continue your conversation with no distractions.

Wrap Up

The slogan, “Different strokes for different folks” should be rebranded as, “Different wallets for different… folks” — there’s simply no catch-all wallet design that will meet the needs of everyone, everywhere.

For a long time, I thought the Note Sleeve’s design was the pinnacle of wallet design. It managed to keep a relatively small and thin package while providing space for multiple currency heights, coins, quick-access slots, and more. If you’re the type where coins, multiple currencies, and only a select few cards are necessary on a given day, the Note Sleeve may be your pinnacle wallet.

But my needs have changed over time — my wife and I now have two little girls, and the opportunity to travel has really diminished as a result. We also have more things to carry with us on a daily basis, such as health cards, immunization records, and so on.

With the change in daily carry comes a change in my wallet needs — very little travel means less of a need for carrying multiple currencies and more of a need for accessing those formerly less-used cards.

To this end, I’ve been very pleased with Bellroy’s Hide & Seek. The traditional design fits well in my dress pants pockets, provides more forgiveness for inserting or removing cash, and the extra billfold slot for keeping cash and receipts separate is sure to be a bonus feature as time goes on.

Plus, Bellroy’s choice of leather for this Designers Edition line is second to none — I’ve played with numerous Bellroy leathers over the years, and none meet the fit and finish of this Designers Edition wallet.

If you can nail down your needs — currencies vs. receipts, square vs. long, etc. — you’re sure to find a near perfect wallet between the Note Sleeve and the Hide & Seek. I’m on the Hide & Seek train right now, but I’m keeping the Note Sleeve around to return to when the itch arises.

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The ideal situation is to buy one bag and be able to use it in multiple ways. The problem is that most 2-way or 3-way bags haven’t very good at even one thing, let alone multiple.

Luckily, multi-way bags are getting better, as proven by Bellroy’s latest Tokyo Totepack ($179).

The Tokyo Totepack is half tote and half backpack, and is positioned to be used in both casual and more formal settings. Bellroy has tried a totepack in the past with the Duo, but it didn’t quite have the look of a backpack or the refined sense of a tote.

This new Tokyo Totepack bests the Duo in a lot of ways with new materials and better organization, but mostly it plays both sides of the coin and looks like both a backpack and a tote when it needs to.

Look and Feel

If you had to choose whether the Tokyo Totepack was more backpack or tote, I’d argue it looks like the former but functions more like the latter. Its look is one of the reasons I found it initially attractive for a daily carry bag.

I prefer the functionality of a backpack over something like a messenger bag, but in a lot of my daily carry situations, the bag isn’t actually being carried long enough to commit to wearing both straps. In this regard, the tote handles come in…handy.

While the backpack straps can be hidden away, I’ve found that even at their longest length, they are minimal enough not to be a distraction. I’ve left them out even while carrying the bag, but it’s neat that they can be easily hidden.

Wearing the Totepack as a backpack is comfortable enough despite a lack of padding that accompanies other Bellroy backpacks. This lack is likely in favor of keeping the bag looking as much like a tote as possible. If you need a backpack for hours of wear per day, a different Bellroy backpack would probably be a better purchase.

My main concern around the feel of the Tokyo Totepack isn’t with comfort, but with the appearance. At 5’11” myself, I think it would be a little too small as a backpack on anyone much taller.

The bag uses quality materials Bellroy is known for, and feels strong and resilient to constant use.

Organization and Utility

The true utility of the Tokyo Totepack is its slim and unobtrusive figure. It works perfectly for a daily carry pack. Plus, at 17L capacity, it’s hard to use it for anything other than a daily carry.

Inside the pack are two slots for computer devices — up to a 15-inch laptop and an iPad. The iPad slot works better with an 11-inch iPad Pro or smaller. The 12.9-inch model with a keyboard cover is a tight fit, but can be crammed in. The iPad slot is pretty narrow in general for any of the models with a case on. It’s a shame and serves mostly as a tease.

Internally, each side contains a “fold-in” pocket. I put quotes around fold-in because they don’t reliably fold in as shown in the product videos. Still, they don’t get in the way, even if they don’t always fold in as expected. They’re meant for a water bottle, but seeing as there are two, they can be used for nearly anything.

If I were designing the Tokyo Totepack, I would have only included one pocket and made the top opening a bit wider so it wasn’t as difficult to get a water bottle in and out. I do like the open and deep pockets as general storage, even if a water bottle fits a bit tight.

 

The outside straps holding the main opening zipper in place as to the aesthetic, but I’ve found them functional too. I use them to hold sunglasses when heading inside. It works better than a small zippered pocket would. Also on the outside are two larger pockets. They’re well thought out, with a key hook in one and an open slot in the other.

Overall Verdict

 

The Tokyo Totepack is a great daily carry bag that can work in a lot of situations for a variety of people. It’s slim and compact, but has enough room for a few computer devices, over-ear headphones, a water bottle, and miscellaneous cables.

Most importantly, the Tokyo Totepack is a successful two-way bag that allows backpack functionality in a sleek tote appearance.

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The folks at Bellroy have spent the last decade refining the way they source and use leather for their wallets and other goods. This week they launched their first ever full leather bags, one of which is the Designers Edition Laptop Brief. (The other one is the DE Melbourne Tote.)

First impressions are everything, and the DE Laptop Brief makes it count.

They really put all of their considerable design expertise and meticulous attention to detail into this supremely handsome briefcase, improving on their original Laptop Brief in every way — as explained by their short “show and tell” video:

The DE Laptop Brief is made from smooth, premium European leather that’s been tanned to the gold environmental standard of the Leather Working Group. On the inside you’ll find a lustrous, lightweight, suede-like lining that’s been sustainably produced and designed to hold up to years of use.

In terms of organization, the briefcase sports a magnetized compartment for laptops up to 13″, generous pockets for all your daily essentials (like your phone, chargers, sunglasses, notebooks, etc), a couple of pen loops, and an easily accessible business card pocket.

You can carry quite a bit in this briefcase.

The DE Laptop Brief is available in Burnt Sienna and Black colors for $590 at Bellroy.

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