Handcrafted leather satchel: Ruitertassen review

Today’s post is from my very stylish, leather satchel loving fiancé. 

In my life, there have been three occasions complete strangers have stopped me to comment on my appearance. The first was an Australian cricket fan outside Lord’s cricket ground, who asked where my pink blazer was from.  He added that if I wore it to a match in Australia I’d leave in a coffin.

The second and third times were all in the last couple of months, and whilst not technically something I was wearing, both related to my new leather satchel from Ruitertassen.

Here it is:

I started a new job a few months ago, and mindful that you never get a second chance to make a first impression, I decided it was time I got a new work bag. I’ve had a couple of leather satchels in the past, but neither has met the grade. The first peeled it’s ‘leather’ coating within a matter of months, and the second couldn’t cope with the weight of a laptop.

With the errors of my past choices in mind, I started drawing up a shortlist of choices for my new work satchel. Obviously, all choices are run past the management (aka Jo and Belle) and none of my initial choices passed their selection process. They were either not cool (Belle), bad for my posture (Jo and Belle), or far too expensive (Jo).  

The posture issue is a big one – with a laptop and a pad of paper, a leather satchel with an arm strap is going to do you a fair amount of damage after a while, but I didn’t want a standard backpack either. That would definitely not have passed Belle’s cool test. With that in mind, you’ll share my joy when I discovered the beautiful range of bags from Ruitertassen, that includes leather satchels that can also be carried as a backpack.  These are a really stylish range of leather bags for both men and women. I challenge you to look through their pages and not find a bag you covet.

My needs were fairly simple.  I wanted padded protection for a laptop, plenty of space for papers and documents, and then pouches for mobiles, pens and all the other things you need for the office on the go.

I’ve really hit gold. I’ve been using the satchel for four months now on a day to day basis. There isn’t the slightest sign of wear or tear and the leather has softened nicely into a bag that I suspect will continue to grow more beautiful as it ages. I’ve put it through its paces too – we’ve endured snow, rain, sleet and more rain with a bag full, and nothing seems to put it under pressure. I say ‘full’, but the beauty is that there are a full range of bags in all imaginable sizes that means you can choose the bag the suits your lifestyle.

But the winner with these bags is their out and out style that wins every time. People I know have been impressed with the satchel as an eye-catcher, and then they see it inside and are sold on them.

Last week I was on the tube at rush hour and a man tapped me on the shoulder. “Excuse me,” he said, “your bag – where is it from? It’s beautiful. I missed my stop so I could ask you”. There. Someone complimenting me without a threat of death.

We were sent the Ruiterstassen leather satchel for the purposes of this review. All opinions are our own.