Where Can I Find A Decent Notebook Bag?

Is it too much to ask that a notebook bag be both stylish and functional? There are simply too many that are neither and even more that are incredibly poorly made. I was looking at one from Y-3 today that looked nice enough but felt like I could’ve made the same thing by sewing some garbage bags together and painting them blue. Of course, there are plenty of decently made bags from Targus and the such but they all look like they’re designed by hobos. That and they don’t make anything decently small since I carry a 12″ Dell M1210 rather than some ridiculous Toshiba based on the size of a house.

This one from Booqbags.com looks incredibly sturdy and well made, with plenty of pockets for all my various crap. At $170, it’s expensive but by no means outrageous and personally, I’d rather pay for something of quality and that doesn’t seem expensive at all if it’s well made. It is, however, a bit dull and I’m not a big fan of zippered tops. I prefer the big flaps on top that you can peel away instead.

The Hee Goer from Crumpler looks great, despite it’s ridiculous name and is roughly the same price. Crumpler is also known for good quality products and look more bike courier cool than Wall Street. Nothing wrong with Wall Street chic but I’ve got plenty of years ahead where I might have to carry a briefcase…let’s not start early. The problem is the Crumpler doesn’t have all the pockets and such that I like in a bag. While there are quite a few, the organization of the Booq is more my preference.

Can anyone make some kind of Frankenstein monster out of these two or could you possibly suggest something different?

in Fashion, Tech and the Net