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When I own a MacBook Air, this leather bag will be its home

2802_aristamahogany.jpgHaving the sexiest laptop in your possession, it’s only fitting that one get a equally uber-cool bag. And in general, there should be a law against putting a $2000 work of art in a $20 black laptop bag. After looking through hundreds of bags from around the world, I’ve settled on what I believe to be the best mix of form, function, and beauty – “the Orbino Arista featuring handstained mahogany leather”:http://www.orbino.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=257 (pictured at right).

In the resources below I have included links to many of the sites I looked through in the quest to find my ultimate MacBook Air laptop bag. They should give you a good starting point for finding the bag that you love most.

It should go without saying, but I will anyway – as with anything fashionable, women have a much larger selection of cool, stylish and funky MacBook Air cases than men.

Here are some typical, safe, laptop bag alternatives if fashion isn’t a concern: “uggghh”:http://www.buy.com/prod/case-logic-15-4-slimline-laptop-case-nylon-black-case-logic-15-4/q/loc/16234/202778691.html, “‘khaki pants and sneakers'”:http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?type=product&id=1218011398693, “death by extreme black-neoprene boredom”:http://www.officedepot.com/ddSKU.do?level=SK&id=564380.

h3. Resources

[updated 2009.03.19] – added Kenakai.com to the list

h4. “Orbino.com”:http://www.orbino.com/ – look no further than Orbino for stunning leather cases for iPods, laptops, handbags, etc.

  • “Arista landing page”:http://www.orbino.com/store/index.php?cPath=30_128

h4. “kolobags.com”:http://www.kolobags.com/home.php?cat=36 has an incredible selection of men’s laptop bags.

  • “knomo by kolobag”:http://www.kolobags.com/product.php?productid=918 is my second favorite. It’s a very stylish choice, though not sized especially for the Air.

  • “knomo picture – tan”:http://www.kaboodle.com/reviews/knomo-bungo-oil-tan

h4. “Waterfield Bags”:http://www.sfbags.com/ has a large selection of different styles, all look very high quality.

  • “Waterfield HardCase”:http://www.sfbags.com/products/hardcase/hardcase.htm

  • “Waterfield HardCase review”:http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=1381

  • “Waterfield Vertigo”:http://www.sfbags.com/products/vertigo/vertigo.htm

  • “Waterfield SleeveCase review”:http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=1280

h4. “Tom Bihn”:http://www.tombihn.com/page/001/CTGY/MACBOOKAIR has a small selection of bags for the Air, most are technically complex.

  • “Ristretto Messenger is a fav”:http://www.tombihn.com/page/001/PROD/MACBOOKAIR/TB0223

h4. “Built NY”:http://www.builtny.com/showPage.php?pageID=1518 has some fun cases fashioned from neoprene, if you’re into that sort of thing.

h4. “MacCase.com”:http://mac-case.com/MacCase13.html carries a whole bunch of stylish cases for the Air.

h4. “Mobile Edge”:http://www.mobileedge.com/ offers a huge selection of well made bags, Unfortunately the ones for men are more on the safe side of fashion, though the women’s cases are cute.

  • “Mobile Edge men’s laptop bags”:http://www.mobileedge.com/mens-laptop-bags

  • “Mobile Edge Paris bag”:http://www.amazon.com/Mobile-Edge-Paris-Backpack-Microfiber/dp/B000B54H6C/ – very European

h4. “LaptopStuff”:http://www.laptopstuff.co.uk/ has a nice selection of funky and hip bags and cases.

h4. “Case-Mate.com”:http://www.case-mate.com/laptop/MacBook-Air-Cases offers mainly sleeves for the Air.

h4. “Brenthaven”:http://www.brenthaven.com/ has some interesting styles, including several which are airport-scanner friendly.

h4. “Timbuk2”:http://www.timbuk2.com/tb2/products/laptop/ offers a solid line of tough, durable bags and cases though mostly of the messenger-style. If you really want something special, try their Build Your Own Bag wizard.

h4. “IGIO.com”:http://www.ogio.com/products.php?category=30 leans towards the boring side, but their Brain Bucket Mini (in color Wasabe) is ok.

  • “Brain Bucket mini in multicolors”:http://www.amazon.com/Ogio-OGIO-Brain-Bucket-Mini/dp/B000FHE9K0

h4. Only sleeves

  • “Kenakai.com”:http://www.kenakai.com/ has some fabulously rich sleeves for MacBooks, unfortunately not MacBook Air specific.

  • “Wrappers”:http://wrappers.typepad.com/ has fun sleeves for different things.

h4. Aggregators, blogs, etc.

  • “BizRate.com”:http://www.bizrate.com/computer-bags/ is a store aggregator. They list products from elsewhere.

  • “squidoo.com computerbags”:http://www.squidoo.com/computerbags is small page with important goodies (for women).

  • “Six Cool Sleeves for the MacBook Air”:http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/hughes/22543

4 replies on “When I own a MacBook Air, this leather bag will be its home”

David – Excellent piece and we totally agree with you about the ‘style’ aspect of the majority of today’s offerings. As you mention there are some fun and cool companies that are producing great designs. Our company, Kena Kai (kenakai.com), currently produces several Italian leather sleeves for the MacBooks that you might want to check out. Additionally, we will soon be launching several new styles that will be stylish alternatives to neoprene. In our view the world really does not need another neoprene sleeve! Many thanks!

Hi Geb! Your company, kenakai.com, has some beautiful things on offer – I especially love the Ostrich computer sleeves! They so HAWT! 🙂 I look forward to seeing the new items when you release them.
Thank you for dropping by and taking the time to comment!
David

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