A backpack made entirely of full-grain leather, 1.35 kg empty, closing under a flap on two leather straps and brass buckles. The leather is uncoated, which is the whole point: it is finished to develop a patina rather than to stay as it arrived.
- 1.35 kg (2.98 lb) empty.
- Full-grain leather throughout, including the shoulder straps and the top handle.
- Uncoated finish, made to take a patina.
- Flap closure on two leather straps through brass roller buckles.
- A flap pocket on the front with press studs, a zipped pocket in the back panel, and a slip pocket on each side.
- Brass hardware and contrast stitching throughout.
What a patina actually is
Patina is not a color, a treatment or a marketing word. It is what happens to the surface of uncoated leather when it is used: the fibers compress where they are handled, oils from your hands work into the grain, sunlight darkens the exposed faces, and the leather ends up lighter at the flex points and deeper everywhere your palm has been.
Look closely at the photographs and you can see the process already beginning. The leather lightens along the fold of the flap and across the raised areas of the panels, and it holds its darker tone in the recesses. That is a pull-up effect, and it is the visible signature of a leather with oils and waxes worked into it rather than a finish sprayed over it.
The condition of a patina is that nothing seals the surface. A coated leather cannot develop one, because the layer you are touching is not the leather. That is the trade being made here: this bag is more open to marks than a sealed one, and in exchange it becomes specific to whoever carries it. Two of these bags at three years old do not look alike.
If you want a bag that looks the same on the last day as the first, this is not the one.
Full-grain, and what the term guarantees
Full-grain means the top layer of the hide with the grain surface left on. Nothing is sanded away to remove scars or insect bites, and nothing is sprayed on to imitate a grain that was removed. That is the entire claim: it describes which layer of the hide the panels were cut from.
Two things follow that matter here. The grain surface is the densest, strongest part of a hide, which is why the panels can be this large without a frame behind them. And natural marks are not defects. A crease, a tone shift across a panel, a faint healed scar: that is what an unsanded hide looks like, and on a bag built to take a patina those marks become part of the record rather than something to be hidden.
The longer version, including how to check the claim when a listing will not be specific, is in our guide to full-grain leather.
How it opens
A leather flap folds over the top of the bag and down the front. Two leather straps run from the flap into brass roller buckles, and each strap is anchored to the flap with a pair of brass rivets.
This is the oldest closure there is and it is slow. A roller buckle is not a clip: you free the strap, lift the flap, reach in, and reverse all of it. Nobody gets into this bag in a hurry, and nobody gets into it by accident either.
What you gain is that there is nothing in the mechanism to fail. No plastic clasp to crack in cold weather, no magnet to weaken, no zip to jam or shed teeth. Leather and a brass roller outlast the bag around them, and when the strap eventually stretches you move to the next hole.
The flap is also the roof. It covers the full width of the opening and hangs well down the front, which is what keeps weather off the mouth of the bag.
Where things go
The front carries a pocket under its own flap, closed with two brass press studs. It is the one you reach without unbuckling anything, so it takes what you need on the move.
Set into the back panel, against your spine, is a zipped pocket with a leather pull. That position is deliberate and it is the most secure place on any backpack: it is flat against you, invisible from behind, and unreachable in a crowd without your knowing. It is where a wallet, a passport or a phone belongs.
There is a slip pocket on each side, open at the top, for the things you want to reach one-handed.
The main compartment sits under the flap. Owners describe it as roomy, and one specifically says it holds what is needed for travel without becoming a bag that tempts you to overpack.
The straps are leather too
The shoulder straps on this bag are leather, wide, contrast-stitched, and adjustable through brass hardware at the bottom. So is the top handle. There is no webbing anywhere on it.
That is unusual and it is worth understanding as a trade rather than as an upgrade. Leather straps do not stretch the way webbing eventually does, they age with the rest of the bag instead of staying new-looking against leather that has moved on, and they are noticeably more comfortable once they have softened to your shoulders. One owner calls the straps super comfortable.
The back panel is flat leather rather than a padded, channeled panel. Nothing sits between the load and your back except the leather and whatever you packed against it. For a day's carry that is fine and for many people preferable, because a padded panel traps heat. For a heavy load over a long walk, a technical pack will be more comfortable and will also look like a technical pack.
1.35 kilograms empty
1.35 kg is 2.98 lb, with nothing in it.
For a backpack made entirely of full-grain leather that is reasonable, and the reason is that there is no frame, no padding and no rigid base board in it: the structure is the leather. Our waxed canvas backpacks land between 1.2 and 1.37 kg, so this sits at the top of that range while being a completely different material.
Leather is dense, and a leather bag always weighs more than a fabric one of the same size. That weight is also what makes the panels hold their shape empty and what will still be here in ten years.
One thing owners would change
The interior is dark. One owner wishes it were lighter, because a dark lining under a closed flap makes it harder to find a small object in poor light.
They are right, and it is a real consequence of building a bag this way. A pale lining reflects what light gets in and a dark one absorbs it, which is why so many bags line in a light fabric. Here the interior matches the leather.
Two practical answers. The zipped back pocket is the place for anything small enough to disappear, because it has a defined shape and you can find it by touch. And an inner pouch in a light color solves the rest for very little money.
The same owner called it a minor thing, which is exactly the register it belongs in: a genuine annoyance, not a fault.
What owners report
The comments carrying detail point at three things. An owner calls the straps super comfortable. The capacity is described as roomy without being too big, including by someone who chose it specifically for travel. And several owners at the daily-use mark, from a couple of weeks to a month, report it holding its shape and its finish.
One owner uses it for university and one reports a colleague carrying it every day, which is the use it is shaped for: a bag that is smart enough for an office and tough enough not to be treated carefully.
The most useful moderate review is the one about the dark interior, discussed above. It is the only substantive criticism anyone has made of this bag.
Questions
What does patina mean here? The leather is uncoated, so it darkens and lightens with use and ends up specific to you. It will not look the way it does in the photographs after a year, and that is the intent.
Will it mark? Yes. An uncoated surface takes marks, and on this leather they blend into the patina rather than sitting on top of it. If you want a bag that stays as it arrived, choose a sealed finish.
How heavy is it? 1.35 kg empty, which is 2.98 lb.
Are the straps comfortable? They are leather rather than webbing, and they soften to your shoulders with use. An owner describes them as super comfortable. The back panel is not padded.
How does it close? A flap over the top, held by two leather straps through brass buckles. It is deliberately slow.
Is it waterproof? It is not waterproof and it carries no water-repellent treatment. It is uncoated leather with exposed stitching and a metal zip. Dry it away from direct heat if it gets wet.
How do I look after it? Wipe it dry rather than drying it near a radiator, and condition it when the surface starts to feel dry to the back of your hand. Our leather cleaning guide covers what to use and what to keep away from it.
