This is an all time favourite from Rushfaster. I’ve had an All The King’s Men Midi Laptop Messenger Bag for about 2 years now and I’m still loving it, so I think it deserves a review from me. So here we go:

The Look:
The thing that makes this bag such a funky laptop bag and super stylish messenger bag, is the genuine airplane seatbelt that is used as the shoulder strap. It’s totally ingenious. I actually use this bag equally as a messenger bag and a laptop bag because it rocks! Everyone who has seen me with the ATKM has said that it’s a cool messenger bag - which is great because I love the attention

The airplane buckle is actually fastened with a screw underneath to stop it from being released. The reason for this is to stop touchy people from lifting up the flap and unbuckling your shoulder strap - as you can imagine this could be disastrous if you had a laptop inside the bag. If you really want to be able to unbuckle it then you can remove the screw at anytime, which is fine if you’re not using it as a laptop bag.

The other thing you will notice about the ATKM is that the rest of the bag has a very minimal and timeless look, it’s not full of pockets or fancy dangly bits. It has one pocket for your power pack and a laptop compartment. The laptop compartment has a padded divider which is velcro adjustable. This lets you adjust the section to hug your laptop snugly and also acts as a divider for your folders and files.

The Wear:
The ATKM has a slim design which means that there isn’t lots of room. When I put my laptop in the bag there is only room left for another folder and notepad. There is a small external pocket for the power pack which is handy. When I’m not using it with the laptop there is plenty of room for books and folders - I use the external pocket for my wallet and iPod.

As much as I loved the seatbelt strap, I didn’t think that it looked very comfortable. But after trying it on, it actually felt pretty good. Obviously padding would improve it but if you are anything like me, then you’d be more than happy to sacrifice a bit of comfort in the name of style!

The exterior of the bag is made from Superdux 300 Polyester/Cotton 300 gsm Canvas - mouthful. Basically it’s a pretty sturdy material that is water resistant and it’s true because I have been caught in the rain with it.

The Laptop Protection:
The ATKM laptop messenger bag has a good 5mm padding all around, protecting my PowerBook laptop from bumps and scratches. Having said that I am always careful when carrying my laptop around, no matter which bag I’m using. All laptop bags have different levels of protection, this laptop bag is perfectly suited for going to the office or walking around town but not riding a motor cycle. If I know that I have to remove my laptop out of the laptop bag for any reason ie. at the airport, then I usually put my laptop into a laptop sleeve. I would recommend a Built NY neoprene laptop sleeve or a Booq Vyper laptop sleeve . This means that my precious laptop doesn’t have to touch the crappy trays they use for the security check.

By the way, I have the ATKM Midi which I use for my Apple Powerbook 15, it also fits the Apple MacBook Pro 15. There are two other sizes available for the Apple MacBook 13 inch and Apple MacBook Pro 17. And of course they fit a variety of PC laptops.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 29th, 2006 at 1:55 pm and is filed under Bag Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.