Crumpler : Wack-O-Phone
| Pros | Well made. Great looking. Fits the iBook 2001 like a glove and has plenty of protection. Very comfortable. |
| Cons | No outside cell phone pocket . Had trouble keeping strap buckle closed. No easily accessible outside pocket. |
The Wack-O-Phone is a smaller version of the very-busy-man. I requested this bag to evaluate how well it would carry an iBook Dual USB. It works great! It is a reat messenger bag that I would highly recommend for iBook owners.
There is something I like about messenger bags. Maybe it goes back to how I like to ride bikes. Or maybe the movie Quicksilver starring Kevin Bacon had a much more profound affect than I realize.
My first encounter with Crumpler was my calling and asking for two samples for review. The company was really great. They agreed and sent them out that day. The second bag will be reviewed a little later. Everything about the company says fun. The web site, the catalog, the people that work there. Fun. Fun. Fun.
After the samples arrived, I pulled them out and had my first look. I was really impressed with how great the messenger bag looked. They were simply designed and decorated and it worked. These are some of the best looking messenger bags I’ve seen in awhile. The Wack-O-Phone I reviewed is all black with light blue piping around the flap. Nice. Inside the entire bag was covered with orange ripstop nylon. Nice again.
I was able to carry #1,2,3,4,5,8,9,10,11 from my list. Not bad since this list was originally developed using the Waterfield Designs Large Cargo bag as a reference and the Crumpler is considerably smaller.
The laptop pocket is a well padded area attached to the inside back of the main compartment. The back of the bag is also padded so that as the bag bounces around against your body as you carry it, you won’t damage the computer. My first hesitation crept in at this point...if I wore the bag “messenger style” would my laptop be flexed excessively in the middle since there was no hard insert in the back for rigidity? The answer, thankfully is no. After I used the bag for a couple of days I had no sense that the computer was being stressed in any way.
There is a pocket on the front of the bag that in turn has another zippered pocket inside. Also, this is where the normal organizational features are found: pen pockets, pocket for a PDA, etc. In the font of the pocket there is a riveted hole to pass a headphone cord through to a CD/MD player inside. I liked this small touch. There is no outside mobile phone storage but an extra pouch can be purchased and attached to the strap. Crumpler sent one of these along and the holder looked as cool as the Very-Busy-Man and worked like a charm.
Speaking of the strap...this one had an unusual feature. There was an additional, smaller strap that was designed to cross the wearers chest, pass under the arm and clip into the bag from underneath. This made the bag very stable and surprisingly comfortable.
The last pocket was a zippered one that actually went into the flap. Kinda odd. I never actually found a use for this one but when I called Crumpler they said they used it for tickets and the like. I don’t know. Seems kinda awkward to get at to me.
The only real problem I had was keeping the buckle on the strap closed. As I removed it from my car, more than once it came loose and I ended up carrying it in hanging full strap length and readjusting it inside the office.
On the plus side, when it is adjusted it’s really comfortable to wear and offers alot of protection and great looks.
Crumpler USA
PO Box 3721
Ann Arbor, MI 48106
P: 1(734) 677-6989
http://www.crumplerusa.com
