Hey everyone, I thought I would stop by and give my two cents with my experience with the STM 13" Small Alley messenger-type bag.
I thought I would bring something new to the table -- What about Macbook AND Wacom Tablet mobility? Alot of artists need to bring their tablets with them, but where's a good stylish bag to carry both the macbook and tablet?
The STM Small Alley is the bag you'd need -- if you're looking for a somewhat non-professional non-boring non-black-leather executive type bag. This bag seems to appeal to the indie crowd [such as myself.]
In most cases, pictures speak louder than words, so...
So here's the bag. I got mine in the color "Olive" which, as you can assume, is a bit of a military-jade-green color.The bag itself is smalller than I imagined, as you can see from the CD I placed next to the bag for scale.
However, its small size isn't to be underestimated...
Here is everything that was inside the bag from the picture above strewn out on a table.
This bag holds a lot more than I thought.
Emptied out, here are the available pockets under the cover-flap.
There's a highly padded laptop sleeve, a large pocket for document-sized objects, a zipper pocket that can hold all sorts of cables or accessories, and a smaller pocket that can hold 2.5" HDD sized objects, pens, or whatnot.
** Note the cross-stitch in the velcro. These won't break off that easily!
**
Edit: The zipper pouch has a keyring clip inside!
The cover-flap has its own pocket roughly the size of the flap itself. The inside of these pockets are a silky smooth polyester. Curled up cables, documentation, or smaller flat objects fit well in here.
The back has a very comfortable soft-rubber handle for those times you dont want to use the shoulderstrap. The pouch in the back is kind of hefty and can carry some durable objects such as the Macbooks grounding power cable or CD's. [CD's are well protected in this rear pouch because of the durable padding the back has against puncures or dents.]
The shoulder strap contains a cell-phone pouch. While this could be used to hold your cellphone without a problem, you could just as easily store things like keys, your ipod, usb-drives, or money. To my knowledge, a Video iPod can fit in this pocket as it's made of a stretchy elastic material, giving the pouch a spacious but hugging reaction to whatever you put in. The second picture shows that I keep my Apple Remote, iPod Shuffle, and iPod Nano in the pouch -- though they're hidden by the remote.
Macbook inserted, the sleeve has a thick layer of padding on all sides. The inside of the pouch is not microfiber, it's a smooth polyester material that definately won't scratch up your macbook while travelling or taking it out.
Now here's the part I was a little nervous about. As an artists in an art college, I need to take my tablet everywhere, and I would hate it if I need a second bag for it. --- Turns out, my fears were for not! With the cable curled up behind the tablet, a maximum tablet of 6x8" will fit inside the document pocket with room to spare for papers! Though the tablet sticks out slightly higher than the Macbook sleeve preventing small sleeve cover to curl over and touch the velcro, the cover-flap still reaches its velco without a problem. The pen slips easily into any of the other pockets.
You can see the AC adapter and other accessories in the zipper pocket.
You can see the macbook flap can't curl down to its velcro with the tablet inserted. I feel this isn't too much of a problem. Other accessories seen in the small pocket.
Lastly, here is the bag closed once more with tablet, macbook, all accessories and cables inside.
The entire package is lightweight and a pleasure to keep on your shoulder and by your side.
Now that you've seen it, my official impression on this bag...
Quality: 5/5 [Feels like this bag will last for decades of use. The material isnt cheap and the stitchings are not skimped.]
Style: 4.5/5 [I dont care for broad shoulder straps. However, the colors used and the very tasteful "STM" logo makes me not want to cover this bag up with patches and pins. I'm content with my british flag.]
Comfort: 4.5/5 [Though I don't particularly care for broad straps, the soft shoulder pad and grip handle are very comfortable for long periods of carrying. The bag seems to disperse weight well making even heavy loads easily bearable.]
Protection: 4/5 [The macbook sleeve is very durable but the front pockets are slightly vulnerable. The material is self-healing, so punctures by pins rub right out. The bag also feels as though it could stand up to running through the rain.]
Bang-For-Buck: 5/5 [At $40 msrp, the 13" small alley is a serious bargain considering most other bags for are $65+]
I give this thing a 4.5/5 for overall impression, I don't see myself getting anything more functional and stylish at a lower price. I don't care much for leather, anyway.
