Travel Bags

A Travel Bag With No Breakable Parts

There are no Hello Kitty parts on these leather duffle and overnight bags. I designed all of our luggage and carry on with no zippers, snaps, buttons, Velcro, or anything else that could break. And do you know how hard designing an overnight bag without a zipper was? But since all zippers eventually either break or the fabric that holds the zipper teeth to the leather falls apart, I just decided to skip them and use only very hard metal buckles and d-rings on these duffle bags. If you're going to build a billion dollar submarine, don't put a cardboard hatch on it.

Full Grain Leather Bags

Imagine a cow getting killed. Now imagine it gets skinned. Think about that for a bit. Now imagine they send that thick hide to the tannery to be made into leather. Well, it gets there, but it's really thick. So they split the top half from the bottom half, and now they have two workable hides to sell to leather duffle bag manufacturers. Watch our video of how they tan and split that leather, and watch me ride a longhorn bull in my full grain leather suit too. 

The durable top half of the hide is what quality duffle bags are built with. It sells for a lot of money because it still has the top layer of fibers, called the grain on it. They are the densest, strongest, and most water resistant fibers of the hide and the same fibers that give leather its reputation for toughness, and our leather overnight bags theirs for quality. Grain is to leather what shingles are to a roof. It's called FULL GRAIN leather because it still has the FULL amount of GRAIN on it. And the thickness of that top half of leather our thick wristed craftsmen use to make our duffle bags is a little bit thicker than work boot leather.

Reinforced Stress Points

Anywhere a leather duffle bag sustains any weight or pulling, it gets a hidden strap of super strong polyester between two layers of leather that were cut from the shoulder or back of the cow because that's the strongest part of the hide. We then back that part of the overnight bag up with extra stitching and a rivet for good measure. Most people would never notice this, but we put the rivet as close to the stitching that gets pulled on so that it doesn't even get the chance to start pulling away from the leather weekend bag. 

Lining as Strong as the Cow

Instead of lining our leather luggage with some pretty nylon fabric that tears, we glued and then sewed on a tough pigskin to the back of the duffle bag's already thick and strong full grain leather. Pigskin has a higher tensile strength than cow skin, but not as high as kangaroo skin. So, now our leather duffle bags are twice as strong as any other leather bag we know of. It's part of what makes our overnight bags last so long.

Overkill Hardware So You Can Trust your Leather Duffle Bag

This is HUGE for us. Building a leather duffle bag using 316 Stainless Steel hardware is kind of like killing a fly with a shotgun, but we're okay with that. We've never had a piece of our custom hardware break off of an overnight bag since we started using it.

IMPORTANT: We don't use Stainless Steel 404 or even 310. We only use Stainless Steel 316, and that's why it's so hard. I've told metallurgists before that we use Stainless 316 for our hardware on our leather duffle bags, and I'm not kidding, they said I was lying.

It is expensive and kind of overkill, but if your life had to depend on the hardware of your leather overnight bag not failing, you'd want it to depend on ours. Of the 150 types of Stainless Steel, ours is rated at an incredible 91 on the Rockwell Hardness Scale. Our duffle bag buckles and clasps are rated to hold up to a 750 lb bag of cats. 

German Engineered Thread For the Strongest Leather Bags

Leather duffle bags sewn with low quality nylon thread will quickly fall apart. It's not IF; it's WHEN. Nylon thread is made from a lot of short fibers wound together to make a long thread, and those fibers come apart from each other with rubbing, UV light, or heat. And then the overnight bag comes apart too.

Our expensive German thread is the same thread used on parachutes and sails on ships because it is made from long continuous strong strands of Polyester with no breaks at all. And we use the thick double ought for all of our leather duffle bags. 

Public Service Announcement: Polyester is a disaster on the human body when fabric is made with it, but great when thread is made with it. Read my findings on how polyester causes bad sleep, infertility and skin rashes when it is in sheets and clothing. But when used to sew a duffle bag together, it causes exceeding joy.  

Only Large Pieces of Leather in our Duffle Bags and Luggage

Imagine you have one solid piece of leather, and you're yanking and pushing on it. Where is it going to tear first? Now imagine you have two pieces of leather sewn together, and you start yanking and pushing it. Where is it going to tear first? Exactly! Right at the seam.

This is a GIANT KEY to why our leather duffle and overnight bags last so long. They hardly have any seams. The body is usually made with just one or two big solid pieces of leather. Low-quality companies use multiple little chunks of leather sewn together to make their duffle bags. It's a lot cheaper to make weekend bags that way because less scrap ends up on the cutting room floor. Check out our fun video explaining this with one of our one single piece leather duffle bags. 

Stitching in our Leather Bags

SURPRISINGLY IMPORTANT: A sailmaker in New Zealand told me that a sewing machine is actually a perforation machine, and each hole is the start of a tear. So they try to keep the needle holes as far apart as possible. Think about how easily a perforated sheet of paper tears. It works the same with leather.

For our duffle bags, we set our German and Dutch sewing machines to 5 stitches per inch so we could get the needle holes as far apart from each other as we can without the duffle bags looking weird. Most leather duffle bags I see are sewn at around seven stitches per inch, which is okay, but not the best. We strive for the best in our leather bags.

Cheap Leather Bags

So, imagine you hire someone to put a new roof on your house, and they tear off the old shingles and then just paint on new shingles. I'd want to kick them in the ear, but I wouldn't. That's what happens when low quality leather duffle bag manufacturers buy that junky and cheap bottom half of the hide called split or genuine leather that doesn't have the grain anymore. 

The tannery presses and paints the bottom half of the hide to look like full grain leather, then send it to low quality leather overnight bag makers for their soft little tear stained handed workers to make crap with. I made a video and gave advice to the pirates and other lowlifes to help them make more money. Check it out here. And then they sell their leather duffle bags to nice but ignorant people. For many years, I was one. But those leather weekend bags will dry out before too long because the leather doesn't have that dense, tough top layer to hold moisture in or to protect from sharp objects and friction.

Leather Bags You Can Trust

When traveling, you need all your essentials for your trip. You can't, or shouldn't, trust cheap other bags with your travel gear. Imagine it falling apart, and your laptop or tablet finds a tear to slip out of. When packing your durable leather bag, you need to know that your stuff will be safe. Durability, classy, what all carry-on luggage and leather bags should be.

That is why we make carry on luggage and a leather suitcase that you can pack your clothes, gear, and laptop in without concern. You need durability, more than some cheap backpack is going to provide. They might try to sell you with wheels and a telescoping handle with removable manhood. A real man doesn't need wheels on a duffle bag or your backpack. You are on an adventure, and your luggage should give a sense of that.

Carry On Luggage With A Story

Your carry on luggage should make a statement. You are a man that enjoys quality even in these modern times when everything else is made from cheap materials. Unlike other bags you might find sold through big retailers, we make roomy travel bags, luggage, and other leather bags that you love carrying as you go on your adventure and see what you can discover. Leather bags you can trust. We take a stand on high quality, and you can see the difference. So don't just trust any cheap tote, backpack, or suitcase; invest in quality for your carry on luggage.

Is it Duffle Bags or Duffel Bags?

You might see it spelled duffle bag or duffel bag. I think it's because there are two ways to spell the town in Belgium where the large cylindrical bags were first used to pack soldiers' clothes. But who cares? You can spell it how you like, but if you don't get a Saddleback one, you might change its name to an expletive when it falls apart and dumps your trip essentials, toiletries, and other gear. It won't happen in the back of your car. This will happen walking across the airport; what a site, and you know a crowd will be there. You can find out why ours are always a best seller for people interested in quality.

Call it a Leather Duffle Bag or a Leather Duffel Bag, Just Be Sure To Join The Newsletter

No matter what you call it, a leather duffle bag from Saddleback is an amazing travel companion. And so is our newsletter! Sign up today and get real stories from all around the world, funny jokes and more. Plus, we will keep you updated on any special deals or discounts on our designs. So don't wait; start enjoying the Saddleback Leather Co newsletter today. Join us and get ready to be amazed with stories from far away places.