Design of the Big Mouth Leather Backpack

Over-engineering happened here. The leather of this backpack is the tightest, strongest, and most resistant cow leather we can buy. None of the top layers of grain was shaved off to get rid of icky icky scars or natural marks. It's full grain leather and was designed with no breakable parts like zippers, velcro, magnets, buttons or snaps. Any piece of leather on this backpack that gets pushed or pulled on is reinforced with hidden polyester strapping, a rivet, or both. Leather naturally stretches but those straps don't. And then we line it with pigskin instead of some shiny world map fabric because the pigskin is tougher than the cowskin.

This Backpack Will Not Fall Apart At The Seams

"They fell apart at the seams" isn't a saying for no reason. Seams are the weakest point on almost any backpack. So our solution for that universal problem was to design our backpack with pieces so big, we don't have to use more than two or three of them. The fewer the pieces, the fewer the seams. FYI, a backpack made with a lot of little pieces sewn together makes it cheaper to produce because it saves leather in the cutting process, but it makes for a weak backpack. To see what I mean, watch our fun leather seam explanation video, where I show a leather duffle bag made with 85 pieces of leather.

Old Sailmaker Wisdom Went Into Making This Backpack

In New Zealand one time, I interviewed an old sailmaker. He said that a sewing machine is a perforation machine because all of those needle holes next to each other tear easily. So, they try to keep the needle holes as far apart from the next one as they can. That's why we only sew our leather backpacks with 5 stitches per inch, so there is more leather between each needle hole.

A Leather Backpack Designed For Generations

This leather backpack is designed for you to be the first owner. So break it in good because several generations will use it. It's like planting a tree that you may enjoy a little bit, but it's really for those to enjoy who come after you. And that's why we over-engineered this leather backpack. It's just the right thing to do.

Functionality

Coolness features are where it's at, and this leather backpack has at least two. We used a similar Gladstone Bag closure for the Leather Flight Bag. It opens wide and stays open until you say otherwise. You can reach down into it if it's on the floor next to your chair or if it's wide open laying on the table in front of you. And the second coolness feature is the smaller front pocket that opens 90 degrees with that same metal frame closure. It doesn't have a zipper, so it takes a little to open, but if you open it in front of strangers, they'll tell you how cool that is.