Leather suitcase in Tobacco leather.
SKU 01-60-0007

Grandfather Suitcase

22.00 lb

27.00

19.00

9.00

(20 reviews) Write a Review
$1,379.00

The Grandfather Suitcase in Africa

What People Think

5

need XL size

i have 3 of the old style. great for traveling and catch a lot of attention overseas, but i wish their was a larger size than L. the owner doesn't seem to get it.....and i am not sure he is traveling on a 50lb suitcase ticket anyway?! i think a lot of the customers buying these are traveling on a 70lb ticket.....thus, we need more space.
24th Jul 2015
Walnut B.
5

Speedster accoutrement

Bought this suitcase specifically for the luggage rack of my '55 Porsche Speedster (okay, so it's really a replica). The car gets lots of compliments but have gotten lots on the luggage!
23rd Jul 2014
Anonymous
5

Medium tobacco

I was finally able to purchase the medium suitcase in tobacco. I got it to add to our collection of saddleback products in addition to fly home for our wedding in May. After our wedding Im sure my wife will place this somewhere in our house to add as a decorative piece. The suitcase is nice and sturdy. You can tell there was a lot of handmade work that went into this case. The stiching is nice and even, the rivets have a nice copper look to them. I havent weighed it yet but the UPS tracking said the entire package was 21 lbs. The main strap has an eyelet re-enforced with a metal grommet. The only negative thing I can say is that it looks so good I hope the airline doesnt misplace it on our travels. Someone may want it more than me! Other than that Im sure this will stay in our family for generations.
23rd Jul 2014
Anonymous
The leather suitcase is not lightweight, but it's not too heavy either. It has a balance that makes it challenging to fit 50 lbs. (23 kgs) into it. The interior is just one simple wide open space with two interior straps to hold clothes in place.

Design

The leather suitcase was purposefully designed without wheels for 2 reasons.

Aesthetics:
Wheels look bad with this old classic leather suitcase style (Imagine a $15,000 suit with roller skates). However, this is functional art, so you can put it next to your desk or sofa when not traveling.

Longevity:
Wheels on suitcases break or get flat spots on them, making that embarrassing tapping sound when rolling. And then when that happens, the suitcase is finished.

Product Details

100-Year Warranty

Dimensions (W x H x D) 

27" x 19" x 9"

Weight: 18 lbs (Check the weights of like-sized Tumi or Hartmann suitcases; you'll see it is about average.)

The Best Leather We Can Find

This leather suitcase was built entirely with full-grain leather. Here's why that's so important. The leather's grain is on the top of the hide and is the most durable part. The grain helps it age handsomely and stay water resistant (cows are waterproof, right?). 

Most companies buy low quality, heavily scarred-up leather, shave off the scars and blemishes (along with all of the grain) to save as much money as they can by being able to use more of the hide. If they shave off some of the grain, that's top grain leather. If they shave all of it off or split the hide in half, that's called genuine or split leather. We WANT as much grain on our suitcases and other baggage as we can get. We want it all. Therefore, we must select three hides with almost no imperfections to make each leather suitcase. And then, completely unnecessarily, I lined the suitcase interior with tough, durable pigskin.

Functionality

One time, we were taking a two month trip around the world, filming a documentary on the making of our canvas line, Mountainback. We had my wife and I, our two little kids, and our filmmaker, Joe. There were eight full 50 lb. Leather Suitcases and Beast Duffle Bags are packed for cold weather (Scotland, Australia, and New Zealand) and hot weather (Kenya and Rwanda). We also had 2 large carry-ons per person. You can imagine the size of the vehicle we needed to rent to fit all of our things. Well, when we got to Australia, low and behold, they only had tiny little vehicles to rent. This would have stressed out any traveler with lesser luggage, but not us. So I took the two removable belts off our suitcases and strapped most of the luggage to the cute little roof rack.

The suitcase is not lightweight, but it's not too heavy either. It is the right balance to make it challenging to fit 50 lbs. (23 kgs) into it. The interior is just one simple wide open space with two interior straps to hold clothes in place like they used to make them.

Luggage with Real Leather Straps

The leather straps that wrap around and buckle the suitcase closed are full grain leather, just like the rest of the leather suitcase. This is not the cheap fabric or PU (polyurethane) synthetic leather strap that most luggage brands use.

Durability

On the first major trip with my first suitcase, I carried this leather suitcase and my leather briefcase throughout Eastern Europe and North Africa for about 6 weeks. And about 3 weeks into it, the suitcase handle broke. The added complexity and energy exerted made me swear that would never happen to anyone who carried one of my suitcases.

The handle is now bolted onto the leather suitcase and hand-sewn with boot-cord to the body. It is scarce for leather luggage to have this sort of serious consideration, but I wanted you to have the best leather luggage set you can get. Good wasn't enough; great leather luggage takes time to be designed right, then it needs to be used and abused to discover any changes that can make it better. We did that.

There are no breakable parts like zippers, snaps, buttons, etc. Using those is like putting a cardboard hatch on a billion-dollar submarine. Once the hatch breaks, the submarine is worthless. So instead of metal hinges, I designed them with a double layer of full grain leather along the back. And the body is mostly handsewn with heavy-duty waxed boot cord for added strength.

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(20)
Write a Review
  • Posted by Brian C. on 31st Jul 2015
    4
    Large Tobacco, newer version
    Great suitcase.



    Only problem is I saw youtube videos of the earlier version with rollers on the strap buckles and d-rings that allow locking the case shut, so I wish mine had those features, too. You do have to pull hard on the straps for a tight closure, so the rollers would come in handy there.



    I'm not sure how much savings there are in leaving them off, but I imagine production costs were the reason for the change.
  • Posted by Walnut B. on 24th Jul 2015
    5
    need XL size
    i have 3 of the old style. great for traveling and catch a lot of attention overseas, but i wish their was a larger size than L. the owner doesn't seem to get it.....and i am not sure he is traveling on a 50lb suitcase ticket anyway?! i think a lot of the customers buying these are traveling on a 70lb ticket.....thus, we need more space.
  • Posted by Matt F. on 14th Oct 2014
    4
    Well suited traveler!
    Well back again and here with what I believe to be a well-qualified review.

    May 2013(?) I bought a large tobacco suitcase from SBL and love it more than I probably should. Next to the briefcase I bought 4 years ago it's probably my favorite piece of leather I own.

    Last week I had a (very) weak moment and bought a small DCB suitcase I have been pining over for ages because, truth be told, the large suitcase is way too large to travel with on the average or even above average trip. If you were leaving somewhere for two-plus weeks, then it might work.

    To the not-so-great: I'm fortunate to be able to have two of them side by side and can notice very identifiable quality/standards differences between the two suitcases a full year and change apart. My first suitcase was manufactured before the change in leather colors, the EIEIO thing, and the change in logos. The only reason I say that is because many believe there has been a slight dip in quality/standards since that time. I'm rambling now though - apologies.

    The noticeable differences...things that I hope SBL take from this review: the large suitcase had rollers on the metal squares that helped facilitate the tightening of the leather straps for closure, the corners were reinforced and made more durable by metal "feet" on each corner pad on the LG suitcase, the LG suitcase's pigskin lining is slightly more durable than the the new "natural" pigskin lining (but I like the color against the DCB better than the old pigskin lining), there are no guided D rings for the middle closure strap to go through.



    Those are the biggies that I can tell from a side by side comparison. There are a lot of smaller nuanced differences - and I still love, love, love SBL products and will continue to buy them - so I'm sure there are plenty of good reasons for some of these changes. I'm also fairly confident most are not cost-savers for them either, so there may very well be good reasons for these changes. An answer from SBL would go a long way in further boosting my confidence in their great company!



    Hope this review is helpful to all who are considering spending the incredibly large chunk of change it takes to afford one of these great pieces. Truly, buy one because you WANT to...not because you think it'll change your next big trip with the family because they're way too incredibly useless for the 345 days it'll be sitting in your living room...and you can buy enough throw away suitcases to last your travel needs for the next 100 years for $1,200. All this coming from a man who owns two of them - and wouldn't sell or return them for anything.
  • Posted by Anonymous on 23rd Jul 2014
    5
    Speedster accoutrement
    Bought this suitcase specifically for the luggage rack of my '55 Porsche Speedster (okay, so it's really a replica). The car gets lots of compliments but have gotten lots on the luggage!
  • Posted by Anonymous on 23rd Jul 2014
    5
    Medium tobacco
    I was finally able to purchase the medium suitcase in tobacco. I got it to add to our collection of saddleback products in addition to fly home for our wedding in May. After our wedding Im sure my wife will place this somewhere in our house to add as a decorative piece. The suitcase is nice and sturdy. You can tell there was a lot of handmade work that went into this case. The stiching is nice and even, the rivets have a nice copper look to them. I havent weighed it yet but the UPS tracking said the entire package was 21 lbs. The main strap has an eyelet re-enforced with a metal grommet. The only negative thing I can say is that it looks so good I hope the airline doesnt misplace it on our travels. Someone may want it more than me! Other than that Im sure this will stay in our family for generations.