Name: Architecture Urban Lombard
Brand: Victorinox
SKU: 609855
Price: 140 GBP
Availability: OutOfStock
Rating: 4.1429 (7 reviews)

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It took me weeks to deliberate between the Architecture Urban Lombard and offerings from other brands for use as a compact in-flight personal item bag. I eventually went with the Victorinox, and I am decently happy with it despite its pitfalls. These miniature messenger bags are somewhat of a niche oddity in the bag space; there are not many of them around since their closely-related cousin, the crossbody sling, is all the rage in this day and age, so I was not sure what to expect of such an unfamiliar style of bag.

It needs reiterating that this is a *mini* messenger bag, not a full-sized messenger bag. You can neither over-stuff it nor absent-mindedly stuff it. A 750ml water bottle, for example, will fit nicely in a backpack, but in this bag it will occupy a lot of lateral space (even if it fits horizontally) and constrain the adjacent compartments in terms of depth. This is not a replacement for a full-sized cabin roller suitcase or duffel bag, but it will do the job just fine as a personal item for a carefully curated list of in-flight necessities. If you are the sort that brings a lot of water on board planes, either look into getting a flat water bottle, or find yourself another bag.

The bag is versatile, yet paradoxically crippled in functionality at the same time. The carry sling/handle that comes with it has swivel lobster claw-style hook clasps, which frees you to use the bag in a variety of ways, with a variety of third-party straps (or perhaps even strapless. It is certainly compact enough to be carried like a large pouch).

But then there are the bag's functional impediments, which become evident with every successive use. There is no place to attach a luggage tag, so you have to get creative and DIY things, and good luck trying not to void your warranty by modifying it or wrestling with the zipper pulls in an attempt to get a tag or a charm to stay on. The bag is devoid of a pass-through sleeve for telescoping handles at the back, which would be invaluable when using this as a personal item bag stacked on top of a cabin suitcase. This once again forces you to go the DIY route with carabiners or straps if you want to secure your bag to the top of your luggage.

The most irritating thing about this bag, however, is its inability to stay open while you rummage through it. The flap does not bend all the way back; there is resistance, and it springs right back and slams the bag shut when you let go of it. Forget having both hands free; you have to use one hand to keep the flap open and pack, unpack, and manipulate the contents of your bag with the other, which takes some getting used to. Imagine owning a suitcase with a cover or lid that refused to stay open unless you held it down with your hand – you will have that experience with this bag. I am unsure if this is a design oversight, or an intentional security feature, or perhaps just a messenger bag or satchel thing in general, but it is hardly optimal (not to mention not disability-friendly). One should not have to wrestle with their bag. Victorinox should have magnetised a portion of the outward-facing part of the flap to get it to adhere to the back of the bag when the flap is bent all the way back (but then I suppose the leather components will get heavily creased).

I have to strike two stars off because of these shortcomings, but even in spite of them I would still recommend this bag to anyone that wants a mini messenger. It is compact, classy, comfortable, and quite robustly-built; its impediments do not detract from this. If you do not need a pass-through sleeve for your luggage handle, a provision for a luggage tag, if you can live with the flap issue, and if you are willing to DIY things a lil, then you will probably get along just fine with it.

PS: My bag was cosmetically defective right out of the box – the Victorinox logo was misaligned, oriented at a diagonal angle. There were also some faint splotches on the fabric of the flap, perhaps stains? Not a big deal in the larger scheme of things, but you would think a brand like Victorinox would pay closer attention to QC. A protective dust bag (something that comes standard with Victorinox luggage) would have been a nice touch as well.

A classy if not somewhat hobbled mini messenger bag

Parfait, très pratique avec ses multiples poches de rangement. Je ne regrette pas mon achat.

Excellent

Je possède cette sacoche depuis plusieurs années et elle est déjà très solide, mais surtout très pratique, avec des rangements multiples bien conçus. On peut également facilement mettre une tablette ou un ordinateur portable 13 pouces dedans. 
Et même remplie, elle reste confortable à porter.

Sacoche bien pensée

Ich nutze diese Tasche als robuste Handtasche mit viel Platz und genug einzelnen Fächern. Der Verschluss mit den Druckknöpfen überzeugt mich und ich finde, die Tasche ist gegen Langfinger gut gesichert und doch sehr praktisch zu öffnen (auch einhändig) im Alltag. Was mir fehlt(e), ist einen Griff um den Bag zu halten, wenn er nicht umgehängt ist. Ich habe mir hier selber geholfen und aus robustem, schwarzen Band und je einem Karabiner an der Seite einen Handgriff gemacht, der jederzeit abgenommen werden kann. So ist die Tasche für mich perfekt.

Bewährt sich - würde ich wieder kaufen!

Was searching for a long time to find the right bag for my Surface Pro 4. Most messenger bags were big and bulky, designed to suit a 15.6" notebook which I didn't want.

After spotting this one in a store I bought it straight away. The quality and feel was excellent (and light) and the SP4 fits perfectly in the internal sleeve. Plenty of space for my headphones, cables, phone, wallet, chargers and iPad mini - with room to spare!

Ticks the right boxes

Within 1 day of use one of the pressed buttons that hold the 2 front straps in place fell off and the second one doesnt actually clip properly so now the 2 front straps just hang loosely.

Its not a deal breaker and the bag still works well but for the price and given its victorinox it was not made to the standards they claim.

Nice Bag but Poorly Made

Great item, great brand. Perfectly fits my macbook Air 11" and iPad mini. The front pockets is perfect for the cables and other accessories. The bag is just the right size, not too big and not too small, its perfect. I like the colour and design, very professional and classy. I like the material used on the bag. Another big plus is that it has a Swiss Tracker ID. You can't go wrong with this bag, you can't go wrong with Victorinox. Victorinox my favourite brand of all.

Architecture Urban Lombard

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Lightweight Messenger Bag for 11'' Laptop

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