Next up during this year’s Bag Week we have the oddly named but delightfully designed Wise-Walker from Nomadic. This Japanese import is a business up front and a party inside.
Type: Shoulder Bag
Dimensions: 15” x 12” x 5”
Pockets: Front flap pocket, zipped laptop compartment (up to 13″), 2 velcro pockets, 1 main zippered pocket, side bottle holders
Features: Velcro top flap, bright inside colors
MSRP: $73
Style
The Nomadic WR-08 Wise-Walker is like a surprise birthday party. One minute you’re walking up the stairs to your drab, dark house and the next minute you’re treated to a delightful clutch of blaze orange balloons held by your loved ones. Then you get cake. See, like the party, the Wise-Walker is a standard, fairly drab shoulder laptop bag with a black nylon exterior (it also comes in grey and navy) and a bright orange liner. It’s made in Japan, which is another plus. Sadly, the bag does not include cake.
Style-wise most of the magic happens on the inside. Except for the cute name label on the outside, there is little to identify this bag as an actual import nor is there anything to particularly recommend it. However, in practice, it’s quite a find.
Utility
This bag is surprisingly spacious. It looks quite small, to be sure, but most of the pockets expand sufficiently to store any number of cables, mice, and tablets. I’ve been able to use this bag as a travelling companion and even fit a few huge device boxes into it after a meeting. If you’re looking for a walkaround bag or a bag for the office that you’ll use for a smallish laptop, tablet, and maybe some pens, you really can’t go wrong. I was also able to use it as an overnight bag, stuffing in a few shirts, a jacket, and some toiletries into the main pocket.
The Wise-Walker is also quite rugged and resilient. One caveat: the front velcro closure is a bit small to keep the bag closed completely and, when the bag isn’t closed, the front velcro-ed pockets will open to expose some of your items. Don’t stuff it too full and it will be fine.
Who’s It For?
Folks who love Japanese style and design will get a kick out of this bag. It’s quite small – it’s designed to fit an A4-sized notebook – but it’s more than big enough for a Macbook Air, a tablet, and bunch of other little junk. The water bottles are tiny by American standards, but the rest of the pockets – barring the front velcro pockets – are zipped and secure. I personally got a huge kick out of the bright orange inside material and the price is on par with any other good laptop bag you can find out there.
Again it is a bit small, so feel free to look for something slightly bigger if you’re a heavy-duty laptop user.
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