Review: Intrepid Leather Bag Co.’s Journeyman Messenger
Jon Stokes 11.14.14
Loadout 1: MacBook Air
In the first loadout pictured, I have a 2013 13″ MacBook Air in the sleeve and a 2011 iPad 2 in the leather compartment on the front of the sleeve. The central laptop sleeve fits a 13″ MacBook Air or a 13″ MacBook Pro perfectly; I own both and I’ve carried both in it. If your laptop is any wider than 13 inches, then this is probably not the bag for you. You can go smaller–my wife’s 11″ MacBook Air fits just fine–but you can’t really go larger.
I’ve put a large glasses case in the open leather pouch, and the pen loops contain a Pilot G-2 and my trusty Alvin Draft-Matic mechanical pencil (the latter has been my go-to pencil for the past two decades, since my engineering undergrad days).
The covered leather pouch holds a Leatherman Charge Ti, an Inova X5 light, and an eraser, with plenty of room left over for more items. The front internal pocket holds a large Moleskin Cahier (grid paper), and a Toddy Gear microfiber smart cloth. Finally, I use the back external pocket for airplane tickets, Kleenex, and any other paper items.
The front external pocket typically goes unused. If I have mail or other papers, I’ll put them there.
Loadouts 2 and 3: MacBook Pro and Springfield XD Mod 2
My second loadout is centered around my MacBook Pro, and I’ll typically slip a Kindle in the smaller pocket attached to the sleeve; this is also where I tend to put the smart cloth. If I ever pick up an iPad mini, it’ll also go in this pocket. Most of the rest of the loadout is the same, although I sometimes swap the Charge Ti with a Skeletool Cx.
The third loadout is new for me, as it incorporates a carry pistol. I still have the Springfield XD subcompact that I recently reviewed, and I’m going to buy one and do my CHL with it. So I swapped to a smaller glasses case and was easily able to fit the pistol in the side. The recommended way to carry like this is to use a purse holster, so I’ll probably pick one up before actually packing it. It’s also the case that I plan to carry with the chamber empty–I know I know, many people hate that and think it’s idiotic, but if it’s good enough for the Israelis and Major Pandemic, it’s good enough for me. Besides, if I’m carrying in that bag, I’m going to have to unbuckle it first; the extra half second it would take to rack the slide isn’t going to make the difference.
One thing that is not in any of the loadouts is a power cord. You could roll up half of a MacBook power cord and jam it in there, but given the 9+ hour battery lives on many laptops now there’s no point. In this respect, this is a bag that really makes sense in the current era of long battery lives; five years ago and it would just be too small.
Conclusions
As I said above, the Intrepid Journeyman is pretty much the ultimate slimmed-down EDC bag. Contrary to what Intrepid seems intent on marketing it as, I’m not really buying it as a go-anywhere travel bag, at least not if it’s your main personal, non-luggage bag. Think of it more like a large external wallet for the daily essentials and you’ll get the idea.
Since my traveling/conference loadout includes a voice recorder, over-the-ear-headphones (for blocking out sound while I work), a micro four thirds camera, and various USB gadgets that plug into my laptop (a VoIP calling adapter, a USB-to-Ethernet adapter, multiformat memory card reader, etc.), the Journeyman is just too small. In such a case I’m either going to use a slightly larger Tumi or even the TAD Fast Pack EDC. Likewise if I were traveling Europe and wanted to stash some extra clothes and whatnot on my person in case of a luggage mishap.
But for everyday carry–day in, day out, in the house, and out of the house–the Journeyman is absolute perfection. Intrepid has hit it out of the park, and I can’t wait to see what they come up with next.
