REVIEW: Crumpler The Gent

Crumpler Gearbags

Gadgeteer Hands On Review by Judie Hughes and Julie Strietelmeier

April 16, 2002

One of the joys of being mobile is that you can just pick up your stuff and go. Having a gear bag that can comfortably and efficiently carry everything you need to be effective while mobile can be one of the more difficult decisions that you will need to make.

Crumpler, a company that doesn't seem to take itself too seriously, has an extensive line of bags that are well made, hard working, durable, and extremely versatile. The Crumpler bags that Julie and I will be looking at today are both made of Dupont Cordura Plus and lined with rip-stop nylon. The zippers are huge and heavy-duty, the straps are made of the same material as car seat-belts, and instead of a cheesy buckle on that strap, there is a huge plastic monster-buckle. Expecting that their customers will be tech-savvy and electronics equipped, Crumpler even makes some of their bags with a cord/head-phone hole that has been reinforced with an industrial strength metal eyelet. This is not your typical gearbag - but is it worthy of all the hype and funky attitude that the Crumpler site dishes out? Let's take a look...

The "Gent"
This bag is huge! The first thing I thought when I pulled the "Gent" from it's shipping carton was "What am I going to fill this behemoth with?" It actually wasn't that hard to do once I got going, though. But first, let me back up for a minute and tell you about the bag itself.

The "Gent" is fashioned of black Cordura with a two-toned blue racing stripe circling it. Measuring 16" (40.5cm) tall x 18" (45.5cm) wide x 8" (20.3cm) thick at the bottom, the Crumpler web site says that you can fit a laptop with up to a 15.1" (38.2cm) screen inside.

My laptop measures 13.5" (34.3cm) straight across the screen and has a edge-to-edge diagonal measurement of 17" (43.2cm). It's a tight fit - but my laptop does slide in.

The asymmetrical front flap closes with both a huge strip of Velcro and solid plastic clippy. There is an irreverent Crumpler "little man" logo on the front of the bag and on the shoulder strap pad.

A "third-leg" strap makes the bag lay securely against your back when you want to carry the "Gent" bandolier style, but I didn't much care for this method. I'm not a bicycle messenger, and it felt too confining to have that strap going across my chest in that manner.

When you lift the front flap, the first pocket you will find is a spacious cavern that zips closed and has this large metal eyelet staring at you. I have to admit that when I first saw it, I thought - "Okay, it's stylish - but what's it for?" Later, I realized that it was to run cords through. Doh!

The only problem is that none of the electronics I carry are big enough to comfortably put in this pocket without worrying about them rattling around. If I could suggest an improvement, I would ask that Crumpler keep this pocket the same size, but add a smaller padded inner-pocket that could hold a cell-phone, Pocket PC, Mini-Disc player, or whatever.

Opening the "Gent" reveals a University of Texas burnt orange interior with plenty of cubbyholes to hide your gear. Each one of these pockets closes with a strip of Velcro to prevent your stuff from tumbling out. I would like to have seen business card and pen specific pockets, but there are none.

A large padded pocket with a padded Velcro-closing flap holds your laptop securely.

It is very easy to fit your laptop, its power cord, auto charger, two or three PDAs, their charging cords, a cradle or two, a camera, a candy bar and various other small items in this bag without it feeling overstuffed; however, there is one problem: The "Gent" weighs 2.34 pounds (995g) which doesn't seem too bad - unless like me you have a laptop that weighs in at 9+ pounds...in that case it can be a real shoulder breaker when you are carrying everything mentioned for an extended period of time, as I found out when I carried this bag on my Hawaii vacation.

While the bag does have a very adequately padded shoulder strap, when you are toting this kind of weight, nothing is going to make you very happy about carrying it.

The one thing that you may feel this bag is missing is a cellular phone case. Well, if like me this is a necessity for you, then you can order the NAD sac separately.

The "Gent" is an extremely well-made gear bag. If you need versatile and abundant space in a virtually indestructible package - then this bag may be just what you are looking for.

Price: $104.95

Pros:
Fun, bright colors without looking completely unprofessional
Extremely well made
Can carry a ton of gear

Cons:
Expensive
Electronics pocket is a bit too "cavernous"
No business card or pen specific pockets

The "Roll-O-Notes"

Like the bag that Judie reviewed above, the "Roll-O-Notes" (gotta love the names they've chosen for these bags!), is an extremely well made gear bag. Incase you are wondering about the material that it is constructed of, it is Dupont Cordura Plus. According to the tag that I removed from the bag, this material is "2x as tough as regular nylon, 3x tougher polyester, 4x tougher than polypropylene, 14x tougher than cotton and 600x tougher than the skinny bit at the bottom of your underwear." So, I guess you can say that this bag is pretty freaking tough! :o)

Available in red/blue, blue/orange, black/blue, brown/yellow and green/blue, there is a color combo that should satisfy most people. I was sent the red/blue version, which I think looks pretty spiffy but might not appeal to everyone.

The "Roll-O-Notes" is pretty similar to the "Gent" in that it has one large dual zippered pocket under the main flap in the front. This pocket has a metal eyelet for any wires (earphones) that you might want to feed thru it.

The main compartment is comprised of a padded laptop sleeve that is attached to the back wall of the bag and two deep pockets are attached to the front wall of the bag. All of the pockets as well as the bag's main flap, employ Velcro to keep them closed. To me, this is sort of Velcro overload as the main flap also has dual plastic buckles. I really hate hearing that rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrip noise every time I want to get into the bag.

At 10" (25.4cm) tall x 14" (35.56cm) wide x 5" (12.7cm) thick at the bottom, the "Roll-O-Notes" is touted as a medium sized laptop bag. I can vouch for that title as my friend's large Dell Inspiron which measures 13" x 11" would not fit. I could slide it into the interior padded sleeve, but as you can see from the picture below, it stuck out quite a bit. The padded sleeve is 12" x 9" x 2.5" (30.48cm x 22.86cm x 6.35cm). So be sure to check your laptop's size before buying this bag..