The Rickshaw iPad Messenger Bag is designed by you. Colours of the bag's exterior, interior, binding and logo are all selectable on the Rickshaw website, and once you're happy with your design it will be made swiftly in their San Francisco factory and shipped out to you. Orders can be sent worldwide.

Designing Your Own Bag

So we were offered the chance to try this made to order service. The website is intuitive and easy to use, every selectable design aspect of the bag is clearly listed and sampling colours and designs on the bag in real time is snappy in loading and different angles of the bag are viewable for full surveillance. When we received the iPad Messenger Bag it looked identical to the options we selected on the website, so overall we'd have to give this service a big thumbs up!

Design

The Rickshaw iPad Messenger Bag is one of the most stylish and professional looking satchels we've ever used or seen. Its rectangular shape is classical but the fabrics and patterns we've chosen truly compliment its shape. We chose the exterior to be a 'bobbly' orange sand colour, the interior and trim binding to be both 'silver dust' grey and the logo is saffron orange. The black quick-adjust slip strap isn't padded, but because of the lightness of the kind of contents that will probably be stored within the bag, coupled with the over the shoulder design, in usage it isn't a strain on the body, even over lengthy sessions of commuting.

Quality

The exterior and interior are by default and at no extra cost made from cordura nylon. However, performance tweed, waterproof X-Pac & waxed canvas are also selectable for the interior and exterior with an extra $10 charge. We opted for the performance tweed on the exterior and think it was well worth it. Nylon is generally a rugged material and its implementation here has been hard wearing and reliable for the interior, but we felt the performance tweed just looked more attractive on the exterior and it has a friendly warm patterning and substantial texture too. It's proved itself to be tough, with no signs of obvious wear from heavy usage and the performance tweed isn't subject to snaring or cuts from scrapes such as that from a brush against a city wall. The stitching/binding and overall build of the bag is precise and we couldn't spot one error in manufacturing. It's an ideal city bag for both males and females.

Storage

When it comes to satchel styled bags interior design is important. We've seen many satchels which have a mass area where you're supposed to store everything and others with segregated walls. It all depends on your lifestyle and usage demands, the Rickshaw iPad Messenger Bag is a hybrid of sorts, with a removable iPad pouch and Velcro wall known as the 'deluxe drop pocket'. The deluxe drop pocket has pockets for storing three pens, a wider pocket on the right for storing an iPhone or something of a similar size, on top of this pocket is a clear ID card pocket and a zipped area located on the inside is essentially as wide as the velcro wall, we found it to be a nice area to store things like headphones, compact cameras, memory sticks, etc. Inside the zipped area is a detachable key chain tether too. It was nice to sit at a bench in a park and remove the iPad from the bag and also have the deluxe drop pocket removed for quick accessibility of its contents.

As previously mentioned the iPad pouch is also removable and will fit any generation of the iPad. We tested the iPad mini, 1, 2, 3 and 4 and they all fitted with a slim skin style case applied. But chunky folio cases and the like won't fit within the pouch, although if the iPad has such protection from a case, then maybe the pouch would be made redundant and the case can provide enough protection when within the Messenger Bag anyway.

Accessing the interior of the bag is done by lifting the Velcro flap, a mechanism that is simple and efficient at staying closed. The interior space surrounding the Velcro deluxe drop pocket wall is somewhat large and deep. You could place some books, a portable slim speaker, makeup, or a notebook computer of 11" within the area. Another pocket area is stitched onto the front of the satchel underneath the flap. This could be where you choose to store the iPad pouch or, as we did, use it to store cables.

Overall

The artisan Rickshaw iPad Messenger Bag is charmingly stylish. The convenience and organised storage is highly suitable for school and work use. We've become reliant on this satchel/messenger bag, and its design is not intrusive to carry whilst storing an iPad and other items to get you through the day. If you're planning on carrying a small footprint within an urban environment then it's a no brainer.