Timbuk2 Command Laptop Travel-Friendly Messenger Bag

I did a fair amount of research before purchasing this bag. I was looking for a messenger style bag to replace my 10+ year old Targus laptop backpack. I needed something large enough to store my laptop plus chords, hard drives, headphones, and other such accessories, as well as double as a brief case for carrying work papers, airline tickets, etc. This bag more than met the need. First, kudos to Amazon for their responsiveness. I ordered the medium size bag because the description said it could fit most 16" laptops. Well, my 16" laptop clearly falls outside of the "most" category given that it has a large battery protrusion out the back. My optimism was rewarded with the rapid delivery of a bag that would technically fit the laptop but not easily. So I sent it back and purchased the large bag instead. Amazon's return policy and responsiveness were above and beyond expectations. When researching anything on Amazon I like to look at the negative reviews as well as the positive. A lot of times the positive reviews are not very critical and seem to have a "fanboy" context so looking at some of the negative and middle of the road reviews can help put things into perspective. There were really only two negative reviews at my time of purchase. One buyer was very disappointed with the fact that the iPad sleeve is inside the laptop compartment, making the TSA feature useless if you're also toting a tablet. A valid critique, but I didn't think it was 1-star worthy. The other negative review seemed to be doctoral dissertation on the physics of friction dynamics of strap fasteners. While it seemed interesting, I couldn't quite follow it so I decided to ignore it. So I got the bag and tested it out with a nationwide tour of five round trips to five cities over the course of a five-week period. I figured this was the ultimate test since I needed something that was rugged, could haul all my stuff, and had to be versatile enough to get me through airports with minimal hassles. This bag hit 5 stars on all counts. I'm not even exaggerating a little bit. First, let's take a look at the storage. There's a large laptop compartment that is separated from the main compartment so all you have to deal with is a top zipper and the laptop comes right out. It's easily accessible while carrying the bag with the shoulder strap across your chest (by far the most comfortable way to carry the bag). Under the flap there are three zippered flat compartments a small, open top pocket, and the Napoleon pocket. The zippered flat compartments graduate in size and are great for carrying keys, pens, small documents, etc. The small top pocket is great for your connecting flight's boarding pass and other stuff you need to get to quickly. The Napoleon pocket is pure genius. Honestly, I couldn't even imagine what it was until the bag was delivered. Then it became immediately obvious. It's a zippered side pocket that resides under the flap but allows you to reach in sideways to access things you need quickly and don't want to have to open the flap for. It's called a Napoleon pocket because you shove your hand in sideways the just like all those pictures you've seen of Monsieur N. Bonaparte with his hand stuck halfway into his jacket. I keep my mints and my ear buds in there (priorities, right?). Just inside the flap is a large top pocket that is ideal for carrying a note pad, file folders, and the like. I have a leather folio that I use to keep my notes, spare business cards, and all my travel info. It fits in the large top pocket perfectly and is pretty easy to access with the shoulder strap across my chest while still remaining perfectly secure with the flap down. On the inside portion of the large top pocket is a large zippered pocket that I use for storing chargers for my phone and other accessories. The backside of the top pocket has the usual accessory pockets you'd expect in any laptop bag or brief case for pens, business cards and other miscellaneous paraphernalia. One pocket is the perfect size for my Verizon MiFi hot spot. I can open the flap, find it immediately, turn it on, then leave it there for several hours of 4G internet surfing while waiting for my next flight. Then there's the main compartment. It's cavernous! You could literally store a large house cat in there, although the cat might not appreciate it much and it would certainly be a test of the durability of the inside of the bag. I keep my head phones and an umbrella in there (you never know), and mostly use it to cram odds and ends I tend to collect during my travels. It's handy for books, magazines, and maybe a sweater. Notice that I didn't mention keeping my laptop's power supply in the main compartment? That's because there's a special pocket at the bottom of the bag just for that. A laptop power supply is one of the most inconvenient things you can carry in your bag. It's heavy and its cord tends to get tangled up with everything else in your bag no matter how neat you try to be. Obviously the designers of the Command Laptop bag figured that out so they created a special pocket just for the power supply. It keeps the cords out of the way of other stuff and helps distribute the weight of the bag so the bulky power brick doesn't bang against your hip when you're running through the airport. There's also enough room in there for my wireless mouse and my laptop's security cable. Handy! As mentioned before, the laptop compartment also has a little pocket for a tablet. I keep my Kindle Fire in there and my only complaint is that the pocket's too big. I have to reach way down to get at the tablet. Some people will complain about anything, right? It's really the ideal place to put a tablet pocket. If I want to read on the plane, I don't want to be wrestling the whole bag out from under the seat in front of me just to get out the Kindle. Unzip, pop the Velcro, reach in and you're good to go. Then there's the construction of the whole thing. Heavyweight ballistic nylon all the way around. This bag's actually seen 8 weeks of heavy use and over 12,000 miles of travel and it still looks brand new. The strap has a convenient seat belt style buckle that easily adjusts if you want to raise or lower the bag to shift your position. It's made of heavy duty plastic and seems sturdy enough. The clips that hold the strap to the metal triangle rings are perfectly designed to swivel so you never have to worry about the strap getting bound up on you when you throw it over your shoulder in a hurry. Finally, there's the whole "system" to keep the flap closed. The flap is secured with Velcro having two large, horizontal loop stripes that span the width of the flap. They attach to the bag with two vertical hook stripes that are on either side of the pockets. The two horizontal loop stripes ensure that the flap stays secure no matter how much crap you've crammed into the main compartment. As an added feature, there are two "silencing strips" that cover the two vertical hook stripes. For the life of me I couldn't figure out what these were for until I looked online and found out what they were called. I tucked them away in a pocket thinking I'd never pull them out again. But then I found myself reaching into my bag in the middle of a meeting and cringed at the loud pull of Velcro tearing apart. Now I always cover the Velcro hook stripes with the silencing strips when I'm in a client meeting. I can grab an extra pen, turn on my WiFi, or root around for another box of mints without anyone being the wiser. Nifty! And what's probably the best part of the flap security system is the use of the "C" hooks. These are simply brilliant. One reason you might not want a messenger bag is that Velcro is rarely enough to keep it securely closed but buckles, buttons and clips break or are just a hassle to manage. The C hooks allow you to get at your stuff without constantly buckling and unbuckling some fastener. They're a little more challenging to hook than to unhook, but still pretty neat. This is where the one reviewer's dissertation on friction dynamics comes into play, however. The C hooks are basically just a normal strap fastener with an opening on the top portion so you can quickly get it on and off without sliding the whole strap through the fastener. To keep a strap secure, the fastener relies on the friction of the strap and the weight of the bag to bind against the strap so it doesn't slip. You pull down, it holds tight; you pull up, it releases. Well, the pulling down part only works well if there's enough friction to keep the fastener from sliding along the strap. The nylon straps are so slippery you'll find it a challenge to keep them adjusted tightly. It's a non-problem with the Velcro as the straps are merely secondary securing devices. Every good thing still has room for improvement. I'd put little pull tabs on either side of all the large zippers so you can more easily zip and unzip pockets with the bag slung across your shoulder. This would be especially useful on the zipper for the computer compartment. I'd also put a couple of grabber loops strategically placed on the bottom and sides so you could easily get a grip on the bag to pull it out of an overhead luggage compartment or the seat in front of you without have to grab the shoulder strap, which invariably pulls the bag out cockeyed. And the last critique, the shoulder pad, which is very well designed, is just not cushy enough when the bag is fully loaded. The bag is extremely well designed to distribute weight evenly across your body, but even so, your collar bone takes the brunt of it and a cushier shoulder strap would make that easier. Of course, Timbuk2 offers a cushier shoulder pad as a separately sold accessory, so I'm going to have to look into that. All in all, this is the best laptop bag ever. Oh, and just a disclaimer; I'm not in the habit of carrying cats around in messenger bags. I'm just saying... you could.

Was looking for something that had plenty of space but was easy to carry around. A coworker has a Timbuk2 so I decided to give it a try. Obviously Timbuk2's are a big improvement over old school messenger bags. Traveling 2 weeks out of the month so this bag is getting some miles. The buckles on the face of the bag are a JOKE. They come unhooked constantly, they come loose when you pick the bag up by the carry handle, and they will not stay snug when you pull out the slack. Picture messenger bag guy getting on the plane with unclipped swinging metal buckles hitting each person as he walks by - thats me and every other Command Laptop bag owner - sorry about that. If you don't use the velcro closure the flap of your bag will be coming open all the time. Have no idea why they would use these rather than the clips that are on their other bags. Bag is a little flimsy when you don't have it full. Some basic structure support might make it a little better particularly for the main compartment. Suggestion - There should be a pocket on the opposite side of the water bottle holder. As experienced with other bags you need somewhere to put reading glasses or sunglasses that won't get crushed in the main compartment. *The good - lots of pockets. The Napoleon pocket is cool, but you won't use it as much as you think. *Lots of space! I carry papers, noise canceling headphones and other junk when traveling. The large bag swallows up everything I throw at it. *Really comfortable if you are walking any distance - highly suggest the upgraded shoulder pad. *The buckle on the strap is GREAT - sit down in a cab with a heavy computer and papers - just unclip it and slip the strap over your head. *TSA approved computer pocket has worked flawlessly coast to coast - remember you can't leave the iPad in the same compartment as the laptop when going through security. *Luggage handle sleeve is nice when you want to attach it to your roll along bag. Great spot for your newspaper at other times. *Seems very rugged and durable. *The bottom pocket for power cords is awesome. I stuff a mifi, laptop cord, cell phone chargers and any other small items i can think of. All neatly contained in one spot. The buckles are the major flaw with this bag. Going to try to switch them out to locking clips. Overall great bag

i have two of these bags, a medium and a large, and I use them daily for work and travel. The power brick pocket on the bottom is awesome. Putting the document pocket on the inside front make it so much easier to get to documents than on their other bags. The TSA pocket is the best of the bunch: Unlike the other TSA bags, this pocket opens from the bottom (i.e., is attached at the top) making it really easy to just grab your bag from the conveyor belt and just go. So why the three stars? One star was lost due to three significant design flaws: 1. The metal buckles do not have sufficient friction. When the bag is loaded up the strap slides through the buckle. It's also really easy to pop the buckles out of the fabric loops -- a big concern for me in pickpocket areas. I replaced the metal buckles with Sea to Summit Field Repair Buckles . To do this you'll have to cut the stitching on the end of the straps where they are folded over and sewn down. 2. I often find myself riding a bike with the bags, especially in Europe. I found the bags kept flopping around in front of me unexpectedly, creating a significant safety hazard. I had a shoe store sew a D-ring on the bottom right corner (with the back of the bag facing you) and now I can use Timbuk2's Accessory Cross Strap with Hook. This three point system keeps the bag securely on my back. You can also have the shoe store sew the strap ends back together when you have the D-ring added. 3. The swivel snaps on the shoulder strap are problematic for me. Inevitably one end of the strap swivels and the other doesn't and the strap ends up twisted and tangled. The snap also unsnaps really easily -- another concern in pickpocket area. I'm going to try to replace the swivel hooks with locking carabiners. If that doesn't work I'll ask the shoe store to just sew the strap on. This is a minor point but I would have much preferred the double smart phone pocket on the outside front (under the flap) that the Commute bag has. Finally, Timbuk2 lost another point when I called their Customer Service with the above issues. I offered to pay them to do the modifications above but they shut me down real quick. To me as a customer, "customization" is much more about features than simply being able to chose a color or fabric. I really hope someone in the company reads this and takes it to heart because they've got such potential, and I'd love to be able to upgrade my rating.

So I had been using a slingpack that I got on clearance from the Gap back in college for well over a decade. As a person that brings a bag with him just about everywhere I demand a lot out of my "manpurse". Well the lining in my Gap bag went out so I went searching on Amazon to find a replacement, which was another slingpack and a reproduction Isreali Commando Bag which the latter I was using most of the time. Now I wasn't very happy with the Commando Bag for a variety of reasons not least being it is not water proof and as someone who started to fly quite a bit I don't want to have more of a hassle in the airport than I had too. I had also recently gotten a new laptop so I decided to take a plunge into a more adult bag that would hold all my devices. A little bit of research brought me to Timbuk2 and the Command bag. I will start off saying this is by far the best bag I have ever owned. So much thought has gone into the design of the bag and what people who need something like this require. The bag outer material is nice and thick so you aren't going to worry about it falling apart any time soon. The slot for your laptop has a nice foam/rubber padding around it and a felt covered pouch to hold a tablet and as a added bonus helps keep the top of your laptop scratch free. I personally have a medium bag which can hold either a large Dell XPS 17 inch laptop or a Apple Macbook Air with no issue. Inside the flap you find a nice divided pocket the has plenty of room to carry whatever you need from books to a hoodie. There is a nice mouse pocket that has a velcro cover to keep it in place along with a couple of slender pockets on either side that can hold USB drives or in my case a Mini Displayport to HDMI and USB to ethernet adaptors. On the outside pockets you start off with a Napoleon zipper pocket that opens up on the side which is very nice to hold things you need ready access to without having to open your bag (keys, wallet, etc.), on top of that are a couple traditional zipper pockets that are good for holding USB cables, backup batteries and headphones. There are two velcro sliencers installed onto this pocket in case you don't want to use the added velcro locking system for the flap. I do not and I have never had a issue. On the bottom is a large pocket designed to hold your laptop's power supply which is a fantastic feature. I have been using this bag for about a year now in which I have used it nearly every day and lugged it around many airports and hotels and it still looks brand new. The only issue at all that I have had is that one of the zipper pull tabs was misinstalled which a quick email to Timbuk2 fixed that issue in a jiffy. I have only had one TSA agent give me any grief about the TSA compliance as well which is a major plus. I can not recommend this bag any more than I already have. You will not find anything better. I have a feeling this will likely be the last bag I will ever own.

Quality is fine. Appearance is fine. Functionality is acceptable. However, as a one-star reviewer has pointed out previously, the "TSA-friendly" feature is poorly designed. Reason: The iPad pocket is located within the laptop compartment; it is situated so that when opened for security scanning, the laptop is not isolated in the compartment as required by TSA. Therefore, TSA officers made me remove my iPad . Of course, I quickly learned to plan ahead and moved the iPad from the laptop compartment to the main compartment before going through screening. Luckily, the laptop compartment zipper is convenient, so removing it and temporarily slipping it into the main compartment is not a major inconvenience, assuming you have room for it there. But this negates one of the major reasons I purchased the bag; shame on me; I should have noted this design as soon as I opened the package and returned it. However, billing this bag as "TSA-friendly" is certainly, and clearly mislabeling. The solution I guess is to get qualified for the TSAPre program so that you don't have to remove either your iPad or Laptop. Other than this, the bag is fine; looks, good, works well, high quality. If you do go with this product, I recommend purchasing the deluxe pad strap; it's longer, wider, more comfortable, and doesn't as easily slip off the shoulder.

I wanted a bag that I could use everyday but also one that was TSA complaint for the times I had to travel. I settled on this bag because it had a handle, cushioned laptop compartment, and alot of pockets so I can keep organized. Taking a tour of the bag from the front to the back, the front flap can be secured by velcro, straps with a metal head, or both. This is probably my least favorite part of the bag's design. I don't like to use the velcro because if I have to slip in and out of meetings I don't want to make a lot of noise when I open my bag. The straps basically have metal heads that hook onto slots. The only problem is that if the bag has some weight, pulling on the handle loosens the straps pretty easily if you're not using the velcro. The front of the bag has several small compartments where you can put small things. These compartments don't have much depth but I use then for things like tissue packets, cables, and chargers. The side entry pocket is also a really nice touch and has been really convenient on many occasions when I needed to stash keys or my wallet. The big compartment is split into 2 by a sturdy divider which itself is another compartment. The smaller of these 2 larger compartments has several other holders for pens and whatnot. I'm a big fan of the back of the bag and it has often made my life easier. First off the cushioned TSA compliant pouch works just fine. you just unzip and lay it flat. Additionally there's another lightly cushioned zippered back compartment that has a pocked for an ipad sized device which I use all the time for my ipad. Lastly the back is built so you can slide if over your suitcase handle when you're traveling and roll it along with your suitcase. Overall this bag has quite sturdy and has had great everyday functionality. It would be pretty much perfect for me if the straps were designed a little better.

Let me start off this review by saying that I'm generally just a slightly disorganized person. Not a terribly disorganized one (don't forget to bring the wallet or phone with me), but usually end up finding I've left one or two small items at home while commuting to work. My old bag was a rigid, three pocket Targus laptop bag that I received as a hand-me-down from an older brother who no longer needed it. After beginning work full-time and with changing needs for a bag, I decided to invest in something that more closely resembled the ideal bag for me. Based on the research I'd done in the area of messenger bags, the Command seemed to fit the bill. I was pleasantly surprised with the actual size of the bag. When not completely stuffed, it is lightweight, and shrinks down to a slim profile that doesn't accidentally knock other people on the street, like my old Targus did. My typical daily loadout of stuff includes lunch, an iPad, a Kindle Paperwhite, a few notebooks and some other smaller items like an extra charger, headphones, etc. There are places in this bag for all of those to have their own pocket, making it very easy to check each morning whether or not I have everything I need. All of these fit marvelously, with plenty of extra room for more stuff. The laptop pocket in the medium also perfectly fits my 15.6" Lenovo U510 ultrabook. I have yet to do any serious traveling with the bag, but have no doubt that the remaining space would fit a complete change of clothes, which is usually a must for me. That said, there isn't an unlimited amount of space in the bag, and those looking for a little more space would be better served with something a bit bigger. As other reviewers have stated, this bag was definitely designed with the consumer in mind. There are a lot of pockets that make for easy organization, the Napoleon pocket under the flap is perfect for stuff that should be at hand but not necessarily in your hand, and it generally looks like a sleek bag in the professional world (I opted for the black bag). Others seem to have had trouble with the J-hooks that close the top flap. I have found that by just tightening the straps at the bottom, I have no issues. My only cause for concern with this bag is the shoulder strap. The included pad is not the most comfortable, especially if carrying upwards of 10 or so pounds. I opted to buy the TIMBUK2 Deluxe Pad Strap to correct this and it has been perfect, no more complaints about comfort. The other worrying component of the strap are the plastic clips that attach it to the bag. I would have expected metal. Their endurance remains to be seen, but I'm going to wait to see if anything actually happens before passing judgment. Overall, I've had a great experience with this bag, and look forward with it lasting a long time.

I bought the small Command bag in red after extensive research. This was an upgrade from an Ogio laptop backpack (which was very functional but also ugly / unprofessional). I am happy - but not thrilled - with the bag. Pros: - The laptop compartment for TSA screening is great. My laptop went through the screener in the bag at SFO, ORD, and IAD in the past three weeks. However, the compartment is unnecessary for TSA pre-check lines. - The main compartment is spacious. It will fit my lunch (in bulky glass containers), wallet, 3 notebooks, pens, mouse, water bottle, headphones, and a down jacket. I would be better off if it were less spacious. - I do not use the velcro and rely only on the hooks. The hooks are slower than velcro. - I love the separate pocket for the power brick / phone chargers / power adapters. Great to keep wires out of the way, while easy to access as soon as you walk into an office or hotel room. Cons: - I wish the bag were smaller. I am 5'5" 140 lbs. The bag is much wider than my body. I tried (unsuccessfully) to wear the bag while boarding a plane. It is wider than the aisle. :( My 13.3" laptop fits in the compartment, but the compartment (and the bag) is large for the size. The xsmall bag is too small. - The large and bulky plastic cam buckle is not helpful in general, and it's uncomfortable when the strap is not put on correctly.