Veto Pro Pac LT Laptop Bag, MSRP $259.99,

www.vetopropac.com

Author: Toby Asplin

Photos: Toby Asplin

FTC Disclosure: The author was provided a Veto Pro Pac LT Laptop Bag for review.

The Good: This might just be the toughest & strongest laptop bag on the face of the earth.

The Bad: It also might be the heaviest laptop bag on the face of the earth.

The Ugly: It definitely isn’t the prettiest bag on the face of the earth.

In 1998, Veto founder, Roger Brouard, got fed up with an absence of available, durable tool bags. Four years later Roger’s first tool bag, the Veto Pro Pac XL hit the market. Serious tradesmen (and women) everywhere quickly discovered Veto’s durability and organizational capability. The Veto Pro Pac became the tool bag of choice for a huge portion of the professional contractor market.

Several years later, Roger realized that there was also a market for a bag that would stand up to the daily abuse dished out by those in the trades who carried laptops. The Veto Pro Pac Laptop Bag was conceived - probably in the back of a Chevy Express Cargo Van. The Pro Pac Laptop Bag mated a Veto tool bag and a laptop messenger bag and filled a niche left ignored by traditional laptop and tool bag manufacturers. Sure, there were other “durable” laptop bags on the market but nothing as tough as the Pro Pac Laptop Bag.

The Pro Pac LT is a beast. I’ve seen nothing else like it on the market. Its weatherproof 1200 denier PVC impregnated fabric, waterproof base, heavy duty fasteners and zippers and industrial strength double nylon stitching will hold up like an American Tourister suitcase in a gorilla cage. You can drop, drag, toss, trample and generally abuse this bag and it’ll come back for more like the Greek god, Antaeus.

Don’t let the beastly nature mislead you, though. This bag is sophisticated when it comes to organization. There is plenty of internal admin - some of it unlike any other laptop bag that I’ve seen. There are internal pouches large enough for a laptop’s power supply. There are mesh pockets that allow you to see their contents. There’s a padded section at the middle of the bag (instead of the outer sides like most laptop bags) to carry a 15″ laptop. Not only does this put the weight of your laptop in the center of the bag, it also provides your laptop with the added protection of everything in the two outer compartments. There are deep pockets, shallow pockets, wide pockets, narrow pockets, even pockets, pouches, a tape measure clip and a keyring clip on the exterior of the bag for quick access. If you can’t organize your mobile work gear with this bag … I don’t know what to tell you.

In addition to the excellent organization, the LT also has a few nifty features like the clip that attaches the shoulder strap to the carrying handle. At first, I thought, “I’ll never use this,” but it has quickly become an essential item and raised the bar for feature requirements for future laptop bags. No longer must I struggle with the shoulder strap hanging up on the under-side of the bag when I’m trying to lift it one-handed.

The carry handle is also a nice feature and well set up. Too many laptop bags either forgo a traditional carry handle or mount it off to one side or require you to grab two handles to center the bag’s weight. Not the LT. There’s a single carry handle in the center of the bag. The handle is just as strong as the rest of the bag yet very comfortable.

Granted, all that organization and beastliness comes with a price. Weight. At 7.8 lbs empty, this bag weighs more than any other laptop bag that I’ve carried. Shouldn’t be a problem if you’re a real man.  Skip a couple reps on your next workout and carry a “real” laptop bag. One that can knock out any other laptop bag your weaker friends might want to put up against it.