Review: Waterfield’s Muzetto Urban Man Bag Is A Total Chick Magnet

Traci Dauphin ()

IMG_0966

The San Francisco based company Waterfield presents the Muzetto laptop bag. This “urban man bag” will make the geekiest nerd feel hip. Don’t be surprised when your fashion-forward girlfriend tries to steal it.

Designed as a lightweight laptop tote, this bag is high quality; it’s made from distressed dark brown leather and offered in six accent colors. It’s a pleasant change from the over-used nylon of most laptop bags.

I really like the gold liner which makes items highly visible. On my first use I accidently scraped the bag with my keys and made a horrible mark. But no worries! The well-oiled bag is designed to scratch easily for a distressed look. The marks will blend in time or you can just give it a good rub.

IMG_0969

The stylish Muzetto can be paired nicely with jeans or dress pants. The cost — $259 — is steep but you will feel like a million bucks wearing it. You can’t put a price tag on that.

No need to stuff items higgely piggely in pant pockets. Everything now has its place. The Muzetto has three, large internal pockets and offers more space and less weight if you don’t put your laptop in it.

The pockets easily fit several magazines or work documents. One pocket has a zipper and the other two small inserts are just the right size for a battery charger and a wallet.

A single external pocket — easily accessible — is perfect for a phone or any item that’s needed quickly. Great news for anyone prone to misplacing their keys!

Unlike most laptop bags, the Muzetto is lacking a built-in protective sleeve, which makes it less bulky. You may want to purchase one of Waterfield’s optional sleeves for $39.00 to protect your laptop.

(The 13’ sleeve provided for this review was an extremely tight fit for my 13’ MacBook, so buying the next size up is recommended.)

The Muzetto’s flap is weighted to hold it closed. Gone are hard-to-open clasps or noisy velcro strips. The shoulder strap is good quality and adjustable. A special feature of the Muzetto is the grip on the shoulder strap, which holds it securely in place while you move about.

IMG_0964

DON'T MISS
Crumpler’s Excellent Horseman Bag Is Strong and Roomy [Review]

The Muzetto is available in three sizes:

1) 15’ Laptop Muzetto $259 / 15.5’ x 11.75’ x 2.7’ / 2 lb.

2) 13’ Laptop Muzetto $239 / 14’ x 11’ x 2.5’ / 1.7 lb.

3) Personal Muzetto $179 / 10.5’ x 8.5’ x 1.5’ / 14 ounces

Rating: ★★★★☆


Company: Waterfield
Model: Muzetto
List Price: $259
Compatible: 15’ Laptop Muzetto

21 comments »

About the author

Traci Dauphin

Traci Dauphin is the Managing Editor at Cult of Mac. She keeps the trains running on time. Traci also writes product reviews and shoots great galleries of events like Macworld.

(sorry, you need Javascript to see this e-mail address)| Read more posts by .

Posted in Laptop Bags, Reviews |

  • evan

    The man carrying the man bag in this particular photo seems to have a nice pair of titties…

  • jaywontdart

    @evan yeah I realised it wasnt a man fairly quickly. Comments like ours are why women run away from us nerds!

  • http://islandinthenet.com Khürt Williams

    But he has a point. That shirt has a few more buttons on the top that could have been buttoned up before the “down shirt photo”.

  • Scott

    I guess evan, jaywontdart, and Khürt Williams will have to wait for Waterfield to come out with the Muzetto Urban 13 year-old Boy Bag. I’m sure it will be well priced for smaller budgets… and minds.

  • Ray Boehmer

    So, this computer bag costs $260, doesn’t look like it can hold much except flat papers, and you have to spend another $40 if you actually want it to do a reasonable job of protecting the laptop?

    Basically, its key benefits are that its nicely oiled and marks up pretty?

    That’s not what I would consider to be the main criteria for buying a computer bag!

    Maybe for a more meaningful review of a computer bag, you should get a reviewer that doesn’t hate computers.

  • http://www.sfbags.com Heidi Waterfield

    Hey Traci,

    Heidi from WaterField Designs here. Thanks for the great review. I love (and personally agree with) your headline.

    I wanted to let you and your readers know that the 13″ is designed so that your 13″ SleeveCase will fit snugly in the main compartment so that you can actually just leave the SleeveCase in there when you remove your computer. We recommend that size if you have a 13″ Mac, not the larger one. The SleeveCase + bag design allows people to use the bag for both purposes, without the bulk of a padded sleeve compartment when they aren’t carrying a laptop around.

    The price of the Muzetto varies by size:
    Personal Size: $179
    13″ Size: $239
    15: Size: $259

    If you have any questions, give me a shout at WF. Thanks again and enjoy what sounds like it may now be *your* bag. ;-)

    ~Heidi

  • Robert

    Wait…there is a bag in the 2nd photo?

  • http://www.majid.info/ Fazal Majid

    I have the Muzetto and love it. It’s not a laptop bag per se, rather a trendy casual-chic vertical messenger bag, an upmarket version of Waterfield’s excellent Vertigo. The key thing to remember is that you should not overstuff these bags otherwise they lose their shape. This limits the versatility somewhat, but it’s an excellent weekend bag.

    As for the absence of built-in laptop sleeves, that’s a feature, not a bug, since one-size-fits-all sleeves fit poorly, and in extreme cases like my MacBook Air the laptop floats inside and rattles, which is quite unpleasant. I have 2 laptop bags that were made obsolete overnight when I switched from a 15″ MacBook Pro to a MBA, but the sleeveless bags still work.

    It’s worth pointing out that the bag is not entirely leather, the parts in black in the photos are nylon. $260 is not that expensive if you compare the quality to the likes of Tumi, and it’s made right here in lovely San Francisco, not by exploited workers in some Chinese sweatshop. I wish Waterfield made more leather bags.

  • David Lee

    Check out tombihn.com. Very cool stuff there.

  • Jamese

    I doubt a 13 year old can afford a 200 USD bag…

  • Peter

    Let’s not allow an open button to detract from a great review. I saw Ray was unimpressed with the limited padding and carrying capacity, but this is exactly the bag I’m looking for. There are 10,000 bags on the market for people who want to fit the kitchen sink in a shoulder bag. The Muzetto is appealing to a different demographic – someone like myself who needs to carry a laptop, but doesn’t always need to drag along everything else.

    Thanks for the review Traci!

  • Neal

    I really love the look of this bag. Stylistically, it blows the competition out of the water. Unfortunately for me, the way things are going right now the only way I’ll ever possess one is if it gets bundled into my own personal economic stimulus package. Since that isn’t appearing terribly likely I guess I’m consigned to the nylon-and-plastic ghetto for the foreseeable future.

  • Hampton Stevesns

    WaterField makes a magnificent product. The best quality bags I’ve ever owned, bar none.

  • Mike

    OK, let’s address a couple things here:

    1. Quality-wise, WaterField makes great bags. No questions about it.

    2. Yes, they’re expensive. They’re made in North America and not China, so that’s part of the cost.

    3. Yes, on one hand it’s annoying that this “laptop bag” doesn’t come with a sleeve for your laptop, which is an extra purchase. This would be less annoying if the bag wasn’t $200+ to begin with, but see points #1 and #2 above.

    4. By choosing your own sleeve, you can get an exact fit for your laptop. That’s nice.

    5. Regarding this review and some of the more juvenile comments regarding the appearance of cleavage above: women have cleavage. A woman was holding the bag for the photo. Therefore, the photo contains cleavage.

    Now for *my* comment regarding this article:

    The title of the article is “Review: Waterfield’s Muzetto Urban Man Bag Is A Total Chick Magnet”

    This title hints to me that the article is going to be written from a man’s perspective. Now, after reading the article I understand the hidden meaning, ie: “it’s a ‘man bag’, but I’m a chick and I love it” … but with a title like that, I was hoping for a more masculine perspective on the merits of the bag.

  • EJ

    I agree with Mike… by the title alone, I was assuming their would be a man’s perspective since it seems that some (many/few) men really have hang-ups about the whole “murse” thing. But I thought it was a great review of a truly wonderful bag. Like Peter mentioned; some of us are so more advanced than trying to packmule everything along with us. Some of us not only know what looks good, and functions well, we know how to pull it off in style.

  • Ano

    Those of you who commented on the cleavage …. didn’t you realise that this review was targeted at men? They’d get all excited when they see a nicely formed cleavage. When men are excited, the money will find a way to leave his wallet …

    Nice work WFD.

  • Stu

    Bought the Muzetto. LOVE this bag! (Even without the cleavage, it’s a great bag.)

  • http://haikutweeter.com randyman

    I can just imagine the designer/designers of the bag, checking to see what kind of comments their work has elicited, only to find that the thread has been largely hijacked by, well – you already know.

    Life is a constant series of setbacks and letdowns for the working artist; no good effort goes unpunished.

  • Brett

    Now you have had your bag for a while, is there anything you would change or prefer to see on it?? Also, have you taken it outside during rain??? Thanks in advance

  • pino

    how can i buy or order this bag?? im in australia.

    pls contact me (sorry, you need Javascript to see this e-mail address)

  • sunglasses wholesale

    It’s excited at the moment I saw this replica oakley sunglasses,it is so cheap on oakley sunglasses sale.My wife said that I look handsomer with the fake oakely sunglasses.in addition,the web also Provides replica sunglasses wholesale.