Review: Waterfield’s Muzetto Urban Man Bag Is A Total Chick Magnet
2:01 am, November 5th, 2009, Traci Dauphin
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.
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.
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
Posted by Traci Dauphin in Laptop Bags, Reviews | Comment on this article
Traci Dauphin is married to Leander Kahney, editor of Cult of Mac, and is the mother of four beautiful children. She hates computers. 
The man carrying the man bag in this particular photo seems to have a nice pair of titties…
evan, on November 5th, 2009 at 3:24 am
@evan yeah I realised it wasnt a man fairly quickly. Comments like ours are why women run away from us nerds!
jaywontdart, on November 5th, 2009 at 3:31 am
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”.
Khürt Williams, on November 5th, 2009 at 7:09 am
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.
Scott, on November 5th, 2009 at 9:31 am
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.
Ray Boehmer, on November 5th, 2009 at 11:48 am
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
Heidi Waterfield, on November 5th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
Wait…there is a bag in the 2nd photo?
Robert, on November 5th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
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.
Fazal Majid, on November 5th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Check out tombihn.com. Very cool stuff there.
David Lee, on November 5th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
I doubt a 13 year old can afford a 200 USD bag…
Jamese, on November 5th, 2009 at 6:44 pm
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!
Peter, on November 8th, 2009 at 10:36 am
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.
Neal, on November 18th, 2009 at 11:24 am
WaterField makes a magnificent product. The best quality bags I’ve ever owned, bar none.
Hampton Stevesns, on November 18th, 2009 at 7:31 pm