The Atlas is the perfect holdall for office weaklings who dream of joining a gym

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Canvas and leather atlas
Like a Hollywood actor that spent too much time in the sun, the Waterfield Atlas is leathery and wrinkled.
Photo: SF Bags

WaterField Designs, maker of some of our favorite bags here at Cult of Mac, is back with the Atlas Executive Athletic Holdall. It’s a sports bag that, as the name suggests, holds it all — including your MacBook and iPad.

The WaterField Atlas holds it all

Long-time readers may remember such WaterField classics as the George Clooney Bag, the Chick Magnet and the apocalypse-proof Rough Rider. And indeed, who could forget the headline, “Skinny Victor wallet is a metaphor for your sad, junk-filled life“? Nobody, that’s who.

If it doesn’t fit in here, you probably don’t need it.
If it doesn’t fit in here, you probably don’t need it.
Photo: SF Bags

To this fine collection we add the Atlas, a bag so tough and leathery it may have been named after renowned orange, crocodile-skinned bodybuilder Charles Atlas himself (although it wasn’t).

The Atlas starts as a regular holdall, with a big central compartment, but then things get cleverer.

Alien quarantine

For instance, the entire side panel unzips and flops open to give access to the laptop sleeve, iPad pocket and a couple of storage pockets. You’ll also find an expanding shoe pocket in the side, for carrying your dirty sneakers back from the gym.

The TSA is going to love this side-opening laptop pocket.
The TSA is going to love this side-opening laptop pocket.
Photo: SF Bags

This part is quite ingenious, because it takes up no space inside the bag when you aren’t using it. You remember that scene in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial where the evil scientists put E.T. in an isolation tent? And you know how those tents have those weird “glove-tunnels” that let you reach inside without getting infected? The Atlas shoe bag works just like that. Also, E.T. was rather leathery, just like the Atlas. Coincidence? You decide.

There’s also an end pocket with a hook for your keys, and a cellphone pocket.

An executive-class gym bag

You’re probably too weak even to lift this bag over that handle.
You’re probably too weak even to lift this bag over that handle.
Photo: SF Bags

Why is the Atlas called an Executive Athletic Holdall? Presumably because it has one of those bands that slips over the handle of a rolling suitcase to stop it falling off. The irony here is that the executive who uses a suitcase with wheels is desperate to avoid any exercise that might build muscle mass and spoil his perfect “stick-man-with-a-paunch” figure, and yet we’re supposed to believe that he will also buy a bag for the gym.

Finally, the bag can be had in brown or black ballistic nylon with leather panels, or in waxed cotton and leather. The interior comes finished in WaterField’s silky, saffron-yellow fabric lining, which wears well, and helps you find stuff usually lost in a bag’s dark corners.

Price: $429

Buy from: WaterField Designs

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