WaterField Designs - page 2

We’ve shown you the best gifts for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch users, but what if the person you’re buying for is a long-time Apple fan whose first love was the Mac? Then you should start your shopping right here!

This guide is filled with awesome accessories and gadgets that every Mac addict will enjoy. We’ve handpicked only the best — things we’ve used, reviewed, and would recommend — so that you can be sure your hard-earned cash is being well spent.

Check out our gift guide selections for Mac users below.

The new Mac mini, which serves up desktop power in a portable package, deserves its own dedicated carrying case. WaterField Designs now offers two worthy Mac mini bags worthy of the pint-size powerhouse.

The San Francisco maker of tech cases sells a fitted Mac mini sleeve as well as a larger travel case with room for a keyboard, cords and other accessories.

If you’re going to move all of your personal computing to a new iPad Pro or MacBook Air, you may want to consider a bag made to fit Apple’s newest devices.

WaterField Designs, makers of bespoke tech cases, has a one-shoulder solution with its all-new Sutter Tech Sling.

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 iPhone comes in such a simple form that you could think of it as the core brain of a larger system. If you need to go underwater, you can get a case for that. If you want to turn it into a satnav for your bike or stroller, you can do that, too (see below).

The iPhone accessory market is huge, and there is a gadget or gizmo for almost anything. Here are some of our favorite iPhone accessories, for the new iPhone X as well as for older iPhones.

There is little about a shoulder bag that is personal. Sure you can pick something with a color and shape you can live with, but utility drives the design.

The Maverick, as the name suggests, aspires to stand out from the pack. Created by San Francisco’s WaterField Designs, the full-grain leather bag cut from a single hide presents like a Pony Express satchel begging for a dustup on some dry Western trail.

We value our Mac computers. Whether on a desk or in a lap, they help us complete many life tasks. But you and your machine wouldn’t make it without reliable accessories — especially now that we live in the USB-C era.

Storage drives, hubs with extra ports, a good pair of headphones, maybe a bag to carry your tech — all these Mac accessories play important roles. They often remain unsung, but sometimes come through to help us avoid a devastating loss of hardware or important work.

So if you are looking to bolster your Mac support team, look no further than this list of some of Cult of Mac’s favorites accessories from 2016 for iMacs, MacBooks and MacBook Pros.

There’s little exciting about a laptop sleeve. Usually made of neoprene or some other soft flexible material, it has one job and often it stays hidden if the user carries a backpack or messenger bag.

But in anticipating a refresh of the MacBook Pro, WaterField Designs did a fitting — and dare I say attractive? — refresh of the unsung laptop sleeve.

The description “small batch” is often associated with bourbon and cigars. With those words come an expectation of a higher quality derived from artisanal techniques, not possible with mass production.

WaterField Designs refers to itself as “small batch” and the company’s bags and cases, especially for Apple computing products, fit nicely in the company of a fine cigar or whiskey. Its latest product, the Bolt Laptop Backpack, stands apart from its oft-sporty-looking backpack brethren.

Best List: Cargo Laptop Bag by Waterfield

When choosing a bag to carry my most precious cargo (MacBook, iPad(s), camera, iPhone), I generally look for something that offers a balance between minimalist good looks and higher-carrying capacity.

Waterfield’s rather boringly-named Cargo Laptop Bag is a fantastic choice for the pro on the go, with capacious storage pockets and a gorgeously-designed outer and inner experience that never feels overstuffed, even when I filled it up with all of my gear.

Companies have designed shoulder bags exclusively for iPads, but let’s face it — most of us just toss them in whatever bag we have. Sure, we’ll spend on a hard cover or even a protective sleeve, but the iPad’s size and sleekness don’t demand that we dedicate a separate bag.

But the iPad Pro changes things a bit. It’s larger, is best utilized with an attachable keyboard and, if you live the creative life, you need a place to stow that Apple Pencil.

Ever try to go from home to the gym to the office to the party in the same day? If you have, you’ll know that move requires a lot of carrying capacity, typically across several bags.

Now try to do all that as an eco-warrior on a bicycle. You’ll want one big, waterproof bag that can hold your work stuff, your gym clothes and maybe a rain coat in case it gets wet out there. Stylish and useful, the Vitesse from WaterField Designs is a lovely, waxed-canvas messenger bag that will fit all that stuff.

I’ll admit it — I’ve got a thing for these waxed canvas and leather bags from Waterfield. I’ve ended up using the impeccably designed Staad backpack and the classy Nintendo 3DS case long after my reviews of them were published. These bags and cases from the San Francisco design collective are warm, inviting and just get better with age and use.

Let’s face it, though: Sometimes you only want to carry your laptop and a couple of accessories, and that’s it. Waterfield’s latest design, the MacBook Outback Solo, is a minimalist sleeve made of the same strong canvas material and rich, thick, buttery-smooth leather as the other bags in the line. It can be paired with a carrying strap that turns the sleeve into a messenger bag. While our very own Charlie Sorrel called the iPad version of this bag a man-purse, I’m thinking of this more as a shoulder-saving device — the fewer things I end up having to carry, the better.

This little sleeve is perfect for exactly that.

This is Waterfield’s Franklin Tote and I l-l-love it. It’s an open-topped leather bag with hand/shoulder straps and a bunch of pockets inside and out, and it’s just about the most practical daily carry-around I’ve ever used. Does is replace a backpack? Of course not.

Does it do the job of a messenger bag when on the bike? No frikkin’ way. But can I reach into my backpack as I walk to grab sunglasses, or drop in that sweet cantaloupe I just bought from the fruit store on the high street? I think you know the answer to that one.

Fresh photographic equipment stole the show this week, but we also got wind of some great new outdoor gear (and some stuff for desk jockeys).

First the camera news: Sony is coming on strong with the amazing R100 III camera, while Nikon’s most exciting new gadget is an underwater flash. On the outdoorsy front, San Francisco is gearing up for summer with new bags from my favorite bag makers Rickshaw and Waterfield, and if you’re out in the warm/cold spring on your bike, you might like to do it wearing the beautiful Vulpine merino wool cycling jersey. If you’re not the outdoors type, we have you covered too — you can stay home and organize your desk with a handsome wooden pen and phone holder.

Have fun!

Of course you have the Nintendo 3DS in your bag — it’s an outstanding handheld gaming system with a bevy of first- and third-party game titles that range from the strategic to the evocative.

You know the device is capable of some brilliant gaming for adults, but good lord, Nintendo, could you maybe bypass the primary colors? Maybe offer, say, a black version? Something in gold, maybe? The sophisticated folks at Waterfield know that you’re a grownup now, so they’ve created the City Slicker, a lush cocoon of a 3DS and 3DS XL case with a proper leather flap that ages along with you.

WaterField’s Rough Rider is just about the best looking leather bag I’ve hung over my shoulder. It’s also the toughest. And it’s also one of the heaviest. So you see, the bag may be perfect for you, or it may not.

When Heidi from Waterfield Bags wrote to tell me about the Rough Rider, I had no choice but to write about it. It’s called the Rough Rider after all, which pretty much means I can make as many “going commando” and “bareback” jokes as I like.

It’s almost too easy.

No, it’s not a Mac or an iPhone accessory. It’s not even a camera gadget. But I have no doubt you’re going to love the Victor Wallet from WaterField design. It’s thin, it has a soft, finger-loving lining and it comes with a strap to keep it shut.

I’m a huge fan of minimalist bags to carry about my tech items. Why drag around a massive messenger bag to just hold my Macbook Air, an iPad mini, and some power cables? Sometimes though, you need to carry more than just the basics, like a full size iPad, extra batteries, keys, wallets, books, and the like.

The Staad Slim Backpack, then, is a nice mix between these two extremes: it carries the essentials in a compact design, but has a bit more space than you’d think, letting me add in some extras, like a portable power-brick and a pair of glasses in a case.

Tellingly, this backpack is a well-designed thing of beauty, with nary a stitch or seam out of place. The zippers are solid and immeasurably useful, and the placement of pockets is ingenious. The clasp is simple yet secure, and the colors–from the chocolate leather of the front flap to the light brown of the waxed canvas to the inner lining’s patterned orange–just scream style and substance. This is a backpack I can use for a long, long time.

Not interested in a case for you new Retina iPad mini, or the gorgeous iPad Air? Nope, me neither – I want to show that thing off to passersby and pickpockets alike. But what I don’t want to do is carry it in my hand all the time, so I’ll be needing yet another bag for my man-sack collection. [1]

And that bag is the Outback Solo from WaterField Designs.