LederMann Leather Brief Cases

I've been looking for a good leather briefcase/laptop bag. I was just about settled on a Saddleback when I ran across LederMann Leather bags. From my research it looks like they started off on ebay, but they now have a full site and their bags look pretty good and a little less than Saddleback. Anyone around here ever pulled the trigger on one?

http://www.ledermannleather.com/

The warranties are quite different...

Lendermann: Our products are made with the highest standards and rigorous quality assurance in mind. We are confident on what you’re about to buy. We offer a 30-day return policy and also a one-year warranty to cover any manufacturing defects that might arise.

Saddelback: Every piece of Saddleback Leather is built for lifetimes of satisfaction. In fact, we believe in our craftsmen, our materials and our designs so strongly that we warranty every one of them against defects in materials and workmanship for 100 years. If, for any reason, your piece doesn’t live up to what we said it would, then contact us or have one of your descendants get ahold of one of my descendants and we’ll take care of you.

Mike H said:

The warranties are quite different...

Lendermann: Our products are made with the highest standards and rigorous quality assurance in mind. We are confident on what you’re about to buy. We offer a 30-day return policy and also a one-year warranty to cover any manufacturing defects that might arise.

Saddelback: Every piece of Saddleback Leather is built for lifetimes of satisfaction. In fact, we believe in our craftsmen, our materials and our designs so strongly that we warranty every one of them against defects in materials and workmanship for 100 years. If, for any reason, your piece doesn’t live up to what we said it would, then contact us or have one of your descendants get ahold of one of my descendants and we’ll take care of you.

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A one-year warranty is standard in the tech world, but in the soft goods world anything of high quality should have a lifetime warranty IMO.

Saddelback would be my choice purely based on the warranty.

Good point!! I meant to look at the policies.

I should not comment just to give a personal opinion, but the warranty of the LederMann vs Saddleback would not bother me. Unless they are using substandard thread and stitching I can't see how it would make much of a difference. I have neither bag and Saddleback certainly has a great reputation but in general how would one judge a defect in workmanship in 10-20 years, much less 100 years, that was not found when the item was originally used?

StillShaving said:

I should not comment just to give a personal opinion, but the warranty of the LederMann vs Saddleback would not bother me. Unless they are using substandard thread and stitching I can't see how it would make much of a difference. I have neither bag and Saddleback certainly has a great reputation but in general how would one judge a defect in workmanship in 10-20 years, much less 100 years, that was not found when the item was originally used?

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I guess I interpret their warranties as in 10-20 years if the shoulder strap snaps off - the LederMann would say "sorry you've only got 1 year" and the Saddleback would say "Sure thing, we'll fix it or replace it". That's just how I look at it.

Toothpick said:

I guess I interpret their warranties as in 10-20 years if the shoulder strap snaps off - the LederMann would say "sorry you've only got 1 year" and the Saddleback would say "Sure thing, we'll fix it or replace it". That's just how I look at it.

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Probably so, I believe Saddleback has demonstrated that they are willing to fix issues that appeared years after a someone has bought their bag, I give them full credit for that. I am commenting more in the abstract sense about their warranty vs the other company's warranty, since leather is a durable material and a some what legal latitude is provided with the statement "workmanship", which sounds more like the manufacturer did a poor job of stitching together the bag rather than a blanket warranty against failure.

More to the point is that I view a 100 year warranty as pure marketing, as who knows whether a company will even exist in a generation and will how would someone date their vintage bag if it did. But my intent is not to give negative statements about Saddleback as I like the company and their offerings, rather I am saying I am not negative on LederMann because of warranty differences.

I have some LL Bean Knife Edge hiking boots. I love them. They are 20 years old. They have seen a lot of tough miles, but still look decent. However, their soles are shot. Bean has a lifetime satisfaction warranty . Should I send them back? Nope, I'm satisfied.

Here's another perspective...
LederMann is a copy of a saddleback bag. The website is a "wannabe" the photo's they take use the same style background that saddleback uses and the design is a knockoff made in Asia. If that's your deal to save a little $, then by all means. My .02 - if you're going to buy a leather bag over $250, you might as well do it right. Here's a video from Dave I recommend watching - but full disclosure, it has a bitter undertone and I think it doesn't do him a service to take the couple of pot shots he does in the video. When you watch it, you'll see what I mean.

Take a look at Glaser designs. www.[B]glaserdesigns[/B].com/ Beautiful bags. Saddleback make a great bag also.