A leather backpack is a purchase for years — and that is exactly why it is so often bought wrong. In the shop, every model looks good. The questions only come at home: does the laptop fit, or just the tablet? Why does it pull on the shoulders after half an hour? Why does it weigh twice as much empty as the old nylon backpack? And what happens when it rains on the way? If you ask yourself all that before buying, you end up with a backpack that goes with you for ten years.
This guide works through the decision step by step: volume for city, office and day trip, laptop compartment, weight compared with nylon, straps and back padding, roll-top versus flap and zip, real leather versus imitation, patina and care — and when a leather backpack is simply the wrong choice. At the end there is a comparison table with the backpacks from our range.
Which size: volume for city, office and day trip
Backpack sizes are given in litres, and that number tells you more about everyday use than any photo. Three size classes cover almost every purpose.
City and leisure: 10 to 15 litres
Wallet, keys, phone, water bottle, a thin jumper, perhaps a book. Hardly anyone carries more than that around town, and a bigger backpack then hangs half empty and shapeless on your back. A sling with a single strap works well here too.
Office and commute: 15 to 22 litres
As soon as a laptop, charger, A4 documents and lunch come into it, you need height and depth. What matters is less the litres than the inside dimensions: an A4 ring binder measures around 32 × 29 centimetres, a 14-inch laptop about 31 × 22 centimetres. The main compartment has to be at least that big inside — the main compartment, not the sum of all the pockets.
Day trip: 20 to 30 litres
Jacket, packed lunch, a large bottle, camera or seat pad: for a day in the countryside or a city break you need room to spare at the top. Models with a flap-over or roll-top have the advantage here, because their volume adapts — small when half full, large when packed.
How to work it out without a litre figure
Not every maker states the volume, and that goes for our models too. In that case, width × height × depth in centimetres divided by 1,000 gives you a rough upper limit — the actual capacity is lower, because pockets, seams and the curve of the leather take up space. The outside dimensions of our leather backpacks are on each product page: the Classic Backpack Pako measures 32 × 34 × 17 centimetres, the Robi Mountain Backpack 35 × 38 × 8 centimetres, the City Bag Theodor 30 × 18 × 10 centimetres.
Laptop compartment: yes or no?
The honest answer: a dedicated padded laptop compartment is rare in leather backpacks, and none of our models lists one as padded. The leather is thick and stiff enough to absorb knocks, but it is not foam padding. If you take your computer with you every day, you have three options. First: a main compartment that is big enough, plus a thin neoprene sleeve — the solution most people choose. In the Classic Backpack Pako a 13-inch device fits comfortably going by the area, 14 inches is tight, 15 inches is out. Second: keep laptop and backpack separate — if you regularly sit with clients in a suit, you are better served anyway by a leather laptop bag with a documented compartment. Third: no laptop, just a tablet, in which case a compact backpack or a sling is enough.
Weight: what leather weighs compared with nylon
This is where the biggest difference lies, and it is the one most often underestimated. A backpack made of sturdy cowhide or buffalo leather usually weighs between one and one and a half kilograms empty. A nylon backpack of the same size often weighs under 500 grams. That is an extra kilogram every day, before you have packed so much as a water bottle.
Whether that bothers you depends on how you use it. From the car park to the office, a kilogram makes no difference. On a twenty-minute walk to the train, twice a day, you will feel it in your shoulders after a few weeks — especially with narrow straps.
Three designs reduce the weight without giving up the leather: thinner leather, which carries lighter but shows scratches sooner; leather only where the load is — base, straps, edges, the rest in textile, as with our Hodalump City Rucksack with its reinforced buffalo-leather base; and simply less volume.
Carrying system: straps, back padding and the single-strap sling
A heavy backpack doesn't forgive bad straps. Three points decide whether you still enjoy carrying it after an hour.
Strap width and padding
Narrow straps dig in as soon as there is any weight. As a rule of thumb, they should be at least five centimetres wide at the shoulder; the padding needn't be thick, but it must be soft enough that the leather edge doesn't press. Straps made purely of leather are stiff at first and only mould to the shoulder after a few weeks.
Adjustment range
The backpack sits right when its lower edge is roughly level with the hip bones and the bag doesn't tip backwards. For that, the straps need room to go up and down — in a winter coat the upper body is noticeably thicker than in a T-shirt.
Back padding
Leather against the back feels warm in summer, there's no arguing that away. A breathable mesh back panel solves it, but costs you the closed leather look. If you walk a lot, weigh the back panel more heavily than the looks.
One strap instead of two: the sling
The backpack with a single diagonal strap is a category of its own. Our City Bag Theodor is built that way: a 6.5-centimetre-wide padded strap, adjustable from 74 to 105 centimetres; the bag sits at an angle across your back and can be swung round to the front in one movement. For town and concerts with light luggage it is ideal, because you can get at your wallet and phone without taking it off. For heavy loads the sling is no good: one strap means one shoulder, and from two or three kilograms of contents it becomes lopsided. For a laptop the Theodor is too small anyway at 30 × 18 × 10 centimetres; tablet, book and water bottle fit.
Roll-top, flap or zip
The closure determines how quickly you get at the contents, how well the backpack protects against rain and other people's hands, and whether its volume adapts.
The zip is the quickest and clearest solution: one pull and everything lies open in front of you. Its drawback: it is the first thing to wear out, because it is moved several times a day, often one-handed and at an angle, and on top of the backpack it is the spot where water gets in when it rains. The Classic Backpack Pako is built that way: main compartment with a wraparound zip, plus a front pocket for keys and headphones. For office and commute it is the most practical design, because you don't have to unbuckle a flap first on the train.
The flap with buckle is the classic form and visually the calmest. It protects well against rain from above, because no zip lies exposed, and when the bag is full it can simply be fastened higher up. In return it costs time: buckle open, flap up, and underneath often a drawstring or zip as well. The Robi Mountain Backpack combines both: a flap-over with a clip buckle, and a zip underneath. Closed, it is tight and flat; opened up, it gives you room at the top — made for jacket, packed lunch and water bottle on a day out.
The roll-top is the most weatherproof option. Rolled over three times and fixed with a buckle, not a drop gets in from above, and the volume grows with the contents. Drawbacks: to open it you always have to unroll it completely, fully loaded the backpack looks tall and narrow, and without an outside pocket small items are hard to reach. A roll-top is the choice for cycle commuters and anyone who is regularly out in the rain.
Leather backpacks for women and men: how they differ
Most leather backpacks are unisex: a 32-centimetre-wide backpack with adjustable straps fits almost any back. There are differences all the same, in three things.
Strap length and strap spacing. For smaller people the straps need to shorten far enough, otherwise the backpack hangs at the back of the knees. And straps that are set too far apart at the top slip off narrow shoulders. If you are under 1.65 metres tall, pay more attention to this than to the volume.
Format. What people search for as a women's backpack is often smaller, taller than it is wide and gets by with fewer outside pockets — it replaces the handbag, not the briefcase. What people search for as a men's backpack is usually bigger, wider, with a front pocket and designed around a laptop and A4. What matters, though, is not the label but what you actually carry: a woman with a laptop needs the same backpack as a man with a laptop.
Colour and leather. Men's backpacks are dominated by dark brown, cognac and black in sturdy, matt leather — brown forgives scratches best and gets better-looking with time. Women's models more often come in lighter shades and finer leather; that looks more elegant but shows every sign of use. Our backpacks are all designed as unisex models; you will also find the larger formats among the men's bags, where shoulder bags and briefcases sit alongside the backpacks.
Real leather or imitation: how to tell the difference
Some people deliberately look for a backpack in imitation leather because it is lighter, cheaper and animal-free. Others want to be sure they aren't getting an imitation when they pay for real leather. The same applies to both: you should know what you have in your hand.
Five tests work without a laboratory. The smell: real leather smells of leather, imitation leather of plastic or of nothing at all. The surface: real leather has an irregular grain, pores, sometimes scars — imitation leather shows an even, repeating pattern. The edge: real leather is fibrous at the cut, imitation leather shows a textile layer under a thin coating. Pressure: real leather forms fine creases under your thumb and slowly recovers; imitation leather stays smooth or kinks. Warmth: leather takes on the warmth of your hand, plastic stays cool and feels slightly sticky. How to tell full-grain leather from coated split leather on top of that is explained in the guide How to recognise real leather.
For a backpack, that means: imitation leather cracks at the places that are constantly moving — where the straps attach, the edge of the flap, the base. After two or three years the coating flakes off. Real leather goes soft and dark in the same places, but it stays intact. Over ten years that is the decisive difference; for two seasons, imitation leather can be the sensible choice.
Patina and care: how the backpack ages
A leather backpack looks its worst on the day you buy it. That sounds exaggerated, but with sturdy, open-pored leather — like the buffalo leather of our models — it is meant literally: at the start it is uniformly matt and stiff. With wear it becomes darker and shinier where it is handled, the straps mould to the shoulder, the edges round off. Scratches that give you a fright on the first day can be rubbed in with your thumb or a drop of grease and disappear into the patina. What happens in the process and which stains remain is covered in the guide Patina, water stains, scratches: how leather ages.
Care is manageable. Wipe off dust and street dirt now and then with a dry or barely damp cloth. Two or three times a year, apply a thin layer of leather grease or leather balm, above all to the straps, edges and base — the parts that work hardest. The most common mistake is too much grease: it doesn't soak in, attracts dust and rubs off on light clothing. After rain, empty the backpack, leave it open to dry at room temperature, never on the radiator and never in the sun, and only then grease it sparingly.
Two spots deserve particular attention: the base, which shows abrasion first if it isn't reinforced, and the strap seams, from which the entire weight hangs — they should be stitched and riveted, not just glued.
When a leather backpack is the wrong choice
A good guide also says who it doesn't want to sell to. In four situations you won't be happy with leather.
Hiking and mountain tours. A leather backpack has no frame, no hip belt, no chest strap and no ventilated back panel. On a five-hour climb with three litres of water, a jacket and provisions, that is a back problem, not a question of style. The Robi Mountain Backpack is called that because it is made for a day out with a packed lunch — not for a hut-to-hut trek. For that you take a hiking pack with a frame; the leather comes along to the inn in the evening.
Constant rain. Leather can take a shower. It can't take twenty minutes of cycling in pouring rain, every day, for four weeks: it gets heavy, stained and stiff as it dries. Water-repellent leather — as on the Robi — extends the time before water gets through; it doesn't make the backpack waterproof. If you commute by bike in all weathers, you need a rain cover or a different material: our PET backpack made of recycled PET is water-repellent, lighter and has a breathable back panel that leather can't offer.
Every gram counts. Hand luggage with a tight limit, day tours on foot, a back that plays up anyway: then the kilogram of empty weight is a real argument against leather. A textile backpack with a leather base is the compromise here.
No appetite for care. Leather wants greasing two or three times a year and drying properly after rain. That is little, but it isn't nothing. If you are going to replace the backpack after three years anyway, you are paying a premium for leather that never pays off.
Conclusion
Buy a leather backpack for what you carry every day, not for the photo. For town and light luggage, 10 to 15 litres or a single-strap sling is enough. For office and commute you need a main compartment that takes a laptop and A4, ideally with a zip and a front pocket. For a day out, a flap-over or roll-top with room to spare at the top is the better form. Reckon on one to one and a half kilograms of empty weight, check strap width and adjustment range, and choose real leather only if you want to carry the backpack for a long time — for mountain tours, constant rain and strict weight limits, a different material is the more honest choice. The table above puts our backpacks side by side, with the recommendation first — each handmade, as befits a family business since 1947.