After lusting after them for quite some time, I finally broke down and ordered a Filson 257 laptop briefcase. Quality-wise, it's everything I expected it to be. However, I'm concerned about the zipper. It's big, brass, and sharp, and I can imagine the potential for it to abrade items as they're inserted and removed from the briefcase on a daily basis, particularly my laptop (a 15" MacBook Pro), which is something of a tight fit with its padded sleeve.

Any feedback from longtime Filson users?

Topsider wrote:

After lusting after them for quite some time, I finally broke down and ordered a Filson 257 laptop briefcase. Quality-wise, it's everything I expected it to be. However, I'm concerned about the zipper. It's big, brass, and sharp, and I can imagine the potential for it to abrade items as they're inserted and removed from the briefcase on a daily basis, particularly my laptop (a 15" MacBook Pro), which is something of a tight fit with its padded sleeve.

Any feedback from longtime Filson users?

nephew,
i have a tumi which i would highly recommend

It should soften up after a couple months. My 257 is ~3 years old and I remember exactly what you're talking about.

Same with the shoulder strap--when I first received my bag, the leather shoulder strap was so stiff it was actually painful to carry on my shoulder.

I've had a 258 for a few years and can verify that the zipper can scrape up the outer edges of a laptop if you're not careful. This never bothered me too much because my work laptop, a Dell, has a metal case and is pretty much impervious to abuse.

Do y'all routinely close the zipper, or just use the snap flap?

I've found the surface of a MacBook holds up pretty well to the comparably softer metal of the zipper. That being said I use an 11" Air in a neoprene sleeve more for the other crap I'm liable to jam in there. The whole thing will soften up considerably so either way it shouldn't continue to present an issue.

I just started using the Filson 257 brief that I bought in December (Merry Christmas to me), and just had to bump this thread. Switching briefcases is harder than I thought. I had a place for everything in my old one, and I had to figure it out all over again with the Filson.

The damn zipper has already claimed the skin on one of my knuckles. This may take some getting used to.

On a related note, I'm not sure how many of you guys look at StyleForum (I don't usually), but I ran across this thread there recently. It's got some great pics of well-loved Filson bags.

http://www.styleforum.net/t/133759/fils ... h-pictures

On a related note:

"Slim Down"
http://www.redclaysoul.com/?p=4293

My Filson's zipper claimed a second knuckle today...

When I imagined this thing with a patina, I didn't expect it to include blood stains!

I feel your pain, so to speak. You get an item that is perfection aesthetically but for whatever reason it just doesn't work practically for you.

I bought one of those Grenfell raincoats and the liner is driving me crazy. It seems to bunch up inside the coat -- almost as if the coat were a 42R and the liner a 44R. Also, when I button up the coat and wak down the street for more than a couple of blocks, the coat works itself gradually backward off my neck and up the front of my torso -- so that it becomes tight around the chest/sternum (especially pronounced if I am wearing a scarf) and I have to yank the coat skywards by the back of the collar and pull it back up my neck so that the whole thing sits correctly again.

These are the sorts of things that it's just impossible to predict before purchasing, and using, an item. The coat works great without the liner and will be a terrific late spring/early fall coat but it's just not gonna work for me in the colder months when I need warmth but it's precipitating too heavily to wear my regular camel's hair topcoat. I guess I'm just gonna have to get one of those tweed/raincoat reversibles from O'Connell's.

Sorry to go off on a tangent, but it's bugging me.

Sometimes you have to bleed for love.

I'm adapting. Unconsciously, I've developed a tendency to pull the zipper wide open when I access the contents of my Filson, and to keep my knuckles clear of the jaws of death, er...the zipper. So far, so good.