I first stumbled across this Seattle-based company when researching laptop sleeves, as Tom Bihn’s Brain Cell is highly recommended on forums all across the web. The man for which the company is named got his start in the ’70s making clothing and bags for his friends and acquaintances, and has been at it ever since. This company is committed to green, sustainable manufacturing, as well as creating quality products and quality employment. Tom Bihn proudly manufactures all of their products in the good ol’ U.S. of A.
Brain Cell Laptop Sleeve
Tom Bihn’s $60 Brain Cell is the most protective laptop sleeve in their lineup. In fact, calling it a “sleeve” almost doesn’t do it justice. The Brain Cell has 8mm foam padding inside a shell of 4mm hard plastic corrugate, which is then covered in 500-denier Cordura fabric. There is additional foam on the bottom, sides, and top of the sleeve. The most interesting design element of the Brain Cell is the way it suspends your laptop from the bottom like a hammock, absorbing a great deal of the shock of everyday use. Since this hammock bottom depends on whether you carry your laptop vertically in a backpack, or horizontally in a messenger bag, there are both horizontal and vertical Brain Cells available. The outside of the sleeve offers snap-shut storage inside a mesh pocket, which fit my Mac’s power supply quite nicely. Grab handles and D-rings offer a few different carrying options. The Brain Cell also has a 1” webbing strip sewn onto the outside which acts as a tethering point for all Tom Bihn bags.
The Brain Cell offers the best protection one can imagine, short of a full metal, or hard plastic, laptop storage device. It is offered in eleven different sizes to fit just about every laptop on the market, and is currently offered in three colors: cayenne, steel and black.
Super Ego Messenger Bag
The Super Ego, largest of the Tom Bihn messenger bags, is essentially a two-compartment bag offering 1680 cu. in. of storage. The back and bottom of the Super Ego are lightly padded to protect your goodies, and there is an external document pocket on the back of the bag. The main pocket opens with a large splash-proof zipper and is intended to house your laptop or other bulky items. Inside the main compartment are clips used to secure your Brain Cell. Even with my 13” Macbook inside, there is plenty of room in this pocket for, say, a fleece and a shell jacket.
In front of the main compartment there is a second large pocket, which closes via a messenger-bag-style flap. This pocket serves as your organizer and secondary storage, with three pockets for wallets, phones, and other miscellaneous small stuff as well as three pen slots. Even with the aforementioned laptop-fleece-shell jacket load I was still able to fit my digital SLR camera, a flash, and two mountain bike tubes with room to spare. Outside the front organizing pocket, but still under the front flap, there are two stash pockets, and two vertical zippered pockets that can be accessed with the front flap closed—great for storing bike-oriented tools. And finally, each side of the Super Ego has a water bottle pocket that easily fits a one-liter bottle.
There are three different shoulder straps available, but I went with the most bike-friendly design: the Quick-Adjust Messenger Shoulder Strap, which is 2.5” wide and padded with EVA foam for almost its entire length. You have the option of running a traditional messengerstyle stabilizing strap, which crosses up to the main strap, or using the included waist strap for stabilizing your load.
At first, I was a bit skeptical of the Super Ego as an on-the-bike kinda bag, wrongly assuming that it might be yet another “messenger-style” bag that wasn’t actually well designed to wear on a bike. I’m happy to report that my initial assumption couldn’t be further from the truth. This bag is actually far more comfortable than some other bags I’ve used, thanks to the padded back and very comfy padded shoulder strap. In conjunction with the Brain Cell, this set-up makes carrying my laptop to and from work a much more comfortable and secure operation. The only potential issue with the Super Ego for my use is the fact that it is not truly waterproof. I rode to work (~45min.) in a steady rain a few days and found no water inside my bag, but there’s no guarantee that your stuff would be totally dry after an all-day deluge.
The Super Ego will lighten your wallet to the tune of $165 with the Q-AM shoulder strap, $150 with the standard strap. Check out www.
tombihn.com for color choices, bag options, and more information on this all-American company.
