Slappa Ballistix Aura Pro-Tour Backpack Review Discussion

[Cin']

Nice review....this wouldn't be my choice, but it will work for plenty of peep's out there.

It, looks to be a very durable and long lasting backpack And, the Slappa brand is known to be very reliable

Cin

[SLAPPADom]

David

I like these types of questions because it gives us the ability to explain why we do what we do (and opens the doors for suggestions and input).

The zipper tapes we use on this bag are nylon and water can seep through if the bag is submerged in water (IE dunked in a pool and held under water) or if the user is in a situation where exposed to extreme water conditions for a prolonged period of time (IE if you are caught in a rain storm for a very prolonged period of time without cover).

When making this backpack we thought about whether or not to use "water resistant zippers" (which means the zipper tape is made of a coated PU instead of uncoated nylon or polyester) and there were a couple of reasons why we didn't go with the waterproof zippers.

1) "water resistant" zippers are relatively expensive for what they actually do (and don't do). While "water resistant zippers" do provide "more" water protection, there really are no zippers that are "waterproof" to the point where water will not enter the bag if submerged, and while the user will get the perception of "my bag is waterproof" that's not really the case. So we had to make a hard decision of "is the cost worth the perception VS. the reality".

2) the design of this bag (with regards to the main section storing SLR gear) is a "bag within a bag" concept, so when we tested the bag for water under extreme conditions, we saw in instances when there was slight leakage (when the bag is submerged into water or kept in simulated rain for extended periods) the small amount of leakage that occurred would be protected (or should I say the gear within the bag would be protected) by the inner "gear bag"....and the amount of leakage was minimal to the point where the outside part of the inner bag was wet with a few drops of water, and the inside of the inner bag was completely dry.

3) For the laptop section, the zipper is actually not "immediately" exposed to the outer elements, and is protected by the flap--so again unless the bag is submerged there is no worry for the dedicated laptop section to have water penetrate.

I hope this answers your question

Dom

[J.R. Nelson]

John, The product dims are actually 17" high X 9.5" deep (front to back) X 12.5" across. The weight is 4.5 lbs empty (including the inner bag).

Adyingwren, we did approach Jerry when we were making our first prototypes because we know that he see's most every bag/case come across his desk, and we figured he had better insight as to the shortcomings of other bags AND the needs of notebook users and SLR photographers.

As he stated in his above post, there is absolutely no remuneration or compensation of any sort. We simply asked for his advice and he graciously provided it. If you know anything about SLAPPA, we are ALWAYS asking for advice from customers, experts (which is what we classify Jerry as), resellers and sales people. When I am in retail stores I ALWAYS ask people what they like, what they don't like and what they want to see. At first people think I'm insane, but when I then explain to them why I ask these questions, 99% of them appreciate the fact that I'm trying to build products based on feedback.

Jonhapimp.....$135 is alot for a pimp like you ??? I really believe that for what we've built into this bag (and the fact that it's a 2 bag set) the price point is a steal (but of course you would expect me to say that since it's my brand)

Thanks

Dom at SLAPPA

For what it's worth, I think it's cool that you guys are willing to take what critics have to say to heart. It's hard to see how that's a negative for users at large.

[Theros123]

Hey, a happy Slappa user here. I've been shoving my Asus G1s into a backpack of your for around 1 and a half years no without any problems at all. It's much easier to pull out a laptop out of a backpack than to carry around another over the shoulder laptop bag.

This bag looks quite sweet...too bad I'm no photographer.

[John Ratsey]

John, The product dims are actually 17" high X 9.5" deep (front to back) X 12.5" across. The weight is 4.5 lbs empty (including the inner bag).

Thanks for this clarification. I see the dimensions in the review have now been edited.

John

[David]

Jerry and Dom, thank you for your replies

[J.R. Nelson]

David

I like these types of questions because it gives us the ability to explain why we do what we do (and opens the doors for suggestions and input).

The zipper tapes we use on this bag are nylon and water can seep through if the bag is submerged in water (IE dunked in a pool and held under water) or if the user is in a situation where exposed to extreme water conditions for a prolonged period of time (IE if you are caught in a rain storm for a very prolonged period of time without cover).

When making this backpack we thought about whether or not to use "water resistant zippers" (which means the zipper tape is made of a coated PU instead of uncoated nylon or polyester) and there were a couple of reasons why we didn't go with the waterproof zippers.

1) "water resistant" zippers are relatively expensive for what they actually do (and don't do). While "water resistant zippers" do provide "more" water protection, there really are no zippers that are "waterproof" to the point where water will not enter the bag if submerged, and while the user will get the perception of "my bag is waterproof" that's not really the case. So we had to make a hard decision of "is the cost worth the perception VS. the reality".

2) the design of this bag (with regards to the main section storing SLR gear) is a "bag within a bag" concept, so when we tested the bag for water under extreme conditions, we saw in instances when there was slight leakage (when the bag is submerged into water or kept in simulated rain for extended periods) the small amount of leakage that occurred would be protected (or should I say the gear within the bag would be protected) by the inner "gear bag"....and the amount of leakage was minimal to the point where the outside part of the inner bag was wet with a few drops of water, and the inside of the inner bag was completely dry.

3) For the laptop section, the zipper is actually not "immediately" exposed to the outer elements, and is protected by the flap--so again unless the bag is submerged there is no worry for the dedicated laptop section to have water penetrate.

I hope this answers your question

Dom

Would it be possible to build an item with secondary zippers? If a user was just running the bag somewhere, they could zip one set of zippers, and if they wanted a little more protection, they could zip the other set of zippers. I suppose you'd have to stagger them so they weren't located one right beneath the other.

[SLAPPADom]

JR

I'm going to work on a couple of samples using your idea and will test it out to see how it works.

I'll report back to you in a few weeks

THANKS!!

Dom

[dtwn]

I use a Slappa as well, the Velocity Matrix. Excellent bag, but the zip sliders for my first bag were not as good as I hoped. The second has held up rather well so far.

[luke123]

Hi

Can Dom or a representative from Slappa possibly provide the names of retailers in Hong Kong which stock Slappa notebook backpacks and bags?

Thanks!

Luke