A Quick Peek at the Aligata Nude Beauty Medium Travel Bag

 A Quick Peek at the Aligata Nude Beauty Medium Travel Bag

It wasn’t too long ago that I reviewed the Aligata Nude Beauty Big Weekend Bag, and they have just sent their newest offering — the Nude Beauty Medium Travel Bag. I’ll have a full review up after I’ve had some time to actually USE the bag and change its color from the nearly white Nude Beauty to a natural honey patina. But in the meantime, I just had to tell you all about it because it is something that I know would be an appreciated holiday gift for your special someone …

A Quick Peek at the Aligata Nude Beauty Medium Travel Bag

The interior sports a waterproof lining, a key fob, a large zippered pocket, a phone pocket and an open slash pocket.

A Quick Peek at the Aligata Nude Beauty Medium Travel Bag

This video shows you a bit more …

Aligata’s Big Weekend Travel Bag was already a favorite, but I can already tell that this will be my new overnight bag. It could also serve as a workout bag, a larger gear bag, or even as a tool bag for the trunk of your Bentley.

If all this bare leather makes you nervous, or if you don’t have the patience to go through the natural tanning process that I outlined in the Weekend Travel Bag review, you can get colors other than Nude Beauty! This custom, made to order full-grain leather bag is also available in Nippon and Black Espresso, and it retails for $399.

Aligata Medium Travel Bag

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Product description

Beautiful, spacious, durable, extremely classy medium travel bag.

Entirely handmade of highest quality, full grain, premium, thick bovine leather, undyed.

Beautiful, convenient, full-leather travel bag.

Closed with a zipper. Internal pocket with a zipper inside the bag and two small internal pockets with a keystrap.

Dimensions and weight

Dimensions: 19.5 in X 10 in X 10 in (49 cm x 25 cm x 25 cm)

Weight: 3 LBS (1.5 kg)

Custom engraving and stitching color

There is a free engraving service available for this item. Choose up to 5 non repeating letters and they will be nicely engraved (Optima font, small letters) on a round leather badge on the front of the bag.

Also, you can choose a stitching color: regular (ivory white), yellow, red, black, brown, blue.

If you want your bag to be customized in this way, please type in the comment field at checkout: “ENGRAVE: <text>, STITCHING: <color>”.

Shipping

This item is handmade upon request. I do not have these bags in Amazon’s stock. As they are made in Poland, they are also shipped from here.

It will take approximately 21 days to make and ship such a bag.

The only shipping method available for this bag is FedEx International Economy. If you order to the US, please choose FedEx, NOT USPS.

Production process

All Aligata products are handmade in a small, traditional workshop located nearby Warsaw (Poland, Europe).

The leather used to make my products comes from Poland. Threads come from the UK.

Leather types

Please, take a moment to read some interesting facts about the leather types used to make Aligata products.

Take a look at the picture showing all three leather types together.

This is NOT faux leather nor PU leather nor eco leather nor any other kind of not-leather. This is beautiful, natural, bovine leather.

All Aligata products are handmade of full grain (please, consult leather glossary here),premium, thick bovine leather. Full grain means, that the surface of the leather is not artificially corrected in any way. You can tell it by many small imperfections, glitches, little scars on the surface. Generally, if you see a leather product which surface is perfect, this is 99% not natural grain.

Take a closer look. You will see on Aligata cases the lines, where the cow bent its neck!

You can sometimes see (if you get really close) very small holes in the leather. These are the places, where horseflies bit the cow’s neck! Seriously!

Each Aligata case is unique. There are no two exactly the same!

You can tell it is full grain, premium bovine leather by:

  • Exposed edges – you can see the structure of the material.
  • Full grain surface retaining little scars, imperfections, glitches.
  • Great feel when you touch it.
  • Wonderful smell of raw leather.
  • Extreme durability.
  • Weight – it is really heavy (since it is thick).

Nude Beauty leather

Premium, thick, genuine bovine leather. It has very elegant, innocent, clean look.

Its surface is full grain, which means that the original structure of the surface has been retained (as opposed to corrected grain leathers, where surface has been torn off and printed artificially).

It is undyed at all. No toxic chemicals have been used during the vegetable tanning process.

Nude Beauty leather is very vulnerable to dirt and liquids. You have to be careful not to stain it with coffee or any other colorful liquids.

Nude Beauty leather will get darker and softer when used regularily. It will additionally darken when exposed to sunshine.

To make the leather softer, darker and more stainproof, you can treat it with neatsfoot oil, mink oil or leather grease.

Nippon leather

Premium, thick, genuine bovine leather. It is softer than Nude Beauty and has more artistic look.

Its surface is full grain, which means that the original structure of the surface has been retained (as opposed to corrected grain leathers, where surface has been torn off and printed artificially).

It is delicately dyed, its color delicately oscylates between brown and orange. No toxic chemicals have been used during the vegetable tanning process.

Nippon leather is vulnerable to dirt and liquids. You have to be careful not to stain it with coffee or any other colorful liquids.

Nippon leather will get darker and softer when used regularily. It will additionally darken when exposed to sunshine.

To make the leather softer, darker and more stainproof, you can treat it with neatsfoot oil, mink oil or leather grease.

Black Espresso leather

Premium, thick, genuine bovine leather. It is very uniform and elegant. This leather is also very durable. A safe choice for both business and home use.

Its surface is full grain, which means that the original structure of the surface has been retained (as opposed to corrected grain leathers, where surface has been torn off and printed artificially).

It is black dyed through. No toxic chemicals have been used during the vegetable tanning process.

Thanks to its color Black Espresso leather is immune to dirt, it is stainproof.

Black Espresso leather will get a shiny surface and become softer when used regularily.

There is no need to additionally treat this kind of leather in any special way.

All Aligata products come with small text “aligata” logo embossed with nice font. See the example product.

No magnets design

There are no magnets in Aligata products. This is, in my opinion, very important. I had replaced my iPhone 4 times (!) in 2009 until I stopped using magnet case (actually, I used BlackBerry case to carry my iPhone – very convenient, but with magnet). And since I replaced the “magnetted” case with silicone sleeve, my iPhone hasn’t hang up even once. There are many articles and discussions on the Web regarding iPhones and magnets. Please, take a look: http://goo.gl/wsWzI.

Precautions

  1. My products are not perfect. Each unit has its own, unique pattern of imperfections. They include little scars, stains, glitches, discolorations. Because the whole process is handmade (the leather is cut from the templates) my cases not always fit perfectly – some units may be rather snug, some other – rather loose.
  2. Please, be careful when using my cases. In some of them (iPad cases, iPad sleeves, iPhone sleeves) there is one open edge and your device may slip out and fall down.
  3. Please, do not try to insert into Aligata case a device, already in another case (plastic silicone or other). You can stretch Aligata case too much that way and then it may be too loose to hold the device alone. The only exception to this is an iPad 2 wearing smart case and put into Aligata envelope or Aligata sleeve.
    Of course this precaution does not apply to Weekend Bags.
  4. Please, do not expose Aligata products to extreme temperatures. They may cause the leather to expand or shrink.
  5. Please, do not expose Aligata products to very humid environments. They may cause the leather to expand or shrink.
  6. If you expose Nude Beauty or Nippon leather to the sun, they will darken.

Warranty

All Aligata products come with 3 years warranty for all leather parts and stitching.

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About the Author

Judie Lipsett Stanford
Judie is the co-owner and Editor-in-Chief of Gear Diary, which she founded in September 2006. She started in 1999 writing software reviews at the now-defunct smaller.com; from mid-2000 through 2006, she wrote hardware reviews for and co-edited at The Gadgeteer. A recipient of the Sigma Kappa Colby Award for Technology, Judie is best known for her device-agnostic approach, deep-dive reviews, and enjoyment of exploring the latest tech, gadgets, and gear.