Know what you're paying for.

Let's be honest here; when I (Jarrod Stillman) first started indulging my vice for good luggage I made some pretty shit bags. I tried all sorts of options to make the awesome bags I saw in my head but it proved harder to execute than I expected. I even dipped my munted toe, for a brief moment, into the Chinese mass market. Failure became my greatest teacher.

It was these trials that showed us that there are too many shitty bags out there and what our customers wanted was something that was built to last and crafted to look good. And we will, from this time forward, always stay true to that.

Cheap and quick is the pallet of most buyers in Australia these days. A market fed to fat when giant factories in China, filled with hundreds of workers toil 6 days a week to pump out thousands of facsimiles of the same bag. Any half hearted search on Etsy, Ebay, AliExpress and Amazon will reveal identical looking bags sold under multiple brands all over the world. It's simply a matter of finding the best price and cheapest delivery options.

Now I want to make it clear: some of these bags are pretty damn well made considering their price. I'm not going to lie - if you treat them well, they will last you for years! Even if they don't come with a warranty. 

But here are just some of the things that you won't get:

• You won't get attention to detail - quotas determine speed in big factories
• You won't get innovative, practical design - It must be simple enough for the dumbest worker in the factory to make
• You won't get premium hardware or zips - "Antique brass" is not real brass, it's plastic coated zinc. 
• You won't get environmentally friendly leather - cheap leather is made and sold by the tonne, fast and dirty using poisonous chemicals that remain in the leather
• You won't get originality - The factories that make these unlabelled bags produce thousands that they then sell to hundreds of distributors who buy pallets of units to on-sell over Alibaba, AliExpress, Facebook and Etsy. 

The Commodore Messenger bag is a great example of the hard lessons Jack Stillman has undertaken since our 2014 foundation. This bag is on its 4th iteration. It's not made in China, it's made in Vietnam which is the world leader in technical bag manufacturing. The basic design is still the same but the practicality of its features has been tweaked and enhanced at the expense of cutting costs. (Like all of our designs, if we can't make it the way it needs to be made, we won't make it)

The Commodore is not cheap. Not in anyway. The materials, the process to craft it and the underlying principles of Jack Stillman mean that your investment can be made with confidence.

Shown here is the Commodore Jungle. It's a medium sized messenger bag designed for users who want a bag that looks semi formal but with rugged chops. It's enhanced for riders of course but it can hold its own in a boardroom setting - if the owner comes with compatible sized cahonas. 

The Commodore has a wide main chassis with space for larger (17") laptops. The flap is widened at the top to protect the interior and full length YKK zipper from rain.

Two unique side pockets are designed to take 700ml water bottles with a 3D design that extends into the main compartment.

On the back of the bag we have included handles and loops for easy attaching to motorcycles and bicycles - if that's your thang. 

And don't forget our 10 year warranty.

Check out more of the Commodore by clicking the link below. Waiting time on the Jungle Commodore is approximately 2 weeks at the time of sending this email.

Available in Jungle and Desert, the Commodore is $269.95 with free shipping within Australia.