Gravis Footwear : Prime

Pros Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Lots of storage of all kinds. Sweet mobile phone pouch. Kickin' aesthetics. One bad ass backpack!
Cons Average comfort. Laptop sleeve about an 1/2 shy of perfect fit.
Retail Price : $119.00

Gravis Footwear : Prime Review

I got a call from a fellow in CA the other day and he wus tellin’ me about some cool bags he had found. One of the companies he mentioned was Gravis Footwear. Said they has some bad ass stuff, so I called them, waited with baited breath, and when they finally arrived, by God he was right! The Prime Pack is bad ass! How in the world a company that has Footwear in the name got so much right in a laptop backpack is beyond my limited processor speed. I have had a VERY difficult time letting this backpack go.

As some of you may know, I used to describe each pocket, cubby, and zippered compartment in these reviews. Then one day I re-read an old review and I was like “what the hell am I trying to describe?” Simply put, I couldn’t make heads nor tails out of it so I have forsaken this method. I will let the organizational feature score speak to this.

Now, back to the Gravis backpack.

Our sample was black with a smart red interior. I say smart because I didn’t lose things in backpack as they traveled to the bottom the backpack. Waterfield Designs does this also...makes the interior of their bags yellow. It makes a difference. There were a ton...no...two tons of storage compartments. There is a padded compartment for your CD player but there is no headphone port since this compartment is located in the front main compartment (there are 2 main compartments) and there would be no way to have a headphone port.

The Prime Pack ships with a separate sleeve that is about 1/2” too short for my Powerbook G4 (who says size doesn’t matter?) The sleeve itself offers very little protection other than from scratches since there is very little to no padding in it. I will say though that the interior of the sleeve is lined with some very soft man-made material. I don’t know what it is but I can assure you it isn;’t found naturally in nature.

If Gravis did one thing right (they did many) it was the cell phone pouch. Yes!!! It has one. And not only does it have a cell phone pouch, the pouch can be removed and used as a belt pouch! And not only can it be used as a belt pouch but when you put it on the shoulder strap, you have 4, yes 4, different locations. See the strap has four slits and the pouch can be positioned in any of these! It rocks like Grandpa Walton on the front porch in the Spring. No more phone right up under my chin!

If I had one area I would imp[rove on this backpack it would be in the comfort area. I usually wear a backpack off one shoulder and this one kinda hurt after awhile. Given...it was never meant to be carried like this, but I don’t think it is uncommon.

Let me end by saying that...this is a great laptop bag. It has plenty of room for gear, gadgets, files and even a digital camera. This backpack is one of the best.

Hands down.


Review Rating

AVERAGE SCORE 8.9
Construction 9.0
Comfort 8.5
Organizational Features 9.5
Protection 9.0
Aesthetics 8.5