12 MacBook Backpack

The 12 MacBook Backpack provides an innovative, horizontal protection orientation within the vertical backpack design

• Backpack : 16.75 x 13 x 6
• 18oz

Our 12 MacBook Backpack - Behind the Design

Today we are speaking to MacCase President and Chief Creative Officer Michael Santoro about the company's 12 MacBook Backpack.

JKD - So the 12 MacBook Backpack is special because…..

MS - Almsot all, if not all laptop backpacks are designed to hold the the laptop vertically, inline with the long axis of the backpack and the person wearing it. We do this too. It's standard practice in packaging the elements.

But for the 12 MacBook backpack, we did something different. We turned the computer on it's side so it' horizontal to the world and perpendicular to the long axis of the backpack. 

JKD - And this is special because?

MS - The first thing this does is lower the center of gravity for the pack and therefore lowers the center of gravity for the person wearing it. This increases stability and make it less awkward to do things like walk, ride a bike, etc. It also takes the pressure off your shoulders and upper spine having the weight lower down respectively. 

The second thing it does is creates a much safer place for the 12" MacBook, which, let's face it, is not the much stout computer out there. It's so light and thin and fragile. It can do with all the protection you can offer it.

12 MacBook Backpack - A Turn for the Better

So we offered it a lot. It sits way down in the built-in horizontal sleeve so it's nearly completely covered by the walls of foam and liner. It's very secure, will not rattle around and will be safe from any other items, hardware or otherwise, that you might choose to put inside. 

So those are two very important benefits to the customer. One helps them move through the day easier and the other helps protect their investment. That's good stuff and helps set apart from everyone else.

When it came time to find a backpack solution for Apple latest laptop, the 12" MacBook, we looked long and hard a all kinds of possibilities. We had just spent a lot of time and money developing a new backpack that we were pretty proud of.

 

Our goal was to design and build the 12 MacBook Prp backpack. It was lighter, more compact and provided a higher level of personal safety than any backpack in our history. It was a good place to start. But the 12" MacBook is pretty special and we wanted a protection solution that spoke to that uniqueness.

At MacCase we excel at seeing things differently. When the rest of the world copied each others inferior sleeve designs we kept on making our sleeves with the opening along the short axis that maximized protection.

 

We redefined what a laptop case could be by changing the orientation of the form from horizontal to vertical in our Flight Jacket and Jacket models. The repeated it with our vertically oriented Flight Case, reinventing the leather briefcase.

 

12 MacBook Backpack - The Priority is Protection

JKD - So the design was driven by how best to protect the computer?

MS - Yes, very much so. The question kept coming up as to how best to protect the fragile and vulnerable 12" MacBook. Most laptop backpacks place the laptop in the pack vertically. We should know. We do it on a number of current models. And there are very good reasons for doing this based on sound design principals, packaging and ingress / ingress.

But what if we had a computer that we could turn so it's long axis was perpendicular to the long axis of the pack? What benefit would that provide to you, the customer and the user? Two very important and positive benefits, it turns out.

The first being the fragile and vulnerable 12" MacBook is much safer and more secure because no part of it sticks out above the built in sleeve. It's 100% protected by a thick layer of foam and liner materials. Secondly, while the 12" MacBook is not a heavy laptop, the more you can lower your center of gravity the better. Ask a race car driver.

By placing the computer in the sleeve horizontally, the center of gravity for the entire pack is lower and therefore your center of gravity is lower. All the basic activities you will do while wearing the pack, walking across campus, down a crowded city street, running to a gate to catch a flight, riding a bike or motorcycle, will be made more stable and comfortable due to the lower center of gravity the horizontal orientation provides.

So we started with an extremely lightweight, compact design with separate hardware compartments. Added a little bit of our famous MacCase ingenuity and created what we feel is a 12 MacBook backpack that will provide years of protection for the computer. And with all the personal safety features of the pack, protection for something much more important, our customer.