Carrying your shiny new laptop computer around a busy, bumpy, blisteringly hot urban setting seems like an accident just waiting to happen. Not to worry, we’ve got your back… or your bag, to be exact. Today’s better laptops deserve better laptop carrying cases, and a select few have risen to meet the challenge of safeguarding them. Here are 15 of the coolest, hottest and bestest!
Hands Off My Mac Laptop, Mack!
(images via: Radtech)
Long the watchword for toughness and featuring a bulldog mascot to show it, Mack Trucks exude rugged durability with their no-nonsense functional style. Applied to Apple’s MacBook, the concept becomes MacTruck. The manufacturer, Radtech, states that the MacTruck laptop case is made of “ultra-tough 5052-H32 Aluminum alloy shell that’s rugged enough to drive a truck over!” They didn’t say what KIND of truck so we’ll have to take their word for it. In any case (sorry), the MacTruck features an intriguing design that leaves the access ports unblocked, meaning your precious MacBook stays protected even while you’re using it.
Hey Pizza Case!
(images via: Human Beans)
Now laptop cognoscenti can carry their laptops in Italian style… Italian-style pizza boxes, that is! The PowerPizza laptop disguise hides your portable comp in a corrugated cardboard container “made from genuine Italian-style pizza box” – without all the oily residue and leftover mozzarella to jam the keyboard. Instead, the PowerPizza box is lined with a cushy layer of foam and a red-ribbon type tiedown to keep your laptop from sliding around and sticking to the top of the box. Don’t you just hate when that happens?
A Paper Case For The Paper Chase
(images via: Inhabitat)
Cardboard doesn’t have to be cheap and, er, cheesy. British designer Giles Miller has come up with a very green laptop case that looks brown. Crafted from 100 percent recycled corrugated cardboard, the Corrugated Cardboard Laptop Case even has a recycled name. Giles takes advantage of the cardboard’s fluting to add in custom design tweaks like logos and initials to give the otherwise plain-looking laptop case a personalized touch. All in all, a very nice case and well worth saving for a rainy day… no, wait.
A Carpet Bag For Carpetbaggers
(images via: Design Crack)
Giles Miller of The Farm also makes a laptop case from recycled carpet, assumedly cleaned and vacuumed after laying for a few years on the floor of a British pub – though wouldn’t that aged spilled pint’o’lager aroma be nice? The image above shows one of Millers’ carpeted cases; this one looks more like an old geezer’s bathrobe than a carpet but that’s just me.
Sleeve Laptops Alone!
(images via: Redmaloo and Core 77)
These fitted felt laptop sleeves from Redmaloo can comfortably hold 13, 15 & 17-inch laptops and are hand made in Berlin and Brandenburg, Germany. You know the Germans always make good stuff! In contrast to a certain bright yellow towel, however, Redmaloo’s laptop sleeves come in a wide range of colors and fold out into a cozy workstation with integral mousepad. Umm, wow!
Floppy Laptoppy
(images via: Techeblog)
If you’re a longtime computer user you’ve probably got a few – a few dozen even – old floppy disks moldering away in your junk drawer. If you’re a true geek, you’ve got 42 of ’em… just the right number needed to craft the geekiest laptop case EVAR! The individual floppies are attached to one another via metal rings at their corners – sort of like chain mail for e-mail.
Here’s a video of a Floppy Laptoppy under construction – watch and take notes:
A Little Laptop ‘Lectricity
(images via: The Gadgeteer and Fractalspin)
If the Wichita Lineman look is what turns you on, then the High Voltage Laptop Bag should set off some sparks. Resplendent in army olive green set off by screaming orange High Voltage lettering, this is one serious bag. It seems there should be a companion version in State Trooper navy with neon yellow police Caution tape accents but sadly, there is not.
The Generator: I’ll be Black… Silver, Orange or Green
(images via: Zatz Not Funny and The Blue Marble)
The ominously named Voltaic Generator is a sophisticated solar-powered laptop charging case sent back through time to change the future for one lucky lady… ok, it’s not really from the future but that rap helped The Shermanator score so who am I to quibble? Actually, the Voltaic Generator has nothing to do with turning girls on; but everything to do with turning your laptop on. The solar panel side can generate up to 15 watts of clean electricity with its 20% efficient cells. After 5 hours under the sun, the integral Voltaic battery is fully charged and ready to deliver the juice to your laptop through a custom configured adapter. The case, webbing, mesh and lining are all made from 100 percent recycled PET soda bottles. Very cool… sexy even.
Thrilla In Manilla
(images via: Madame Herve)
Shuky of Australia makes a variety of very cool laptop bags, the most interesting of which resemble paper manilla envelopes – right down to the looped string closing of the flap. The manilla-styled Par Avion series bags come in several sizes and a choice of 5 different colors. The 3D look Samba bags come in 2 color combinations and feature a leather carrying handle.
You Cedar, You Want’er
(images via: Geeksugar)
These eco-friendly cedar wood laptop cases from Monacca are a balanced complement to today’s metal and plastic laptops and netbooks. Made from alternately press-laminated, thinned cedar wood from Umaji Village, Kouchi Prefecture in Japan, these Kaku laptop cases weight less than 2 pounds yet are surprisingly strong. Both the Pink-trimmed and Mocha cases cost over $400 each, however, so it’s not recommended you rely on their strength alone to safely navigate airport conveyor belts and harried baggage handlers.
The 9-5 Corporate Laptop Sleeve
(images via: Stickers and Donuts and Barry’s Farm)
The 9-5 Laptop Sleeve is about as geekish as it gets – well, except for the case made of floppy disks mentioned earlier in this post. Known by those in the know as the Dilbert Laptop Sleeve after corporate America’s long-suffering cubicle denizen, this flannel-lined eyebrow raiser is covered in heavy duty vinyl (sorry, not polyester) and is foam lined for protection against errant pointy-haired bosses – are there any other kinds? – and evil feline HR directors.
The Casual Friday Laptop Sleeve, Part 1
(images via: Voxphoto and Makezine)
We guys love our well-worn t-shirts and it’s a sad day indeed when a fave, much like Jerry Seinfeld’s treasured “Golden Boy”, doesn’t make it through that fatal 1,000,003rd spin cycle. All is not lost, however! With a few strategic stitches (beg your wife or GF to do it if you’re too manly to sew) you can give Golden Boy new life as a laptop carrying case! According to the inventive creator, you end up with “a soft pouch with three compartments, plus a pocket for the power brick. Keeps the dirt off your shiny white laptop and confuses potential thieves.” Right on, because who wants to swipe your dirty laundry – or anything wrapped in it.
The Casual Friday Laptop Sleeve, Part 2
(images via: PugnoM)
Everything gets better once the feminine touch is applied, amirite? The above t-shirt-based laptop sleeve shows what happens when a gen-u-ine girl starts from scratch, using a NEW t-shirt (Golden Boy wouldn’t have a chance). The former shirt collar becomes a handy storage pocket for the power cord and the designer has plans to make subsequent versions with reinforced pockets and optional carry-straps. Girls… is there anything they can’t do?
A Case For House
(images via: Zedomax and DesignerSleeves)
We know a few laptop owners whose machines qualify as biohazards – Dorito crumbs and spilled Pepsi make an ideal growth medium. Even if your laptop IS clean and bacteria-free it might pay to cloak it in a deceptive “bio infectious” sleeve. You never know when you might run into a germ-phobic thief. Practically speaking, these neoprene designer sleeves come in 4 graduated sizes and a multitude of cool designs are available. Thick, slick and durable, you can even sneeze on them… a protective measure in and of itself.
Keep Your Documents In My Document
(images via: ThinkGeek and Slashgear)
To close, we have the ultimate laptop case: a big My Document folder, just like the one on your virtual desktop. Only bigger. It’s cute, it’s geeky, and it even comes with a removable cursor pin that’s cleverly “8-bitted” for effect. The versatile case can be used to carry regular paper documents if you’re a purist or have OCD.
Have laptop, will travel? Then you likely own one of the above 15 laptop cases or sleeves. Maybe more than one – dude, you’re scaring me.
