STM Nomad (extra small) (Features Score: 7.0; Access. Score: 8.3/10)

Overall:

Pros =  20.0 points; Cons =  -13.0 points; The STM Nomad Features Score = 7.0 points. (Score sheet posted below.) Accessibility score: 8.3 out of 10. (Details in Accessibility section below)

Video:

The STM Nomad Wanders Just Outside of Excellence

It is important to note one thing that is entirely unclear about STM Nomad.  If you look online you will find that this bag comes in three different sizes: x-small (11 inch laptops), small (13 inch laptops), and medium (15 inch laptops).  What's odd is that when you look at the specs online, all three bags have the same dimensions.  I just figured that it must be a typo.  In fact, it's NOT a typo (as you can see on the tag below).  The only thing that differentiates the bags is the size of the laptop sleeve!

As you know, I am trying to find a Crossover Commuter Bag that is a more compact alternative to my Crossover Day Pack, so I selected the "x-small" version hoping that it would fit my needs.  I was disappointed to discover that there was nothing extra small about the bag.  It's not a bad size, but I was expecting even smaller.  To top it off, the 11 inch laptop sleeve bangs around in the bag.  Most companies will design a removable laptop sleeve to velcro into place. This is not the case in the Nomad. The sleeve is simply too small for the overall dimensions of the bag given that it cannot be affixed to the bag's back wall in any way.  (See photo below.)

Had I known that the bags' dimensions were all the same regardless of the size selected, I would have gone for the one with the largest laptop sleeve (I do have a 15 inch MacBook Pro).   (Ultimately, I would never use the bag to carry my laptop because if I needed to carry my laptop, I would use my pack, not a shoulder bag.  However, it would be nice to have a padded laptop sleeve just in case...)

So, I was disappointed from the start.  However, this bag has a lot of good features that might make it useful to you despite being less useful to me.

The Good Stuff

1.  It is a roomy bag but it does not look huge.  There is certainly space to carry a 15 inch laptop, my camera insert, my headphones, file folders, my iPad, etc.  There is no doubt that it has the capacity to carry everything I need. And more.   

2. The shoulder strap and shoulder pad is perfect.  It is wide, adjustable, stout, and yet flexible.  This is the best shoulder strap I have reviewed.  The photo below shows the cam buckle that you use to adjust the length of the strap.  It is remarkably easy to use.  Look at other photos in this article to see the superb shoulder pad.

3. The zipper on the flap that allows you to get access to the main compartment is useful and well-designed (in terms of location and length).  Unzipping it gives you FULL access to the whole main compartment without having to unlatch the flap.  It's also a reversed zipper which improves weather proofing.  I wish that all messenger bags had this design as it would essentially allow them all to serve as soft-sided brief cases (see my article about this here).

4.  There are a multitude of pockets of various sizes, security, and access.  It really allows you to customize how you organize all of your stuff. The iPad pocket and one of the front pockets under the flap are even fleece lined!  There are pockets for something as small as a pen and as large as a file folder.

5.  It has a wide, flat bottom that SHOULD allow it to stand up straight. (As you will read below, it does not, unfortauntely.)

6.  It is made from a flexible and soft material that allows the bag to conform to your body when wearing it and it does not cause your clothing to pill.

7.  The laptop sleeve is well made and useful.  It has a pocket on the front and handles to allow it to be used independently of the Nomad.  It also is fleece lined and it opens up along two sides making is a cinch to extract or replace your laptop.

The Not So Good Stuff

1.  The latch design is flawed. It's a bit hard to explain, so bear with me.  The webbing that attaches the metal hook latch to the bag is sewn into the rear side of the bag (see below):

"Why is this a problem?" you might ask.  It is an issue if you pick up the bag by the handle (as opposed to the shoulder strap).  Of course, this is something I do all the time when moving it to and from the car or picking up the bag to rush to a meeting.  Note in the next photo that the flap covers most of the front of the bag when the bag is sitting on the counter:

Now note what happens when you lift the bag by the handle:

Depending on how much you have in the bag and how tightly you have cinched the webbing, it does sometimes lift the bottom edge of the flap on to the top edge if the pockets behind the flap.  When this happens, the flap gets stuck on this "shelf" and gives the appearance of a plumber showing us parts we don't want to see.  

Here is what the webbing/latch combination looks like when lifting the bag by the handle (compare this to the photo above of the webbing/latch combination when the bag is sitting on the counter):

It looks awful, but more importantly, it feels awful.  The bag stretches, twists, and flops all over the place when held like this.  (Imagine the air space under the flap.)  It also means that the handle on the top shifts towards the rear of the bag and this leads the bottom back edge of the bag to tip inwards and hit your knee when you are walking with the bag. (See photo below.)

Now you might ask: "Why not simply cinch the webbing tighter?  That sounds good in theory, but in practice, when you have cinched down the webbing, it makes it a lot more difficult to connect and disconnect the latch to/from the loop on the flap when the webbing it shorter.  You end up fighting with the stuff in your bag as you stretch the hook forward to connect to or disconnect from the flap loop.  You also end up squeezing all your items in the main compartment together and this makes it a pain to see and pull out an item using the excellent top zipper.

If STM had simply sewn the end of the webbing to the BOTTOM front edge of the bag, this would not have been an issue.  Of course, if this were the case, the metal hook latches might fall off of their loops more easily every time you set the bag down on the floor or desk and there is no longer tension to hold the hooks in place.  With the current design, gravity keep the hooks in place.  The bottom line: an altogether bad latch design.

2.  The bag is bigger than I expected given that it is advertised as the x-small size.  This is really misleading by STM.  I was hoping that "x-small" meant that the whole bag was scaled down from the small and medium sizes to fit an 11" laptop. Instead, as mentioned in the opening, it is the same size bag with different size laptop inserts.    

3.  The laptop sleeve does not connect to the bag via velcro.  Since I have the smallest sleeve, that means that its size allows it to bang around in the bag.  This would not be the case with medium size insert (the one I suppose I should have gotten).

4.  There is no side pocket for a water bottle.  There is a whole lot of empty real estate for a water bottle pocket on the sides, too. Almost all STM shoulder bags have water bottle pockets.  Why not this one, too?  While I am creating a "wish list," STM should add a side pocket that would be zippered, fleece-lined, and padded for either an iPhone or a pair of sunglasses.

5.  The organizer panel on the front flap is a mess.  Having an organizer panel on the flap is great idea, but you could imagine that you would want to keep items in there that you typically need within easy reach such as a wallet or pen.  Unfortunately, the slip pockets within the panel are not really wide enough for my wallet:

Yes, it does fit, but it is a squeeze (and I do not have an unusually large wallet by any means).  The tight fit makes it hard to extract and replace my wallet meaning that this is not going to serve as a good place for my wallet.

Also, note (below) that the single(!) pen pocket is too shallow for a regular-sized pen.  I put my stylus in that slot because it is shorter.  The regular pen is in the larger pocket to the left of the stylus, but note that the zipper flap covers the top of the pen.  Once again, this makes it a pain to extract and replace a pen.  You also must be sure that the pen is shoved all the way into its slot or you will not be able to zip up the compartment.

The problem is that STM could not really make this pocket any taller if it was going to serve as the organizer panel.  There is room to increase its height upward, but consider what happens when you move the flap out of the way.  You inevitably invert the pocket in the process.  If the pockets were placed at the bottom edge of the flap panel with an appropriate amount of head room to access the items, when you inverted the flap, all of your stuff would fall out of the slip pockets.  While everything would remain in the zippered compartment, it might not be as organized as you had hoped.

6.  There is no open file folder pocket on the back of the bag for quick access (slipping in your mail, holding a boarding pass or magazine, etc.).  It seems like a huge oversight as there is nothing on the back of the bag to prevent adding a single full width pocket.  It's completely blank:

7.  The bag is saggy and has little structure to it.  I realize that this flexibility allows the bag to better conform to your body when wearing the bag, but there is so little structure that the bag will flop over when sitting on its bottom.  The only reason it is not tipping over in these photos is due the camera insert that I have placed in the bag that makes the bag both bottom heavy and stiffer.

Accessibility:

A bag's accessibility is rated on a 1 - 10 scale (10 = most).  Three major compartments are judged.  The accessibility scores for this bag:

Organizer pocket = 7. It's right on the flap making it accessible as an organizer panel, but the panel itself is lacking.  As described above, it is simply too short and the pockets inside of it are unable to accommodate many of the typical things that people want to have within easy reach.

Main compartment = 10. The saving grace of this bag is the large zipper on the top of the flap that gives you complete access to the main compartment. Of course, it does not give you access to the pockets in the front; technically, they are not part of the main compartment so I will not take points off.

Laptop/tablet compartment = 8. While STM gives you a laptop sleeve, the sleeve itself is not built into the bag and it is designed to be used independently of the bag itself. As a result you do need to unzip the sleeve in order to extract your laptop. That means that you're going to through two zippers to get access to a laptop since the sleeve must be stored inside the main compartment. As always, it is best to have a separate device compartment that is externally accessible.

Accessibility Score: 8.3 out of 10.

Other Photos

Score Sheet:

Item	Points +	This Bag	Notes
Made with Cordura or similar nylon material	2
Straight stitching, doubled in high stress zones, taped seams - well put together	1	1
Made with soft polyester making it flexible, quiet, gentle on clothing	2	2
Stout zippers, large pulls, and hardware	1
Reinforced bottom for durability and/or weather resistance	1
Compression straps to slim bag	0.5	0.5	latch system does this
Large external water bottle pockets	2
Separate, external access to laptop/tablet compartment	3	1	sort of
Separate iPad pocket	3	3
Fleece-lined external pocket for eyeglasses or phone	3
External pocket for eyeglasses or phone	2
Large rounded or paddded handle	1	1
Handle centrally placed (front to back)	0.5	0.5
Multitude of pockets for organization	2	2
Open slide in pocket for file folders (internal)	2	2
Open slide in pocket for file folders (external)	2
Ability to slide over handle of rolling luggage	1
Laptop section that is TSA friendly (opens up without laptop removal)	1
Flat bottom and perpendicular sides allow bag to stand on own	2	2
Organizer panel within an outer pocket to allow to easy access	1	1
A dedicated cell-phone pocket	1
A dedicated cell-phone pocket that is large enough to fit an iPhone 6	0.5
Large padded shoulder pad with stick coating	1	1
No Velcro used to keep flap closed (quiet and professional)	2	2
Xtra bright inner lining allowing you to see items easily	2
Light inner lining allowing you to see items easily	1	1
Stiff build that maintains the pack's structure when loading/placing	2
Outer lashing points for attaching accessories	1
	Total	20
Item	Points -	This Bag	Notes
Soft material that will not wear as well as nylon	-1	-1
Simple handle that digs into hand	-0.5
Cannot stay upright due to design	-3	-3
Tips forward when sitting - unstable	-1	-1
No fleece lining in outside pocket for glasses	-1	-1
No fleece lining in the laptop or tablet pockets	-0.5
No pass through for attaching to rolling luggage	-1	-1
No dedicated tablet pocket	-2
No external pocket for glasses, phone	-1	-1
No flap for weatherproofing	-1
No external pocket for holding a water bottle	-1	-1
No lash points	-0.5	-0.5
Handle in middle prevents easily hanging bag on hook	-0.5
Poor hardware choice or design (small zippers, placement of compression straps, etc.)	-1	-1
Lack of reinforced bottom allow for excess wear and poor weatherproofing	-1	-1
Black interior making it hard to see item in the bottom of bag	-1
No open file folder pocket	-2
Velcro closure for main flap (loud and unnecessary)	-2
No strap or buckle to hold laptop in pocket if in main compartment	-1	-1
The dedicated cell phone pocket will only fit a small phone	-0.5
Thin or nonexistent shoulder pad	-1
Handle is located in such a way that picking up the bag kicks it into your knee	-0.5	-0.5
Deep zipper covers that impede opening	-2
	Total	-13