I am in the midst of creating a new laptop bag print. This will be a red print in the current laptop satchel form, but I am having trouble deciding on which fabric to use for the bag.

My first run of the damask laptop satchel was in a screen printed polyester material, and while the appearance was okay and it was waterproof and stain resistant, people seemed to not like the screen printed nature of the print. There was also an issue with the screen printing process where several, about 10%, of the bags had black streaks in the print where the white ink was not thick enough. This turned into a big headache for me, so the next batch of bags (the ones that are currently for sale) are made of a matte laminated cotton canvas material. I thought that this looked great and the benefits of this material was that it was so easy to clean, just wipe with a wet cloth. The laminated canvas also meant the bag was waterproof. The downside of this material was that it cost $$$ to get the canvas laminated and as it turns out, some customers don’t seem to like the matte lamination.

So here is where the trouble lies. Do I stick with the matte laminated canvas for the new Red Print Laptop Satchel, or do I go with a more traditional shiny laminated canvas, or a third option of just plain un-laminated canvas like my Casual Pleated Laptop Tote? Personally I think that the shiny laminated canvas looks plastic-y, but there are several brands (Fossil, Urban Junket, Jane Marvel) that have the shine-y laminated canvas laptop bags that customers seem to like. My question to you is what would you prefer in a laptop bag? Hopefully some of my customers are reading this, because I want to please you the most, and would love to hear your feedback.

Here is a close up photo of the new red print fabric. The left side is the shiny laminated canvas and the right is the matte. I don’t have a photo of the un-laminated canvas, but just think not shiny at all and no protective coating.