The Bellroy Classic Pouch is insanely versatile, making it one of the more useful items to come across my desk this year. According to Bellroy, the Classic Pouch is intended to hold "pens, cables, cosmetics, and personal items," which, honestly, sounds a little boring to most people, but, well, those are the things most of us cart around every day, and we pen people and stationery enthusiasts know the true value of a good carry-all.
Of course, since this is a Bellroy product, you need some leather trim! The zipper on this pouch is quite sturdy. It should last a long time.
It's a Bellroy product, so of course it's well made. But what surprised me most about this pouch is the volume of "stuff" that it can hold while still maintaining a relatively compact overall size. The internal layout features one large center compartment, which I use to hold a laptop and iPhone/iPad charger and cables. Note: I have two non day-job laptops, a 15-inch MacBook Pro and a Google Pixelbook. The chargers for both of these computers easily fit inside the Bellroy pouch, but it won't hold larger "brick"-type chargers (like those on the Dell workstations at my office).
The Classic Pouch can easily hold both a laptop charger, tablet and/or phone charger, along with cables.
The center compartment is lined by pockets on each side. One side features a single long pocket, which I use to store pens, maybe a pocket flashlight, and some wired headphones. The other side has two separate pockets, which holds my Airpods, SD cards, document flags (fellow lawyers will know what I'm talking about here), and perhaps some smaller Post-its. The pockets themselves are made from a stretchy material (not quite elastic), which has some give and will allow you to cram these fairly full.
You can fit a lot of gel pens, mechanical pencils, sharpeners, etc. into the side pocket, even longer pens like the Papermate Inkjoy.
And the Bellroy owl logo makes an appearance!
Takeaways and Where to Buy
I've been using the Bellroy Classic Pouch for several months - Bellroy sent it to me for testing along with the Work Folio A5 earlier this year, but requested that I hold off on a review until the product was released. In the meantime, it's become a regular part of my "kit." Though I haven't bought into full-on modular carry "systems" like those from brands such as Peak Design or Tom Bihn, I do switch between different bags a fair bit, so I tend to pack the smaller items I use everyday into a few zippered cases and pouches for easy transfer. I may actually purchase one or more additional Bellroy pouches - they're that handy.
You can order the Bellroy Classic Pouch directly from Bellroy, in both Leather Nubuck ($79) and Soft-woven Polyester ($49) versions. Many thanks to Bellroy for making this review possible!
Disclaimer: Bellroy sent me the pouch featured in this review free of charge, for review purposes.