Portland Leather Goods Crossbody Tote Review | What else could they improve?
Portland Leather Goods logo patch inside the bag
When I first shopped on the Portland Leather Goods website, I may have bought three within a month. I considered myself a practical shopaholic. Buying multiple in the same style is not what I frequently do, but that's to show you how much I love the company. These bags have held up well after a few months with me. Nothing fell apart, and stitches didn't come undone.
Studs on the bag strap
The bag I am reviewing today has been out with me multiple times. It is the Portland Leather Goods Crossbody Tote in gray. Their fans called this color Groupie Gray to show their love for this color. I bought it along with the other crossbody tote in Grizzly color I previously reviewed. They are basically the same bag with minor differences on the straps. The one on Grizzly has a buckle adjustment, and they use studs on this gray one for strap length adjustment. I believe they were made from different times, and they modified the design for unknown reasons, because of cost, perhaps? Personally, I prefer the studs adjustment. Compared to a buckle adjustment, the strap remains flat even when you switch up the length. With buckles, the strap could become wonky after changing the adjustment.
With different colors, you get different textures and the firmness of bags. For example, the leather feels more velvety for gray color, but it's not like suede. Also, for this kind of leather, the bag gets scratches easier. You could choose to rub it off with your fingers on some light scuffs, or you could leave it as it is since the tote has an urban, rugged look anyway. I am not sure about their leather tanning process, but you don't see the raw edges like other colors with this gray bag. I don't think they burnished the edges, more like the dye went deep into the leather. The leather is still thick and soft, but I am not sure I like its feel. It is like after I dropped a bunch of Talcum powder on my bag, something unnatural about the touch.
Overall, I do enjoy using this crossbody tote! It is pretty versatile and not too big for my day-to-day use. In addition, neutral colors would match most of my outfits, and I don't have to find matching clothes with the bag. Although I check their website from time to time, I haven't made another purchase since a few months ago. The benefit of being a shopaholic is, you get to learn from each purchase. Therefore, I collected my thoughts for this post to share why I haven't bought more and what I thought they could improve regarding the quality of their leather goods.
First of all, I have heard some people complaining about their brand name, especially new customers. You can clearly see the logo says Portland Leather, but the truth is they no longer make their bags in Portland. If you read the "Our Story" page on their website, you would find their bags are made in Leòn, Mexico. If you are not familiar with the changes within the company, you are entitled to feel the frustration. I could see someone new to this brand thinking they are "made in the USA" bags by interpreting the logo. PLG is not trying to be deceiving as they are a company founded in Portland, and they used to make their bags locally.
Like all other companies, once your popularity grows to a point beyond what you can handle locally, you outsource your production to foreign countries. I wouldn't have a problem if a company could maintain the quality while moving their facility to foreign countries. In addition, Mexico isn't that far away, and they should have reasonable quality control with their production line. However, I noticed more and more customers complaining about the quality and how hard it is for them to negotiate a free return, which concerns me. I bought from their premium line for my purchases and didn't have quality problems like other customers, so I wouldn't know if the return wasn't an effortless, streamlined process.
I didn't know about Portland Leather Goods while they were on ETSY, but I imagined their prices are similar and didn't change much after outsourcing their production to Mexico. This kind of expansion is usually costly. I know when you think about being made in Mexico, you expect the bags to be cheaper. However, the financial resources they had to put in for the expansion could be enormous, and it is likely the company is still recouping from it. I do hope in time, they would invest more into improving the quality and design and not solely focus on making more and more profit.
Right now, the decision-making of the company does point to a more profitable direction. For instance, they have decided to remove the "add monogram" feature for customers. So, soon, you won't be able to add your initials to the bag when you purchase. Removing the personalization option seems to be a step down of service. Sometimes, less is better, but in this case, I don't see how it would benefit customers.
The bottom of the bag
Before I made my purchases, I knew they made their bag with durable full-grain leather. However, I wasn't aware that they are chromed-tanned leather. It is commonly known that the production of chromed-tanned leather is more likely to cause harm to our planet and the workers due to the chemicals they use. Therefore I am pretty happy to see they decided to add a new line of bags made with vegetable-tanned leather. In addition, the price for those new bags is very reasonable; since vegetable-tanning is a more costly process.
In terms of design, I see PLG is taking away the removable strap feature from their products. Pretty sure most people would prefer to get bags with a removable strap to customize them if they felt the straps didn't work for them. Unfortunately, this is likely a cost-cutting direction more than anything. Some people suggested a hardware shortage due to the global situation we are in, but if I can easily buy some lobster clasps on Amazon, I am sure there's no shortage.
Portland Leather Goods Crossbody Tote top handles
Indeed, we love the more rugged, artisanal look of their bags, but there are always ways for improvement. To step up their game, I suggest they burnish the leather edges or glaze them to give the bags a more sophisticated look. Without burnishing or glazing, sometimes I would find fuzzy frays on the edges of my bags. From what I noticed, the tote bag has been a big seller for the company. This trend is great for them because the tote bag has a relatively simple structure that wouldn't take long to make compared to other bags like backpacks or messenger bags. If you look across the product they are offering, most of them consist of the theme of simple structure, raw leather edges, and only one or no internal pockets. These all observations did lead to a "do less, earn more" impression.
I do hope all the potential flaws I was pointing out are temporary. As the company continues to grow, they will have more financial ability to improve their quality if they chose to. Also, seeing how they interact with their customers on social media, I do want to believe they somewhat care to make their customers happy to keep them around. Lastly, PLG, maybe cut the bogus sales countdown on the website? I know it is probably a great strategy to encourage new customers to buy, but for long-term customers, it is ______.
Portland Leather Goods debossed logo on the front pocket
