Oxford Bag CompanyVintage Heavy Duty Canvas Backpack Leather Fasteners - Burgundy.

Rubbish quality. Very disappointing.

I recently bought one of these “Vintage Heavy Duty Canvas Backpack Leather Fasteners”, thinking that with such good materials and interesting design, it would be a very good value purchase (red, £14.99).The construction of this backpack is indeed reasonably solid; the stitching is even and straight, the buckles look strong enough for the task, the buckle-straps are in leather with well-spaced rivets, and the lining is well-enough sewn. The adjustable shoulder-straps are of the same material as the body, and though they are narrow enough (under 3cm) that they might pinch with a heavy load, the double-stitching looks strong. A particularly nice feature is the metal ring, binding the shoulder-straps to the main body of the backpack. This feature allows the shoulder-straps to remain fitted snuggly to the wearer’s back, while allowing semi-independent movement to the rest of the backpack.Sounds good? In fact, this backpack was a great disappointment. First, the cloth-material was advertised as of "high quality 100% 24 oz cotton canvas", which it certainly is not. The description has now been changed to “poly cotton canvas”, but I must say that the very shiny appearance would suggest that there is much more ‘poly’ than cotton. One of my main reasons for choosing this backpack was that the cotton-canvas would age in a way that matched the vintage styling. However, with this poly-cotton material, it does not look as though the colour will fade or wear at all nicely. Instead, I expect the too-even colour to remain much as it is now, while the ‘poly’ threads snatch and pull.Further, the trimmings around the pockets are not of leather, but of some thin and rather nasty vinyl that will surely harden, crack, and peel with age – as all vinyl does. The buckle-straps, while they do look to be made of leather, are very crudely stamp-cut and from their overall appearance could just as well be of plastic or cardboard. The lining, which looks to be 100% synthetic, is very thin; and while also stitched, it appears to be glued to the outer-fabric.Lastly, I really must mention the excellence of Revive Online customer service. When I contacted them, the service provided was of the highest standard. Prompt, polite and decisive, it was also entirely without the usual random ‘have a sooper-dooper day’ clichés.While I can give the backpack only two stars (at £14.99), I would gladly give Revive Online customer service a full 5/5 stars.