Lo & Sons Bond Review

The Lo & Sons Bond is a sheepskin-leather-based sling that seems focused on style. That’s perfectly understandable, as many users gravitate towards how a sling looks rather than its overall functionality. That said, the Bond has surprisingly unique features that show how much thought the brand has put into the design.

These features include a rear quick-grab card slot, a modular strap design, and plenty of organization in the main compartment. So, beneath all the sheepskin leather and its baggy look, there’s plenty to like and check out—let’s dig in.

External Components

The first thing that catches your eye is the Bond’s sheepskin leather. It’s dark, premium-feeling, and has a heritage vibe to it that we initially had a hard time describing. After two weeks of testing, though, we’re convinced it reminds us of 90’s purses—the kind that incorporate the slouchy hobo bag look in lieu of rigidness. Alternatively, it also reminds us of simplistic leather satchels you might see in old Westerns. Either way, while we’re typically not fans of baggy and slouching material, the Bond makes it work.

It hasn’t developed a patina over the course of testing, though two weeks is relatively short to expect that. All that’s left is to enjoy the pristine look for a bit more until such wear and tear occurs. We are less enthused about the zippers, though. We like the feel of their metal pulls, but they’re also quite jangly when we leave them hanging off the bottom. Fortunately, it’s a twin zipper design, so it’s just a matter of positioning them higher where there’s fabric to dampen the noise (though it doesn’t go away completely).

There’s really not a ton of features on the outside to speak of, so we’re quickly moving on to the strap. That said, Lo & Sons did something quite interesting with it. Instead of simply implementing adjusters for different lengths, there also have three breakaway points with buckles. The idea is that you can remove one-half of the entire strap for a tighter fit. In turn, this minimizes or even outright eliminates any slack you’d have if you’d simply tighten the strap’s adjustment.

It’s quite effective and unique, and we dig seeing such features. Admittedly, we worried that having three buckles could impact carrying comfort, but that turned out not to be the case.

Fit Notes

Quite simply, all the buckles are too flat and minimal to cause any intrusive feel on the body. More noticeable is the sheepskin leather’s aforementioned bagginess, which does cause a sagging look and feel when we’re using both halves of the strap. We don’t mind it, but if you’re looking for a tighter fit, we recommend ditching half of the strap entirely.

Luckily, shortening the strap solves most of the sagginess. Using only half the strap is only really intended if you’re planning on using the Bond as a waist pack, but it’s also fine for crossbody sling mode, especially if you have a small frame. Minute adjustments are still easy, and you can adjust both halves of the strap if you really want to dial the ideal length for you.

Inside The Sling

At the back of the Bond is a zippered pocket. Like many slings with rear pockets, this one is mostly ideal for flat items since the sheepskin leather can’t really smooth out bumps caused by bulky gear. This limits you to items like a smartphone, a slim wallet, and bits of toiletry like a pack of wet wipes and bobby pins. Passport-sized notebooks also fit, in case you like to take notes on the go.

Arguably more interesting is the adjacent card pocket, where you can store your most frequently used card. So, let’s say you’re spending a whole day at a local park or museum; this is where you’d want to keep your pass. It takes some time shaking the feeling that the card might fall out of an unsealed pocket like this, but it’s a uniquely handy feature we’re willing to learn to live with.

Despite the sheepskin leather’s lack of structure, getting into the Bond’s main compartment isn’t much of a struggle. Often, when presented with a baggy sling, we likely have to puff and stretch the material just to see the gear we want to take out, but not in this case. Spreading the opening wide apart is quite easy and immediately presents you with almost all of the pockets inside.

The only exception is the rear zippered pocket, though, to be fair, slings with a similarly-placed pocket struggle with this as well. It’s a shame since within this rear pocket are cascading card slots, which could prove useful if you’re looking to declutter your wallet or are in charge of all of your extended family’s hotel cards. We don’t usually carry an extensive collection of cards on that level, so not using this feature is not a huge loss for us.

The rest of the organization is fairly straightforward. At the back is a wide mesh pocket big enough for a smartphone, though we ended up storing a set of keys there since there’s a key leash just above it. It’s a fairly long key leash, too. It’s long enough that we never have to detach the keys in order to unlock most doors. This is a level of attention to detail that makes us think someone actually tested this feature, and we like that.

The open space in the middle is also a good place for storing keys, but it’s a toss-up between that and a smartphone. In general, you’d save this area for truly bulky items like a power bank or a multi-tool. That said, space starts to get tight once you pack all of the flanking mesh pockets.

Finally, there are two mesh pockets at the front side, flanking a small mesh slot. The latter is just the right size for a stick of lip balm or lipstick, which is nifty since we almost always carry one. The flanking mesh pockets are neatly sized for AirPods, as well as the pack of gum we happened to have while testing the Bond.