Montefortuna Reviews the VSB Leather Cigar Pouch

Cigar cases and pouches are some of the most important accessories for aficionados. It’s all well and good having a great selection of cigars at home, but how do you transport them when you want to enjoy them while you’re away? In this article, we look at the leather cigar pouch from a London-based company called VSB London.

One of the biggest problems with cigar pouches and cases is that if they’re produced with even just a decent quality of materials, they cost way too much. Many companies only use Genuine leather and that’s enough to hike up the price to some astronomical figure. Well, you might be happy to know that this is not the case with VSB London.

The Kinds of Leather

With all the kinds of leather that are being used in general products and accessories for cigars, it can get a little confusing. For this reason, it’s probably a good idea to cover the different kinds of leather used in cigar accessories before we continue with the review.

In general, there are only three types of leather you should be looking at. These are full-grain leather, top-grain leather, and genuine leather.

Full Grain Leather

The natural flaws offer character and a unique look.

Full-grain leather is the best kind of leather you can purchase. As the name would suggest it’s the full grain of the leather from the animal without any compromises. Products made with full-grain leather are generally full of character and age extremely well. Each individual product made from full-grain leather will be unique in how it looks due to the imperfections. The downside is that full-grain leather products come with a price, however, for many, it’s worth the extra cost due to the increased durability and quality.

The other issue with full-grain leather is that it’s difficult to produce consistent-looking products. Any scratches or scars the animal may have suffered continue on in the leather, and although this does offer character, it prevents seamless design. For this reason. full-grain leather is generally less desirable for some luxury products. This brings us on to the second kind of leather and that is top grain leather.

Top Grain Leather

Top grain leather offers better control and more consistent-looking leather.

Top grain leather is what you end up with when you remove the outmost layer from full-grain leather. This kind of leather is generally the most desirable kind for many luxury products. Due to having the outer layer removed, any potential defects in the leather are also removed allowing for a seamless and consistent design. However, with full-grain leather, this is either not possible or extremely difficult.

Top grain leather can age given enough time although, due to treatments to the leather it will probably take a lot longer than full-grain leather. It does however retains a great deal of durability and has the potential to last decades when taken care of properly. Ultimately, top grain leather is the compromise required for consistency. The VSB London cigar pouch is made from top-grain leather. This helps the pouch design remain consistent and well polished. It may not have the character of full-grain leather but this is generally a conscious choice from the manufacturer to ensure a particular look.

Genuine Leather

Genuine leather is a grade of leather and has nothing to do with authenticity. Anything made of genuine leather is real, however, it’s the lowest quality leather. It lacks durability and doesn’t age anywhere near as well as full-grain or even top-grain leather. Even though genuine leather is far more affordable, it’s probably wise to avoid this grade altogether and stick to the two mentioned above.

There are other kinds of leather products that you may have seen, however, they’re not worth considering. PU leather, bonded leather, and faux leather are essentially fake leather. For the most part, they’re probably made of plastic and you can discount them completely from any considerations.

Now that we have that covered let’s get back to the VSB London cigar pouch review.

Build Quality

As mentioned above, the VSB London cigar pouch is made from top-grain leather. Although this is not the best kind of leather it’s still very high quality. The leather has a soft comfortable feel in the hand that immediately gives of luxury. First impressions about the build quality are definitely positive.

The texture of the leather makes it feel like it’s far more expensive than its current price. Effectively, the price point is rather low when compared to many options on the market. Even the stitching is excellent and adds to the overall quality of the product. When you slide the pouch open there’s a satisfying degree of resistance. It assures you that although it’s easy to open, it’s not going to slide off and expose your cigars.

The inside of the pouch is lined with a soft velvet which is great because raw leather can be a little tough on cigar wrappers.

And finally, the metal logo adds a cherry of premium quality on top of a brilliantly well-made pouch.

Usability

As with many cigar pouches, the VSB London pouch is pretty straightforward when it comes to how to use it. You simply slide it open, place your cigars in and close the pouch. There’s nothing overall complicated in that regard. What’s great is that the structure of the pouch feels assuringly firm. It’s perfectly balanced between being sturdy enough to protect your cigars without feeling too rigid. This is good because a certain degree of flexibility is required as you put different-sized cigars in the pouch.

Speaking of cigar sizes, I’d refrain from placing cigars that are too thin in this pouch as they may rattle around causing damage to the wrapper. Anything less than a 46 ring gauged cigar may be at some degree of risk in the pouch. At the wider end, although the VSB London pouch is rated up to a 56 ring gauge cigar, it’s advisable to not go beyond 3 cigars that have a ring gauge of 54 each.

The most important thing to remember about the VSB London pouch is that it’s not designed to store cigars. Instead, it’s designed to hold and safely transport cigars for the day. The pouch doesn’t have an airtight seal and for this reason, the humidity of the cigars will change depending on the outside environment. This is obviously not an issue if you’re taking cigars out for the evening to enjoy. However, storing cigars in this pouch for long periods of time is not recommended.

Final Thoughts

The VSB London cigar pouch is probably one of the best leather pouches on the market right now. The main reasons are because it’s extremely well made, but doesn’t have the ridiculous price points of several other premium options. The only downside about this particular pouch is that it’s not made of full-grain leather. Although it’s important to mention that full-grain leather may not have been suitable due to the fact that it’s tougher to work with and less consistent in terms of look.

Either way, the VSB London pouch is an excellent cigar accessory that’s probably priced a little too low considering its quality. You can purchase yours for $114.00 (Ā£87.00) using this link here.


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