The blue bag is new and the red one with a circular graphic is my 2 years old version. The leather and canvas have both soften significantly. The "stiffness" of the canvas definitely has decreased. In the first picture, I tried to stand both bags but it was so much more difficult to get the shape of red bag to be photo ready. The leather parts show more "visible" aging. All the leather parts especially the leather handle and shoulder strap got caramelized and darken... even wrinkled on some parts of the handle. Brass parts also got so much more brushed... making it not as shiny but more closer to the lovely vintage look!
Canvas got slightly darker but not very visible in the photo. What I liked (and perhaps surprised) the most about was the bottom part of the canvas with paint treatment. I put my red back everywhere... (which includes not so clean surfaces on the street) as I use it everyday and I was expecting it to look a lot dirtier but red paint really kept all the dirt away from the canvas. Some parts of the red paint did get rubbed off with usage revealing the natural canvas underneath (you can see it closely on the bottom picture).
I really hope all the items at Baum-kuchen are the kind of artifacts that stick around for a long run in life... and it's nice to see the tangible evidence!
