I’d read reviews, checked the feedback, and still thought it was worth a punt. However, because it’s on sale, and there’s no ‘Technical’ fault there’s nothing I can do about it…. I could return it for credit, but I ruled out all of the other bags before buying this.
The bag itself. Mostly what you’d expect. Mopak’s lovely recycled fabric feels tough and premium. The webbing and ladder locks feel superb, the zips feel great, and the internal fabrics feel good to the touch. Seams are perfect, and in general there’s a solid feel.
The only things that let this down from the immediate touch and feel… the back panel feels cheap, it’s loose across the whole back meaning it’s going to be prone to stretching and pulling and looking bad. The back panel is also solid, so is going to be an absolute sweat box for anyone who runs warm.
The shoulder straps feel the same for the lower material and are perilously thin padding wise. Whilst that might not mean they’re uncomfy, the foam doesn’t not feel overly soft so this could take time to break in, or might always be a strange fit.
The side entry zip panels make so much sense on paper, and when you’re looking at them online. In practise, if you use these to access a camera cube or tech pouch, then by the time you need to return it, you’ll have to stop and repack the bag. As soon as you take that bottom pouch everything is going to fall down…
The laptop sleeve is snug. The top zip does not provide the best access, the panel location cause the laptop to push out and agains my the wearers back making it even less comfortable, and its claim of taking a 16” laptop is with the proviso it’s no thicker than a few sheets of paper. My 16” MacBook Pro only just fitted but was so tight it was tricky to remove, and required fair force to push into the laptop.
The biggest let down is the top. This it totally open, with the flap being the thing that closes this. The top flap is rigid, requiring the bag to be decently stuffed to seal without needing 2 hands, and because it’s open and the flap lacks shape, this is open to the elements, wandering hands, or waiting for the right bump to open.
It just makes the pack impractical for anything other than very short travel. It’s sad because there’s so much good, but it feels like the designed had a very specific use case, and tested it for that, but urban city every day use, on a tube or metro, a but or walking through a busy crowd, we’re just assumptions and not rigorously tested.
It’s a shame, it’ll likely become a car travel companion, easy to pack in a hotel or a relatives house for an overnight, carried for 5 minutes to a car, and the packed fairly tidily because of its rectangular footprint or back shape
