- The Aer City Sling is a small, 2.4 liter sling
that can also be worn as a waist pack.
I'm Tom, the founder of Pack Hacker,
where we use our expertise and real world experience
to provide practical resources and honest opinions,
guiding you towards smarter travel.
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I've personally been testing the Aer City Sling
for the last three weeks
in Detroit, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Let's dive into every detail of this bag.
And one more thing before we dive in,
if you want to learn a little bit more about this sling
as well as see the best buying options,
head over to PackHacker.com.
Link in the description below.
Let's jump in.
(upbeat music)
We've reviewed a ton of other Aer products
at Pack Hacker and the aesthetic of the City Sling
fits right in.
The City Sling originates from a very popular collaboration
Aer did with Oshman's in Japan.
So for a while it was an exclusive just to Japan
but it's been brought into the U.S. market
due to the popularity of the design.
I had this sling over at our first official
Pack Hacker meetup in San Francisco.
We had over fifteen people show up
on such a short three-day notice.
So thanks to everybody who came
but I wanted to bring this up
because we were talking a lot about Aer
and the overall aesthetic at that meetup.
Even though most of Aer's bags are black,
it's usually easy to tell that it's Aer.
I think it's a combination of the 1680D Ballistic Nylon
that they have, as well as these really big, fat,
weather-resistant YKK AquaGuard zippers,
that they kind of use as an aesthetic design element
as well as a functional one.
We liked the look of this sling but we decided
to poll our Instagram audience
and get their thoughts on it as well.
Here are the results.
At the time of this review,
there are two different colorways.
There is the black that we have here
and the gray as well.
Black seems to be the most popular
since it's currently sold out at the moment.
From a branding perspective,
there is a very small Aer logo tag,
going on right below the compression strap here.
So very low profile.
We like that Aer does that.
They keep everything very subdued
and their logo doesn't interfere too much
with the greater look of the sling.
To wrap up the rest of the materials on this sling,
we have that 1680D Ballistic Cordura Nylon
on the exterior.
We have Japanese YKK zippers.
Some of them are AquaGuard"and some are reverse coil.
To wrap this up, we have Duraflex plastic hardware
as the buckle on the sling
as well as the compression adjusters on the sides.
Let's check out the exterior of this sling,
starting with the sling strap.
First of all there is a massive Duraflex buckle
on the front here, and then we have strap adjusters
on each side, held down by elastic.
We've seen a very similar design on the CODEOFBELL X-POD.
And with that, one thing to note is that
if you are flipping this sling
from your back to your front often,
these elastic keepers can start to slide around a bit
and creep, and then you get a little bit more
of that excess strap.
If you're constantly kind of pulling
this sling from your front to your back.
One other note on the big buckle is that if you're
gonna go Pack Hacker style
and wear a larger bag on the back and a sling on the front,
this big buckle can kind of get in the way between
your back and the bag.
This was hardly noticeable
but I could see it being a little bit more noticeable
if you're going with a bigger bag, around forty liters.
If you have a smaller frame you can also tighten the buckle
completely to one side, leave the other one loose
to kind of position this a little bit
more to the side to give yourself some more room.
Now, this isn't really a con of the sling
it's more of just a usage note
if you wanna use the sling in this way.
One other benefit to a sling strap like this,
that's anchored a little bit more towards the middle,
is that you can wear it like a hip belt, bum bag,
fanny pack, whatever you want to call it, as well.
Now, the big difference between the Aer City Sling
and the Aer Day Sling 2, is that the Aer Day Sling
is really designed to be a sling.
So there's one strap that's kind of anchored
at the top here and one on the side.
And you can't really wear that as a fanny pack or a hip bag
or a hip belt, whatever you want to call it.
However, with the Aer City Sling, you totally can.
So if you want to see a more detailed comparison
on those two slings, head over and watch our Quick Hit video
over on our other YouTube channel, Pack Hacker Quick Hits.
On each side of these straps we
have a compression cinch going on.
This design allows you to control the profile
of the sling a little bit more, as well as the capacity
that's inside of the main compartment of the sling.
If you want more room in the main compartment,
you can leave these loose.
If you want to keep a lower profile, tighten them up.
Now, generally we think this works very well
however we wish Aer maybe would have included
a little bit of strap management for this little guy here.
If you don't have the sling exactly centered on your back
while you're wearing this thing, these can start
to rub against the back of your arms
as you're walking around.
This is such a minor gripe but hey,
that's why we make these videos.
And lastly, the zippers are a little bit jangly.
I've seen some other people cut these zippers off
and add their own zipper pulls that are silent,
so you can definitely do that if that bothers you.
You'll definitely hear this as you're walking around,
especially if you're in a more quiet area.
Alright, so that was a lot of notes on the exterior.
Generally, this thing is solid on the exterior
and carries very comfortably but of course,
we're just going to bring up those minor notes.
Let's check out all the pockets and organization
going on in this bag,
starting with the secure pocket on the back.
Generally this is the most secure pocket
on the exterior of the sling, especially since
it's against your body while you're wearing it.
Aer has also opted for a smaller reverse coil YKK zipper
that is is somewhat hide-able by the excess fabric
and the welts allowing you to tuck away the zipper
fully behind it when you want
to keep a little bit more of a low profile.
The pocket will fit a plus sized iPhone comfortably
and it's easy to take in and out at an angle.
The giant YKK AquaGuard zipper
on the front opens right up,
kind of like a cute little duffel bag.
We dig the way this front pocket is combined.
The pocket space goes all the way to the edges,
even to where this fabric starts to come
into the compression strap.
So there is a lot of space going on in this pocket.
Within this zipper pocket there is a plastic key clip
to attach your keys to.
Depending on how you have this sling configured,
you can unlock a door
while keeping the keys attached to your sling.
I'm 6'2 and when I wore the sling a little bit more loosely,
I just crouched down a little bit
to get access to the door.
I do like that I can always
keep my keys attached to the sling.
That way I know when I leave the house, just grab the sling,
everything I need is inside.
Generally, this pocket has been great to dump things into.
So we have a battery bank, excess cords,
and other small items inside.
We have even found that we
can fit a Patagonia Storm Racer rainshell jacket,
size medium, on the inside as well.
And it's great to just have that rainshell
if you are expecting any rain.
Again, you're kind of maxing out this pocket
if you put that jacket in there but it does fit.
Moving on to the main pocket of this sling,
this is the expandable part and yes,
it does fit a Nintendo Switch.
On the back side of the sling,
the part you wear against your body,
we have a small minor pocket
that's good for some field notes and a pen.
Or a passport.
And then there's ample space in the middle
for additional items.
This is the main area that compresses and uncompresses.
On the other side of that we have two liner divider pockets
with some elasticity at the top.
Now it doesn't really hold items super secure,
if you want to see a sling with a lot
of stretch on the interior, check out the
Heimplanet Transit Line Sling Pocket.
That thing will basically grab whatever you need
due to the high elasticity in the pockets,
as well as the mesh design.
Behind those two divider pockets,
there is a sneaky zippered pocket as well.
This is great for your passport or extra cash.
Anything that you really want to keep secure
on the interior of the sling.
Also as a little pro tip with this sling,
if you have taller items in those two divider pockets,
it can kind of block access to that zippered compartment,
making things even more secure inside the sling.
With a trip to San Francisco and Los Angeles from Detroit
this thing has seen a lot of mileage, including four flights
over the three weeks of testing
and using it nearly everyday.
There is a wide variety of options
for organization in this sling and I really enjoyed
fiddling around with it and finding the system
that works best for me.
The compressed and uncompressed states
are even a little bit more handy than we originally thought.
One note on this, if you want to see a sling that does this
in kind of an automatic way,
check out the Bellroy Sling
that has a self-compressing feature.
And lastly, one usage note with the Aer City Sling
is that if you have this thing fully packed out
and uncompressed it can get a little cube-y and rectangular.
Now, when it's in this state
and you have it behind your back,
it can be a little bit hard to tell which way is up.
This strap can kind of start to twist around a little bit
and sometimes you can get it
on your back on the wrong way.
Again, this is a minor note, and you're only gonna
run into it if you have this thing
fully packed out with a ton of heavy
and more rectangular gear.
So to wrap this thing up with some pros and cons,
starting with the pros.
There is some versatile organization
in such a small package.
The City Sling has a streamlined look and intuitive feel.
We think this is really excellent size
and form for a sling as well.
It's not too small, but also not too bulky.
On to some of the cons.
The sling can be unwieldy in a fully expanded state,
fully loaded with heavy, more rectangular gear.
You'll definitely hear the jingly-jangly zippers
when you're walking around,
especially in a quieter area.
The elastic strap keepers
can move around a bit
when flipping the sling from the front to your back often.
Aer is not new to creating excellent gear
and we've seen far more hits from them than misses.
The City Sling is no exception
and we gladly welcome it into the list of greats.
Between the clever design of this sling
and the versatile organization,
all while keeping a low profile,
there are many ways to carry and organize the City Sling.
If you like big functionality in a small package,
while maintaining a streamlined look and feel,
the City Sling could be a solid choice for you.
So there you have it, our review of the Aer City Sling.
We would love to hear what you think
in the comments below about this sling.
Thanks for keeping it here at Pack Hacker,
your guide to smarter travel.
We'll see you in the next video.