The Bellroy Transit Backpack is a 28-liter
travel-focused backpack that has a lot
of smart organization going on
as well as ample space in the main compartment.
I'm Tom, the founder of Pack Hacker,
where we use our expertise and real-world experience
to provide practical resources and honest opinions,
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At the time of this review, Nathan and I
have been using the Bellroy Transit Backpack
for the last two weeks in Detroit, Michigan.
When we received this bag two weeks ago,
we created a short video over on our other YouTube channel,
Pack Hacker Quick Hits,
to get some ideas from you on what you wanna know
and what you wanna see included in this review.
So as we go through, we'll be addressing
those comments as well.
Let's dive right in.
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Material and aesthetic is really where the
Bellroy Transit Backpack shines.
And Bellroy typically does a great job
in selecting their materials and pulling them together
in a thoughtful way.
From a branding perspective, we have a Bellroy wordmark
on a leather tab here at the front bottom of the bag.
And then we have the Bellroy owl
on the left shoulder strap as well.
The bag comes in three colorways,
all with different materials.
The black version, which we have here,
comes in nylon and feels really great to the touch.
The ink blue comes in a recycled Venture Weave polyester,
and it's the same material as the sling
that we reviewed couple of weeks ago.
It still has a great feel to it.
However, this black nylon version feels a little bit softer.
And lastly, the charcoal bag which has a recycled
soft-woven polyester.
Generally, we like that Bellroy is using more
recycled materials.
They're definitely moving towards that.
And still they have a lot of great colorways
offered as well.
A lot of us here at Pack Hacker HQ really dig the look
of this bag, but we decided to throw it out
to our Instagram followers as well.
And here are the results.
Make sure to go follow @packhacker on Instagram
if you wanna be involved in future polls.
To answer a question from Sawyer S,
you could potentially use this as an everyday bag,
but the massive compartment inside
is definitely better geared towards travel.
Plus there are no compression features on this bag
like some other hybrid bags offer.
That being said, at 28 liters, it is a little bit
on the smaller side for a travel pack,
which lends itself a little bit more to a EDC bag.
And Sean N, we agree with you.
A 35-liter version of this bag
would be great to see as well.
This one is 28 liters.
We'll see what Bellroy decides to do in the future.
If they decide to make a larger version,
or if they think 28 liters is enough.
Onto the other key materials of this bag,
we have YKK AquaGuard zippers for additional
weather protection.
We have magnetic buckles on the sternum strap,
which is satisfying to use and works well.
We have nice and professional-feeling
leather zipper pulls, ITW plastic hardware
especially on the keychain on the interior of the bag,
which we'll get into in a second.
Plus premium-feeling metal and aluminum hardware
on places like the adjustable shoulder straps.
Kicking it off with the harness system,
we have some dense shoulder straps
that are very comfortable to wear.
To answer this question from Tom A,
even with this bag fully loaded,
it is still quite comfortable.
At 28 liters, you don't really need an option
for a hip belt or load lifters.
That being said, you are going to feel it
pretty much in any bag if you fill this up
with some really heavy camera gear or the like.
One thing that I have noticed in testing as well,
this bag is on and under a heavy load.
I can start to feel the edges of the straps
on my shoulders and chest a little bit,
A brand like Tom Bihn solves is on their Synik 30
by using edgeless shoulder strap design,
so you don't have these edges that you can feel
as you wear the bag.
Speaking of Tom Bihn, here's a question
from Gino regarding the size of the Synapse 25
and the Synik 30 compared to the
Bellroy Transit Backpack.
Generally I'd say this is closer to the Synik 30.
The Synik 30 can actually hold a lot,
even though it has a little bit more
of a round appearance.
However, the Bellroy Transit is a lot more
of a rectangular shape.
So I think this one is a little bit more
space optimized, even though it is two liters less.
And while we're on size,
this is a question from Erry M,
he asks whether or not the 26-liter GR1
will be larger than the Bellroy Transit Backpack.
I would say that it would feel larger in actual use,
because the GR1 26-liter is basically a giant box,
whereas with the Bellroy Transit, you have a lot
of organization pockets going on.
Little bit rounder and a more professional look.
So I would say the 26-liter GR1 may feel a little bit bigger
than this bag.
Moving down the straps, we have a very adjustable
sternum strap on this rail-like design here.
And you can remove it if you bring this
to the very top, it'll just slide right off quite easily.
Most bags will hide this top part a little bit more,
making it really hard to slide the sternum strap off.
But Bellroy leaves ample space for easy removal.
Behind all this, we have two foam-padded back panels
with ridges, a little bit of texture, and some mesh
for added air flow.
We definitely like that that's here.
It does feel slightly technical,
but it still looks really great,
so you get the benefit of the feature
without the ugliness of it.
And we really dig that.
It's still streamlined and looks nice.
It's also worth noting that the bag has
a natural curve to it.
I personally found this to be really great in testing.
However, for Nathan, he kinda felt the bottom of the bag
going into his back.
It just depends on your body type.
At the end of the straps,
we have nice, smooth aluminum strap adjusters
which glide really easily.
And I love the feel of this material
down here on the straps.
They're just really soft and feel nice in the hand.
And lastly, we have some plastic strap keepers
on the straps as well
that'll basically give you that dangle-free experience
to allow you to manage excess straps.
The top handle features that same material
with a little bit of padding jammed between it
to create a very comfortable grab.
Other than that, there is not a ton more going on
on the outside of this bag, and we like that.
It looks slick, and it is nice and streamlined.
Kicking it off with the quick-grab pocket
on the top of the bag.
The lay-flat YKK zipper here is a nice touch.
And it really stays low-profile and out of the way.
We like this drop pocket,
although opening it up, there is not a ton of depth.
So there is decent amount of width.
It's gonna work well for flatter items
like your wallet or your phone,
or maybe some Chapstick, things like that.
And there is this stretchy mesh material in here
that'll allow you to fill it up with more
and stretch the pocket out.
However, just note that it is a pretty small drop pocket.
It does have it's advantages though.
It doesn't cut into the main compartment
of this bag too much.
This vertical pocket on the front opens up
with the leather tab and nice AquaGuard YKK zipper.
This is a great larger pocket to stuff your jacket into
if you'd like.
Plus, there is one horizontal pocket
that could be good for a small notebook like field notes.
And then two pen, pencil, and stylus pockets here
for writing utensils, anything of that nature.
And then we have this keychain at the top here.
This is that ITW plastic keychain
I was talking about earlier.
This keychain definitely does its job.
However, it does not match the premium look and feel
of the rest of the bag.
Also, we like the size of the horizontal pocket.
However, we have found that when pockets are horizontal
on vertical bags like this,
things can get jostled around and become unorganized
inside of the bag.
Next up we have the concealed side pockets
that have this kind of concealed zipper going on
with a small heat-shrank paracord loop zipper pull
that are just hidden and out of the way.
This opens up to reveal a nicely sized water bottle pocket.
The water bottle pocket goes down
to about the bottom of the bag,
so right where the seam is here.
Ample space on the inside as well.
To answer a question from Ranessin S,
are these water bottle pockets waterproof?
Well, not really.
They do use a thick liner that is nicely
weather resistant, but you definitely wouldn't want to
fill up the entire pocket with water or anything like that.
And the bag can stand on it's own depending
on how you have it packet out.
But just naturally, it doesn't really do that,
and you have to really pack it in a specific way.
Maybe with like a heavy camera cube at the bottom
that's gonna give it its shape.
There are bags that definitely do a better job
at standing up on their own.
Next up, my favorite compartment towards the back here,
the laptop compartment.
And that's gonna open up with a weather resistant
YKK AquaGuard zipper.
There's some nice soft material on the interior here
that's great for just sticking in your laptop.
Plus there's a false bottom.
So that ends about right here.
It protects your laptop from unexpected drops.
There are two pieces of fabric on the side here
that prevent the pocket from opening up
a little bit too much with the horseshoe zipper design.
At the top of the compartment, there is another
horseshoe zipper as well with a little bit of padding
and structure here.
This is great for opening up and putting in
any tech accessories, any cords, a laptop charger,
things of that nature.
And the thing that I really like about this pocket
is that it has ample size for all that stuff.
It's really great positioning for all your tech gear.
So you pull your laptop, everything here,
maybe a computer mouse, is just fully accessible
and ready to go.
One note on this pocket is that it will cut
into the main compartment of the bag.
So just don't overstuff it too much.
And last but not least, opening up the main compartment
of this bag.
We have questions from Rebecca W and Jeffrey O
regarding the size of the main compartment
of this backpack.
And we can fit in one medium-sized Peak Design
packing cube and one small Peak Design packing cube
quite easily.
One thing to note is that these packing cubes
from Peak Design have these kind of
rounded corners going on.
Packing cubes that are more square may have
a little bit more trouble fitting so nicely inside
of here because this bag is slightly rounded
at the corners.
You probably don't wanna vertically stack packing cubes
either because there's a lot of pocketing going on
on the top flap, which we'll take a look at in a second,
and the exterior pockets.
So just one layer of packing cubes is great.
And you can still take advantage of the other pockets
in the bag.
In the bottom of this main compartment,
we have a nice stretchy, elastic compression strap.
I'd be curious to see how long the stretchiness lasts
as the bag is used for longer.
And just a note, you can really see where that
top tech pocket really cuts into the main compartment
of the bag.
And then taking a look at the top flap,
we have a nice smaller, stretchy mesh pocket here.
Something I really like about Bellroy mesh,
it is nice and stretchy and really great to the touch.
And then you have this bigger mesh compartment here
that goes over the entirety of the top flap of the bag.
That's gonna be great for storing things
like socks and underwear and other small items.
And to answer Finn's question,
yes, you can absolutely fit more than a day or two
of clothing here, especially if you've looked
at some of our other content,
including our packing lists,
where we try to find the smallest items possible,
and our guides, where we talk about how to streamline
the travel experience.
So make sure to check both those out over
on PackHacker.com.
We will leave you some links in the description
below this video.
At the time of this video, Nathan and I had been
testing the Bellroy Transit Backpack
around Detroit, Michigan for two weeks.
The curve of the bag isn't ideal for Nathan.
He found it a little bit uncomfortable,
and this part seemed to dig into his lower back
a little bit more than me.
However, I found the bag quite comfortable.
In testing, we have been digging the overall organization
and all the smart thinking going on.
I've especially enjoyed holding my tech gear
in that laptop compartment in that other horseshoe pocket.
I think it's just a great place to put your tech stuff.
Just very easy to get access to,
and I've really been enjoying that feature.
We like that the bag offers overall smart pockets like this,
but they're not too big to cut into the main capacity
of the travel backpack,
where you're gonna wanna put in packing cubes.
So on some other bags, we've found that they
kinda have these really big pockets,
and when you utilize those, you can't really utilize
the main liter capacity of the pack.
Not the case with the Bellroy Transit Backpack.
Everything is pretty streamlined.
So to wrap this thing up with some pros and cons,
starting with the pros.
The Bellroy Transit Backpack uses some
great quality materials and construction
that feel excellent in the hand.
We're really digging the optimized layout and organization.
It's also a comfortable carry for 28 liters.
The straps are nice and padded,
and you don't really need a hip belt or load lifters.
Onto some of the cons.
The curved back panel does not work well for all body types.
The top drop pocket is a little on the small side.
And we don't love the horizontal pocket
inside of the front zippered pocket.
The Transit Backpack has everything you'd expect
from Bellory.
An excellent look and feel with solid materials
to back it up, smart pocket configuration,
and a great blend of organization,
plus open space to make it a solid, organizable
travel backpack.
Although we have a couple of nitpicks,
overall this makes an excellent smaller backpack
for travel if you're out for the smaller
28-liter capacity.
Plus, we're convinced those small design details
will continue to impress.
So there you have it, our review of the
Bellroy Transit Backpack.
We would love to hear what you think of this bag
in the comments below.
Thanks for keeping it here at Pack Hacker,
your guide to smarter travel.
We'll see you in the next video.