- In this video I'm excited to walk you through
the DSPTCH Travel Backpack.
There's a ton of smart features, it's got a slick look,
and unfortunately a couple gripes
that we're going to be covering as well.
I'm Tom, the founder of Pack Hacker,
and we do travel gear guides, we share our tips and tricks,
and we do reviews just like this one.
So if you're new here, consider subscribing.
Let's jump right in to the DSPTCH Travel Backpack.
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Of course, the look is going to be up to you and your taste,
but we feel that the travel backpack from DSPTCH
offers a very clean and minimalistic look,
while serving high functionality,
which is kind of a hard blend to hit,
and this brand DSPTCH has done it super well.
This pack is available in a ton of different colors.
We're reviewing the navy here,
but if you look on their site,
there are a ton of different styles to choose from.
Just to note, we're not entirely sure
that all the external materials are the same
on every color of the pack.
So the gray version is a twill,
looks like it may be a bit of a different material.
Again, the durability might be affected by the color
that you end up choosing to go with.
So just be sure to check that out.
This looks like some ballistic nylon
as you can see on the exterior.
It's definitely a high denier nylon
due to how thick that the weave is.
I do have an email out to DSPTCH to clarify this,
as it doesn't seem to be listed clearly on their website.
So check out the full written review at packhacker.com
and we will share the details there.
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Starting with the harness system, we do feel that DSPTCH
has done a great job overall with this thing.
We have some high density foam straps,
highly adjustable sternum strap here
with the duraflex buckles.
Which are again, that high quality buckle
that you do want to look for when you're trying
to consider what pack to pick for you.
And also, we do have a nice mesh backing.
It's pretty porous, allowing for some ventilation.
We've got the load lifters at the top
which of course are going to make your carry
feel a lot lighter.
And then we do have carry straps
on all three sides of the pack.
And as we can see here,
there is a somewhat sturdy frame sheet.
Not as thick as something that you're going to find
like on a GORUCK GR2 or a GR3,
but it does have some support here,
although it's not super stiff.
Moving on to some of the gripes of the harness.
We do feel like this top handle is a little bit tight
to the pack, and could benefit
from being a little bit larger.
But we do feel that that decision was made
in order to make this compatible with roller luggage.
So this top part you can actually unbutton
and Velcro around the top handle of a roller bag.
We did test this with a Travel Pro bag, and it was okay.
So once we got this top part fixed on that handle,
we realized that the height of the pack
was a little bit taller than the fully extended handle.
So a bit of a design oversight here.
The height of the pack needs to match the handle
of the roller luggage exactly to make this useful.
And additionally with that, there's this kind of strap here
that sort of seems like a bit of an afterthought,
that you do put over the handle of the luggage
which keeps it secure,
and can also secure these straps here.
So if we just pull these off and then weave them under,
it can somewhat secure the straps here
that again, do have these highly durable duraflex buckles.
But that's kind of weird, it's not really super secure,
and it's not really going to keep you from snagging
this on anything, so they're still fully exposed,
you know, gets caught on a armrest in the airplane
when you're going down the aisle.
It's not going to save you from any of that.
In some other packs we've seen and reviewed
on this channel and on our website,
there is like a specific space to slide these handles into.
But this just has this small strap here,
so we feel that that's not quite enough.
Lastly, we have a fancy hip belt that doubles
as a compression strap.
And there's a couple cool things going on with this.
So first of all, we do have a nice buckle system here
that's pretty easy to understand.
And then we also have these clips at the end
of the straps here, so it really provides
a dangle-free experience.
It's nice that DSPTCH really thought about this,
and considered that they didn't want people
having these straps just hanging down
off the front of themselves
when they're using this as a hip belt.
And then the cool thing here too is that you can
easily unclip this and turn it into a compression system
for the rest of the pack.
And this is really smart because when the pack is empty,
you're probably going to want to use the compression straps
and you're probably not going to need the hip belt.
But when the pack is full, you'll likely need that hip belt
and you won't need the compression straps.
So very smart thinking here,
and I like that this thing pulls double duty.
Overall, the harness feels a little bit too fancy
when it comes to trying to make
it compatible with roller bags.
We're wondering what DSPTCH could have achieved
if they weren't worried about this issue quite so much.
We love backpacks, we think they're fine.
A lot of us do not use roller bags
when we're traveling around either.
So although these are nice features to have
if you do have a roller bag,
we feel that some of them are compromises
and take away from the pack a little bit.
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Alright, so starting with the internal
components of this pack.
We are going to take a look first
at this nice little quick grab pocket at the top.
And one of my favorite things here
that we'll get into in a little bit,
is that you can access this from the inside
of the pack as well as the outside.
So this is good for any quick grabs you might need.
Again, you're going through airport security,
just kind of stuff everything in there,
super convenient pouch to have.
There are two gusseted side pockets on this thing,
which are a really smart design from DSPTCH here.
So it doesn't really take away
from the minimalistic look of the pack,
but these pockets are expandable,
should you need to expand them.
You could leave them unzipped,
you can toss like a water bottle in there,
which is super great, convenient to grab.
Or you can use other items that require
a little bit more space.
And that is a huge win for this pack
and one of the reasons why the functionality
and the aesthetic are both super high on this bag.
There is a bottom compartment here
that's good for shoes and other items.
So, really great to keep this separated
from the rest of your pack.
And although this isn't waterproof lining,
it does keep dirt and grime separate
from the main area of your pack.
So you have some shoes, something a little bit dirtier,
maybe some dirty clothes, good to keep that separated
by a #5 YKK zipper on this portion of the pack.
Moving on to the laptop compartment,
we do have a white zipper pull
that makes it easy to identify and understand
that this is the laptop compartment.
Now one thing that we did find a little bit weird
with this compartment is the size of it.
So you can barely fit a vertical 15" MacBook Pro.
It sort of cuts off about two-thirds
down the way of the pack.
And you can't necessarily fit a taller laptop in here,
the 15" barely fits.
And we do have like a padded in-case sleeve
on the laptop itself, makes it even harder to fit it inside.
We were able to fit the MacBook Pro in horizontally,
this is the 15" by the way, and put that down,
but then it kind of gets stuck in there as well.
So we do feel like they could have been
a little bit more generous with the space
inside of this laptop compartment.
And maybe use some interior lining and padding
to make it fit a little bit more snugly inside of there.
So again, 15" MacBook Pro barely fits.
Make sure to check your laptop size
before ordering one of these.
Moving on to the main compartment, this is one of my
personal favorite features of the pack.
And something that we haven't seen
on a lot of packs here at Pack Hacker.
So they do have a very nice kind of rectangular zip here.
And this makes it really easy to quickly see everything
that's going on inside of the pack.
So it gives you a nice, wide opening.
But then it's also a zip, so you can zip it fully down,
get full access to the pack.
Moving on to the inside of this pocket,
starting at the top here you can see
that we have access to the quick grab pocket
that we can access from the outside.
So again, you unzip that,
we do have a Bellroy All- Conditions phone pocket in here.
It's called the essentials pocket now.
And then we can unzip the exterior so you can see
that we can access both of those.
And that is a really nice feature for this pack.
One of the downsides is that we do have
a little bit of extra material here from the zipper
when you're accessing it from the outside.
Looks a tad bit sloppy, but the pros greatly outweigh
the cons for this type of design.
Moving on to the rest of the internal organization,
we just have a couple packing cubes in here.
Again, this thing is going to be around 30 liters.
And we do feel like that's a generous estimate from DSPTCH.
I feel like it's a little bit larger than 30 liters.
So looking at the interior of this pack,
we do have a nice pocket back here for flat lay items.
It has a bit of elasticity to keep things separated.
We've got two mesh pockets.
Kind of look like an interior water bottle pocket
and you could use them for that.
You could stuff socks, boxers, anything else
that you want to kind of organize down there,
which is pretty great.
And then one of my favorite pockets on the pack
and I do think this is really smart.
It's overall easy to get to,
but this is a very secure pocket
'cause it's basically in the middle of the pack.
So it's a great security feature here.
When you unzip this entire panel down or even a little bit,
you can still see in here and access.
Boom, you have this nice see through mesh pocket
that's almost floating in the middle of the bag.
So you can see everything that's going on inside of there,
you can put some more valuable things in there,
maybe your wallet, maybe your passport.
And that's going to be overall secure.
It's going to take a lot of work for somebody to quickly
rip that off, unzip it and grab something out of it.
You're going to notice before they do.
And this is much better than keeping
your valuables on an exterior pocket.
So again, big win from DSPTCH there.
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At the time of this review, I've personally been testing
the DSPTCH Travel Backpack for the last couple of weeks.
And I've also taken it with me
on a business trip to New York.
So I do have some travel experience with it.
Fits under the seat in front of you on the airplane,
which is super great, and again provides
a very great pack with good organization.
I am confident in the materials on this bag
and DSPTCH does have a good track record
for creating durable gear.
So from the really high number and high quality
YKK zippers on this thing,
to the nice ballistic nylon on the outside,
I think durability is going to be great with this one.
And if anything does go wrong,
DSPTCH does have a lifetime guarantee.
But if you do look at their website,
it's super vague as to what they actually offer.
You basically email them some photos
and then they'll repair it up to their discretion.
So not super clear with the warranty,
but they are a smaller brand, so I'm hoping
that they're able to offer customers that service
and they're able to stand behind their product.
And again, this thing is built in the United States
which is pretty great, in San Francisco, actually.
So DSPTCH definitely does a great job
in putting this thing together.
So for some pros and cons, there is a really great
main opening to the pack that allows you to see
basically everything that's going on inside
of it with a quick zip.
It has a clean and slick look which is great
for a travel pack in this class.
There is some great considered organization of the pack,
both in the main clamshell, and at the exterior pockets.
Again, those gusseted pockets on the outside
are really great to have.
So moving into some of the cons, that laptop compartment
doesn't seem like the ideal size,
and has trouble fitting some larger laptops.
It's pretty heavy when it's empty.
And lastly, the luggage strap and handle
don't really seem ideal and we were wondering
what DSPTCH could have done if they weren't thinking
about all these features when it comes to trying
to make this compatible with a roller bag.
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From the top notch materials
to the considerate organization,
the DSPTCH Travel Pack offers a sleek,
minimalistic look with other great features.
If you're cool with the heavier weight and dealing
with a harness that tries to play double-duty
as a roller bag companion,
you'll be making a great decision if you end up
choosing this for your travels.
So thanks for taking a look at the Pack Hacker review
of the DSPTCH Travel Pack.
Be sure to head over to packhacker.com
and get on our newsletter, so you never miss an update
in anything that we do.
Thanks for taking a look.
We'll see you in the next video.
How now brown cow.
Boom, making videos.
(trilling)
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