- In this video, we're going to be taking a look
at the Peak Design Travel Backpack.
I'm Tom, the founder of Pack Hacker
and we love helping people optimize their travel experience
with guides and reviews just like this one.
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Let's jump right into the Peak Design Travel Backpack.
Some really smart, innovative thinking going on here
and I've personally been testing this pack
for three weeks and two flights.
Let's jump right in.
[upbeat music playing]
Oh and one more thing -
one of the great things about a pack like this,
is the greater system that comes along with it.
Although it's a little bit too much for this video,
give the first comment a thumbs up
if you'd like to see an in-depth review on the tech pouch,
wash pouch, packing cubes and camera cubes
that go along with the greater Peak Design travel system.
[upbeat music playing]
At the time of the Kickstarter,
the Peak Design Travel Backpack
comes in two different colors.
You have the black on black,
which is the one that we've opted for.
And they also offer it in a the sage color,
which is a little bit greener than the ash color
that's offered on the Everyday Backpack.
And Peak Design definitely releases their bags
in a lot of different color ways
so we're curious to see if they try anything
a little bit later this year or early next
to release the pack in different colors, we'll see.
Each color uses the same material.
It's a 400D nylon canvas
and then you have a 900D nylon canvas at the bottom
that's going to help protect from additional abrasions.
And it has a slightly rubbery feel to it as well.
And speaking of setting your pack down,
it does a great job at keeping its form
even while it's empty, due to the high density foam padding
around a lot of parts of the pack.
So definitely keeps its shape even when empty.
Overall, the pack is sleek and minimal
even with all the crazy features going on inside of it.
So Peak Design did a great job of balancing aesthetic
and function when it comes to this one.
And of course, aesthetics are always subjective
so before this review, we had a poll on our Instagram
as we do with a lot of different bags
and here are the results.
If you'd like to get involved with that for next time,
be sure to go follow @packhacker on Instagram.
We'd love to have you involved in future polls.
Wrapping up the materials,
there is a DWR coated polyurethane liner,
aluminum hardware and on the black version we found
that the coating can scratch a little bit
after a bit of use.
And then there are a bunch of zippers on this thing.
Some are YKK and some are Zoom zippers.
And we're a little bit confused with that choice.
We've got a bit of a bone to pick with it
which we'll cover later on in this video.
[upbeat music playing]
All right, let's start with the external features
going on with this pack;
there's definitely a ton going on.
So let's get started with the harness system -
one of our favorite, most innovative pieces of the pack.
All right, starting with the shoulder straps.
You have Peak Design's rotatable shoulder straps here.
Kind of a signature thing that they've done
with other packs, including their Everyday Backpack.
That's really great for getting the pack
into side access mode while you're wearing it,
as well as hiding the strap system,
which we'll get into in a second.
The straps themselves offer some high-density foam,
definitely comfortable here.
More comfortable than the Peak Design Everyday Backpack;
so just note that they've definitely improved upon
that system that they had going on with the previous pack.
And then they also feature aluminum glide hardware
on the straps themselves, which are good.
At the end, we've got a plastic keeper going on here.
A little bit different than,
most companies end up using some kind of elastic,
this one's plastic.
It can be a little bit harder to get back on
if it falls off like during transit.
Probably have to take the bag off
and fiddle with it a little bit.
If you want to see one of our favorite strap hiding systems,
go check out the Evergoods MPL30.
That thing offers really incredible ways
to hide and manage excess straps.
And of course we have a detachable sternum strap here.
This is stored in the permanent position.
There's also a temporary way to store it on the side.
And one little minor detail with this is that
it's fully detachable which is great.
Although it's kind of a little bit easier
to detach than we'd like to see.
One side grips a little bit harder than the other
however it still comes off a little bit easy.
So that always makes us a little nervous
when it's, you know, easy to take these off.
Definitely easy to lose.
Peak Design does offer replacements on their site
for like 10 or 20 bucks, but just keep an eye on it
while you're using it and make sure that doesn't fall off.
And then we've got his hideable hip belt at the bottom here
which has that signature rotating system as well,
just like the straps have.
On the wearer's left-hand side,
there is a 3D stretchy mesh-like pocket going on
that's going to work for flatter items.
Even stiffer items because there's a little bit of give
and you can still wrap this thing around you.
On the wearer's right-hand side,
you have additional attachment points
for things like the field pouch
and other accessories that Peak Design sells.
This hip belt is next to perfect.
There's the right amount of padding,
it's the right size and it's stowable
when you don't want to use it.
The one nitpick we'd have is on the aluminum hardware.
It takes a little bit getting used to
that bouldering hook while you're attaching it.
It's a little bit harder than say a plastic buckle
or something like that.
Once you get used to it, easy to use
and just a great experience overall.
Provides a nice carry.
And now onto the main event.
Everything on this harness system is hideable ... Fast.
First, you slide the hip belt in.
Then you rotate the strap and hide that away as well.
Now you're really close to a dangle-free experience.
So you basically have no extra straps
hanging off of this thing, which is really great.
And this handle here can be used to carry it in duffel mode.
Or it's a pass through system for your roller luggage.
And while the strap is folded out,
you can fold that hider flap.
Gives you a little extra padding here;
offers a little more airflow.
Once small note here, when you're putting the hip belt away,
make sure it's as flat as possible
'cause you can feel it in your back slightly
as you're carrying it around.
And lastly, there's a luggage tag indicated
by this little icon here.
You can put in your information there
if you ever lose your pack.
One thing about this, although it's uglier,
windowed usually works a little bit better
for something like this.
Or just hanging a tag right off of your pack.
You want that to be a little bit more obvious
so that a Good Samaritan or a baggage attendant
can quickly identify whose bag this is if you lost it.
And also a quick note from Peak Design,
the production versions will have Velcro here.
Ours is just open and it's a little bit shallow.
They're going to deepen it a little bit, add some Velcro.
This is the pre-production copy of this pack.
The side water bottle pocket here is big enough
to fit your huge Nalgene bottle
as well as this larger S'well bottle that we have.
And now, while this is being used by their water bottle
or tripod, this side is going to be curved here,
but one thing to note is that there is a pocket here
that's good for hiding items of any type.
So you can fit a larger plus-size iPhone in there
or just little quick grabs, things that you want to keep away -
maybe your passport, it's a secure pocket.
The zipper is pretty much hidden.
But flatter items aren't going to work as well
when you have something inside of this water bottle pocket,
so just note that.
But there is a ton of expandability here.
The pockets are gusseted allowing for more room.
And again, you can fit that huge Nalgene bottle
in here as well.
There's still ample space even with this massive S'well one.
There are a total of four grab handles
on this pack, which we love.
There's one at the top, nicely padded.
Good if you want to keep it flush against the wall,
hanging up on a hook or something -
maybe in the grimy airport bathroom.
You don't have to set this thing down.
Two on the side which are good for quick grabs,
although they aren't centered
so the weight's a little bit awkward when you grab it.
Perfect for just grabbing out of an overhead bin,
but for more longer distance carry, not quite as good.
And lastly, there's one on the bottom here as well.
Just if you want to use to quickly grab your bag,
so that's great.
Grabbable from all sides, we love that.
On the front side, there's a bit
of a sneaky hidden pocket going on here.
This is a magnetically closed pocket
that's going to hold lash straps.
And ours didn't come with them.
We think that Peak Design either forgot about them
or on our three-week trip
of testing this thing really hard, they fell out.
Hopefully that's not the case,
but I think they just forgot to include them.
So similar system that they use
on the Peak Design Everyday Backpack which we reviewed,
that magnetic pocket is also great
for holding a rain fly.
If you get caught in a torrential downpour,
good to have that as an option
for some additional weather protection
on top of what Peak Design already offers with this pack.
And outside, we have a bunch of lash tabs on the pack.
There are so many configurations
that can be used and customized to hold your gear
no matter what it is.
Peak Design has even put lash tabs on the interior
of the water bottle pockets.
Super high customizability here.
Lastly, there are two compression features on this pack.
There are two zippers on the front panel exterior
to add a little bit more liter space to that front panel.
And there's also a handy button system that comes together,
makes the pack a little bit more slim towards the top
and cuts it down and compresses it a little bit.
It's important to note that the button compression
system placement is not final
and Peak Design is still working on that.
So when they launch the bag,
the positioning may be adjusted a little bit,
but the function's the same.
[upbeat music playing]
Moving on the inside of the pack,
at the top here, you've got a pocket here
with some stretchy mesh going on the inside.
Going to be good to hold anything
that you want quick access to -
you got a passport in there.
Basically anything that is in your pockets
as you're traveling through the airport
is probably going to fit into here.
Just kind of a nice space
to have everything quickly accessible.
Moving onto the interior of the front panel.
You've got some smart organization going on here.
So we just take a look at this top mesh area.
It's kind of an interesting, kind of plasticky,
rubbery-feeling mesh going on here,
pretty good for visibility.
You can see what's going on inside of there.
Open that right up.
I like that the zipper's a bit curved
so it allows you to have good access.
So we've got a larger battery pack here on the side,
outlet converter.
Of course Pack Hacker patch 'cause we love branding.
Got that goin' on.
Two pockets for longer items like pens
or something like that.
Thought these pockets would be a little bit tighter
for the pens, just note that.
As long as you have them kind of attached like this,
they won't slide around, but again, this is lay flat.
The organization here is, you know, completely optional.
You just use this as a ordinary pocket without any
of the separation, if you'd like as well.
And then towards the bottom,
got a similar pocket here.
Going to be using that liner.
So you can just stuff in flatter items here, diggin' that.
And then, when we flip it around,
we've got more pockets goin' on here.
So a half-mesh pocket and then a liner pocket at the bottom.
And this system is really great
because the pockets are accessible
from each side of the bag.
So it's accessible from the main leader compartment
and then accessible from the front side as well.
And the separator unzips and you can stuff it
into itself in the bottom of the main compartment
and then pack it to a small pocket
and just use the bag basically as a giant duffel -
just massive capacity.
This is one of the innovations
that make the Travel Backpack
from Peak Design really great and unique.
And keep in mind, this is the extra fabric
that allows the pack to expand
when you unzip those side compression zips.
So you can access that main compartment through here
or one more way, on the back hand side
which we'll get to now.
So you basically have two zippers going on here.
Just unzip those and boom, you have access
to the main compartment of this pack.
These are the Peak Design travel pouch systems.
Again, if you want to see that,
just thumbs up the first comment
and we'll definitely dive into those
and all the detail there.
But want to get into this main compartment first.
One note on zippers, we're really curious as to why
Peak Design didn't include YKK zippers
across the entirety of this pack.
There are some on some of the internal pockets.
However, the two side access zippers
as well as the main one that's opened
on the main compartment appear
to be Zoom zippers, a different brand.
YKK zippers are on just about
every heavy-hitting travel pack
that's in more of the premium category.
Tortuga, Aer, Track, Topo Designs,
Heimplanet, Cotopaxi, Lenaul, GoRuck.
The list goes on.
A lot these manufacturers
that are more on the premium end of bags,
choose YKK because of their durability
and the quality is unmatched.
One of our contacts has been using the Peak Design
Everyday Messenger and they've gone through two
because the main zipper has broken on them.
Another contact had the zipper break
on her Everyday Backpack from Peak Design.
In all three of these cases,
Peak Design has handled the return and exchange
of the broken zippers gracefully.
They've replaced it with little to no questions asked
and provided great customer service.
However, that customer service
and warranty isn't going to do super well
if you're using this bag in a remote village in Thailand
and the zipper breaks.
That's where you're going to run into issues.
Especially on the placement of this main zipper,
it sort of renders the pack useless if it were to break.
You can't really use the harness system
and it's definitely hard to close without that.
It's one of the key components of the pack
and where it's positioned.
There seems to be a lot of pressure going
onto the zipper as well.
So time will tell if these zippers break,
like we've seen in the Messenger and the Everyday pack.
Although it's a high-numbered #10 zipper,
it's not YKK. And especially on a premium bag like this,
that gives us a little bit of concern.
Okay, that was a ton on zippers.
Let's go back to the main compartment.
Basically, you're greeted with a giant bucket
that works well with Peak Design's
dedicated travel accessories and packing cubes.
You don't need to use their system; however it helps,
as they size them specifically for this pack.
And on the sides you're going to note some elastic loops
going on here.
And that's actually for the integration
of their camera cube system.
So it offers a little bit more padding, locks right in.
Holds your lenses, holds your camera gear in place.
Again, we can dive a little bit more into that
in a later video if there is interest.
Moving onto the laptop compartment.
This is actually pretty easy to access,
just if you unzip that zipper to about here, so that's nice.
Then there's ample space in here for a laptop,
nicely closed by this Velcro.
Then you have a separate tablet partition on the inside.
One small issue with that tablet partition is that
the Velcro target is a little bit small,
a little bit tight so it's kind of hard
to accurately velcro down unless you're looking at it.
Now in contrast, this is lot more Velcro.
Just easier to close without even looking at it.
That main compartment is also accessible
from the zippers on the side.
So if you have things strategically positioned in here,
unzip that from the side, grab what you need.
This is especially handy for the camera cube insert.
Keeps your camera easy to grab, easy access.
One last feature to notice here is that all the zippers
on this are lockable with O-rings and they come
with some additional securing features as well.
The zippers on the front side are securable
via a loop at the bottom.
The side zips attach to a toggle inside of the pack
and then these big zippers secure to one another
via a loop-and-button system.
None of these are completely foolproof,
they are just deterrents however it's enough
to where if a thief is quickly rifling through everything,
they'll likely just pass by your bag
if they are unable to access it quickly.
[upbeat music playing]
By the time of this review,
I had been testing this bag for three weeks
and on two flights as well.
So I've been to Detroit, Minneapolis
and then Northern Minnesota for a cabin.
Definitely had a versatile setting to test this bag in.
Overall it's been a joy to use.
And after inspection, not much has gone wrong with the pack
besides a slight scratch in the black aluminum hardware
on the sternum strap.
No visible marks on the exterior after the three weeks
and no problems with the zippers yet.
So to wrap this thing up, some pros and cons.
Holistically, there's some really great design going on
across this pack.
It has the most innovative
and the fastest harness hiding strap system to date.
And lastly, it's fit for wide varieties of carry.
You can almost get away with this things as an EDC.
If you like a bigger bag, round the 30, 35 liter range.
And it goes all the way up to 45
if you want to carry larger stuff.
Not to mention the integratable camera systems as well.
Onto some of the cons.
The zipper choice really puzzles us.
The sternum strap comes off little bit more easily
than we'd like to see.
And lastly the side hails provide a bit
of a funky imbalanced carry.
Good for just quick grabs, but you're not going to be able
to use this thing in briefcase mode.
[upbeat music playing]
Overall the design of the Peak Design Travel Backpack
is a thing of innovative beauty.
There are so many features going on here
that we just haven't seen in many other packs.
It brings a fresh take to the travel backpack market.
With all that said, some of the choices on materials,
specifically the zippers,
left us scratching our head a little bit
on the durability side of things.
And time will tell on that durability piece
as they get these packs out into the market.
Thanks for taking a look at our review
on the Peak Design Travel Backpack.
We know that picking a travel backpack can be tough.
That's why we made an entire guide on it
and a four-part video series.
So be sure to check that out.
You could help identify the best travel backpack for you.
Thanks for checking this out.
We'll see you in the next video.