- Alright, got a really special announcement for you.
The Tortuga Homebase collection is launching today
and I've had the opportunity to be testing this pack out.
This is the Homebase Backpack.
I've been testing it for about the last month
so gonna share the observations with you guys
that we've come up with here at Pack Hacker.
So, let's check it out.
[upbeat music playing]
Look at that Peak Design bag back there.
We're going to do that next.
That's what we're going to be looking at today,
Tortuga backpack.
Alright, so here is what Tortuga has to say
about the Homebase collection directly from their website.
They say, "Carry the essentials for travel and work.
The Homebase travel backpack is ideal
for digital nomads, minimalist packers, and one baggers."
Does it live up to that claim?
We're going to check it out.
And one more thing to mention.
They do have another duffle pack
that they have in this same collection.
So we've just been taking a look
at the backpack here but maybe take
a look at that too if you're more of a duffle person.
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So the Tortuga Homebase Backpack was designed
with lightweight and minimalist travelers in mind.
The bag itself comes in at 2.3 pounds
which is pretty light.
It also comes with a .7 pound packing cube
that you can remove or use if you like,
so it's going to be a total of three pounds
for that whole package.
The shape and size of this bag feels like
it sits slightly higher than others on the market
and that's gonna do a couple of things for you.
One, if you're a shorter person,
it's going to work on a smaller frame which is great.
That weight is going to feel a little bit higher
up on your back and it's almost like you can lean back
and take a quick snooze on the top part of the bag
because it does tend to stick up a little further
than other packs.
So the bag is made out of sailcloth
which we think is a pretty great look.
You can see here that it's sort of blending
into this couch and we find it to be
a pretty good material.
It has some really great weather resistance
and paired with the weather resistant YKK zippers,
it works decently at repelling moisture and weather.
So we tested this pack in the shower
because we've been too lazy to wait
for it to rain here in Austin, Texas.
Who knows, it could be weeks before it rains again.
Now is this really a fair test?
Well, not exactly, you're hardly ever going to run
into that much rain when you're outside.
It's going to be hard to see that much moisture,
but we wanted to try to illustrate the point to you.
So the first test, we just stuck this into the shower
for about a minute and kind of spun it around.
The outside definitely got wet,
but the inside was completely dry.
So for the next iteration, I just popped this thing on
and took a shower with it basically
for 10, 12 minutes, which is weird.
Who showers with backpacks anyways?
But you can see there that the towels inside got soaked
so water did make it through here,
a lot of water pressure from the shower
kind of pushing onto it and water did get inside.
Alright, so let's move into some of the external
components of the pack.
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You can see here that we have three handles
on three sides of this thing, which is really great
and is versatile if you need to grab it
from wherever the pack ends up being
and they're really nice.
You also may notice that at the top here
we have two handles and one is kind of positioned
in the middle for grabbing, and another is unpadded
and it's a hook so you can hang that up.
You know, maybe if you're at the airport,
go into the bathroom and you want to hang this up,
keep it off the grimy floor where
there's probably piss all over the place.
Yeah, it's good for that and it sits flush with the wall
or the door so that's really great.
The only side that does not have a handle is
the side with the water bottle pocket on there.
So it's a lay flat, it doesn't stick out.
It's not made out of some ugly mesh
just kind of hanging out of the pack, right,
when you're not using it.
But that side does not have a handle on it
which is completely fine.
The straps are firm and padded
and the holes on them are kind of reminiscent
of early Nike Air technology or something like that.
There's also the clips at the bottom
where you can detach these straps from the pack
and stow them away to put the bag into briefcase mode
which is basically you're just holding
a backpack from the side handle.
It's not a briefcase.
Again, I mention this in every video.
So we think that's a little bit unnecessary.
If you want to use a backpack, yes it's going
to have straps on it.
If you want to buy a duffle, go for that too.
One thing to note on the durability of these straps
and even though this is a first look at this thing,
we've already noticed some fraying on these sides of this.
So there's some fraying going on
and we've been using this pack for about a month
so we'd be curious to see how it holds up.
Make sure to head over the Pack Hacker.com
and we'll always keep that Usage Timeline updated
as we use these products for longer periods of time.
Alright, so the back side of the pack,
nobody is ever going to see this,
but you are going to feel it every day,
every second when you're wearing this thing.
And I really like how firm these backpads are.
They actually provide some true ventilation for you
and it's actually made out of Ariaprene or Ariaprene.
Again, got the laptop, gonna read the definition here.
"Decomposable, recyclable, and hypo-allergenic
nontoxic synthetic rubber."
[crickets chirp]
I don't really care what any of that means personally.
I just care how it feels on my back
and these are great.
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Alright, so moving on to the inside of the pack.
The first thing you'll notice is that there is not
really any lining on this thing.
It's just basically the sailcloth
so that was an intentional design move from Tortuga.
It keeps the bag nice and lightweight
and adds that nice weather proofing
that you'll see with the pack.
The zippers on the main clamshell go way down,
all the way down so you can really open this thing up.
They actually go down further than most other bags
which is interesting.
There's just a little bit of a tab holding this
thing together, so you can open it way up.
The pack also comes with an included packing cube
which is double sided so you put your clean clothes
in one side, keep the dirty in the other,
keep them separated from one another.
Sweet!
We did find the size of the packing cube to be
a little bit cumbersome.
So when this thing is full, there's only a little bit
of space on the sides and a tiny bit on the top
and it's kind of weird to utilize.
So if you do use that packing cube,
we recommend, you know, planning to put everything in there.
However, you know, it's easily removable.
You can take it out, you can use other packing cubes,
or you can just pack it like a normal backpack.
So a bit of a knock but it's not that big of an issue
in the grand scheme of things.
The front half-zip compartment is another win for this pack.
You can see we have this clip on the top
which is good for holding keys.
We have a mini flashlight here and a couple
of different multi-tools that we've put on.
You'll get another zip pocket that's good
for electronic items or any other things
that you just want to keep organized,
and then a little bit of an organizer type system.
You can put three pens in there
and a couple of credit cards.
And then on the side you can put your passport in,
fits just write without a case.
So if you have a super thin case, it might work,
but I have a little bit of a thicker one
and it ends up not fitting in there
so just know that you've got to put
your passport in there naked if you want
to toss it in that compartment
or use it for something else.
And then there's also this mesh kind of pocket on top
just to put more stuff in, maybe some glasses.
Maybe you've got a battery pack for your phone.
Anything can go in there too.
And two more things to note on this front pocket.
We noticed a little bit of fraying
and loose threads where the logo connects
to the rest of the pack and we also found
that there's a slight annoyance with the length
of the zipper pulls in the main clamshell compartment.
If you're just trying to get into this front pocket,
you can see here that it's actually
a little bit annoying that these zipper pulls
kind of get in the way of that zip
since they are so close together.
And yes, there's a padded laptop compartment here
that is closable by Velcro with a decently
sturdy frame sheet.
You can see we're bending it around a little bit.
And there's also a little half pocket
where you could put a tablet of your choice.
One little other funny thing to mention is that
we found about 16 logos on this thing
so Tortuga is serious about their branding.
There is no question that this bag was made by Tortuga.
If you notice more than 16, let us know in the comments
and we would love to hear what we missed.
But wow, 16 logos.
Look at that.
Alright, so a couple of pros to wrap this thing up.
This thing is lightweight and minimal.
It has a low profile and is a good size
for one bag travel.
Between the front pocket that organizes
all your tech and the double-sided packing cube,
a lot of thought went into making this bag
correct for digital nomads and frequent travelers.
So a lot of the people at Tortuga are living
the same lifestyle.
They definitely had the opportunity
to think through a lot of this stuff
from a design perspective and they got
a lot of things right.
The combination of the sailcloth with the weather-
resistant, lockable YKK zippers makes this thing
pretty weather proof. So again, don't go out in a monsoon.
Don't go into a pool unless it's exclusively filled
with pool noodles or inflatable things
to keep you afloat.
But it's going to do well for you
if you're just bumping around the city
and it ends up starting to rain on you,
you don't have to pull out a rain fly.
It's going to keep everything you know, pretty safe
inside your pack.
So some of the cons of this bag
because no pack is perfect.
We did notice a little bit of fraying
on a couple of areas of the pack
and the main one being that mesh
on the shoulder strap that's kind of
starting to fray off.
So we're personally curious how this will hold up
as it's used for longer and the durability of it.
Again, head over to Pack Hacker.com for this review,
and we have our Usage Timeline where we'll tell you
how long and how well something is lasting
as we use it for longer.
The packing cube is nice to have
and thoughtfully designed, but it takes up
an awkward size within the bag
allowing you to not really utilize
that extra space.
And lastly, the hideaway pocket for the straps seems
a little unnecessary to us, but again,
your mileage may vary.
I'm curious to see what else they could have done
with that space had it not been
for stowing away your straps.
Maybe you could have made that main clamshell compartment
a little bit bigger.
Maybe they could have dedicated it to a different feature.
Alright, thanks for joining us and taking a look
at the Tortuga Homebase Backpack.
Again it just launched today at the time
of posting this video.
So be sure to go over to Pack Hacker.com,
check out the full review, and also sign up
for that newsletter, packhacker.com/newsletter
and never miss an update.
Thanks for checking this out.
We'll see you in the next one.
There's 16 logos on this bag!
16!
It's crazy!
There is hardly any lining on the inside.
It's basically just that sailcloth.
Is it though?
Yes, okay.
[shower sound]
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