- In this video, we're going to be taking a look
at the Timbuk2 Wander Pack.
It's a larger pack from Timbuk2.
It's one of their takes on a one bag travel backpack.
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 pros and cons
of the Timbuk2 Wander Pack.
[upbeat music playing]
The outside of this pack is made with
a 420d ripstop material and it's a thick ripstop weave.
You can actually see the grid lines on here
if you do take a look closely.
So basically what that ripstop material will do
is that if your pack does get any rips in it,
the square grid lines will stop those rips
from spreading any further into that next section.
There are two colors available.
This one is the jet black that we're taking a look at
and they also have the surplus gray,
so not a huge variety of color options.
You're either going black or gray,
but they do look good and feel slick.
The Timbuk2 Wander Pack does look like
a travel backpack, but a little more sleek.
It has cleaner lines than other travel backpacks out there.
So if we take a look at the Osprey Farpoint 40
from an aesthetic perspective, there's a lot more going on
there on the outside and it's not quite as minimalistic,
but the Timbuk2 Wander Pack does have that
kind of same aesthetic and vibe
'cause when you compare it to something
like the Mission Workshop Fitzroy,
which is right behind, we have a review on that too.
Go check it out and on the Osprey Farpoint 40.
It doesn't really have quite as slick
of an urban look as the Fitzroy for instance.
So aesthetically we kind of place it between those two packs
in terms of how it looks overall.
One thing that I find great about the Timbuk2 Wander Pack
is that it can actually stand up on its own
depending on how you pack it.
A lot of people ask for that and look for that in bags.
It's really nice to kind of have it balance itself
when you're digging around inside of your pack.
I'm not sure if this is due to the kind of thicker material
that's on the outside.
It's not like Cordura.
It doesn't, you know, give and break.
But it does offer some of that rigidity
that you won't see in other travel packs.
And also due to the shape of the bottom panel here,
you can see that it's overall flat
and you can put some shoes in there, other stuff.
We can get into that in a second.
But it provides a nice little platform
for you to kind of plop this thing down
and have it stand up on its own.
So that's a pretty neat trick.
[upbeat music playing]
On the outside of the pack we have four nice
compression straps made by Woojin, a Korean company.
You do also have these elasticky, nylon areas
that kind of keep the excess compression strap in place,
so that's a nice touch for looking for a clean look.
There are three handles on the sides
and the top of this backpack and that's great for
quick grabs, carrying it short distances.
We do like that the straps themselves
are centered pretty much within the design of the pack.
So it's easy to keep that weight balanced
as you're carrying this thing around.
One thing to note is that you will not
have a water bottle pocket with this thing.
Hit or miss for some people, but just know that.
If you do want a water bottle pocket,
you're not going to find that with this pack.
Moving on to the harness and the back panel.
Overall, it's got some pretty nice padded straps here
that are comfortable for long carrying distances.
And we're also able to hide these straps
and slide them in within this system.
So let's go ahead and do that now.
[upbeat music playing]
There we go.
I've stowed the straps away.
It's overall a quick system and they're just kind of
free floating in here, which is fine.
So we have three major gripes with the harness system
of this pack that we're going to get into right now.
First of all, there is no hip belt
and there is also no option to even add one.
So that's a bit of an issue when it comes to one bag travel.
If you have a lighter load and you're a larger person
this will probably be fine for you,
but if you're a smaller person or you have a ton of gear
inside your bag, having that hip belt
can really, really help.
In addition to that, there are no load lifters
at the top of the straps here,
so it's going to be hard to make that carry feel lighter
if you do have this thing jammed up
with a bunch of different stuff.
Then we have two other things that are kind of unforgivable
in my opinion.
On one hand, we do have a sternum strap here
that's just free floating.
There is a button here and it's really kind of
not that great to use.
Of course, it does kind of hold the straps in place,
but there's really no ergonomic benefit to it
other than that.
On the other hand, you're also able to slide them off,
directly off of this pretty easily.
You know, very easy to lose these
even though they don't really give that great of benefit
in the first place due to the way
that these seem to be designed.
Super easy to lose these if you're unbuckling
these straps and stowing them away.
So that's a little bit scary.
On the other hand, one more feature
that definitely seems a little bit odd
that I'm surprised Timbuk2 didn't catch,
'cause they make such great bags,
is this strap mechanism that you see right here.
So when that is strapped into the bottom of the pack,
everything seems great right,
but it does flip off very easily.
So just with a quick press it flips off.
I'll get into this a little bit later
in our durability section, but Tynan,
one of contributors took this thing around
Southeast Asia for about three weeks
and he had that happen to him on three different occasions,
where he tried to pick up his bag
and the strap just flew off.
So isn't that the main point of backpack,
you want to like quickly grab it and pick it up
without anything going wrong?
So between the backpack strap that comes unbuckled
on its own and this sternum strap that just totally seems
like an afterthought, I feel like Timbuk2
is a better brand than this.
So hoping that they do fix it in their next iteration
and kind of work out some of these bugs
with the Wander Pack.
[upbeat music playing]
Okay, so I'm glad we got that out of the way
with the harness system.
Big gripes there, but let's move on
to the interior of the pack, which is actually
a lot better and it's well designed.
So starting on the front of the pack here,
we do have this top pocket that's great for quick grabs.
One thing to note here is that you can't really fit,
if you have like an iPhone 7 Plus,
one of the bigger iPhones, you can't really fit that
into this pocket, so just note that.
It's for more quick grab things.
If you have your passport, if you have your wallet,
if you have anything a little bit smaller,
it's good to put here.
This is a good pocket for if you're just
passing through airport security pretty fast.
But then you compare that with this top shelf pocket
and this is going to be better for those larger items.
So I found that this top pocket is pretty great
for things like your toiletry kit
that you might have to pull out
when you're going through security.
You could definitely put your phone in here as well.
It's just kind of quick.
Grab everything out and put it in a bin
and pop through security, boom.
And this is a great way to help kind of separate
and organize your gear.
On the top here, you do have a nice mesh pocket as well.
So just offering additional organization pieces there.
And then on the side we do have a bit of a hidden handle
on the front actually here.
So there's a side pocket on the front.
This is going to be good for flatter items,
anything that you kind of want to stick in there
and again just organize and have quick access to
as you're carrying this thing around,
especially if you're carrying it from the handle,
maybe using it as a briefcase randomly.
Really easy to get inside of that pocket.
So there's all good things there.
As far as the fabric in these pockets goes,
you do have a bit of a felty feel,
it's a soft feel inside of this top pocket.
It kind of feels like a sweater that you would maybe wear
around the holiday season in colder weather.
And then on these two pockets, so this side pocket
on the front and this pocket on the top,
there is a swishy nylon material liner.
The reason why I'm bringing up all these liners
is that in the bottom pocket we do have a bit more
of a heavy duty liner going on.
So it feels like a tarp, something like that.
And this is meant for shoes and maybe damp clothing
or dirtier items that you just kind of
want to quickly stash away.
So you have some Allbirds in here.
We got a review for these coming up soon.
That's just a really nice compartment
to separate your gear and can be used
for more heavy duty stuff.
All the zippers on this pack are YKK number eight.
You will notice that a lot of other bags
that we do take a look at have a big fat number 10
racket coil zipper.
And these have a number eight racket coil zipper.
And I was doing a little bit of thinking on this
and I'm not exactly sure if this is their thing,
but for me it seems to make sense.
So when we do move into this main clamshell compartment,
you can see that it's actually sort of like a duffle bag
in the way that it unzips.
And I'm thinking in contrast to other bags
that have a full clamshell that you kind of split
from the side here explicitly,
right where about this handle is,
so that number 10 racket coil zipper
can sometimes hold the entire integrity of the bag together,
whereas this number eight racket coil zipper
that Timbuk2 decided to throw on their Wander Pack,
just kind of functions as the top flap.
So there's not going to be a ton of pressure on that thing
as you're carrying it around, but you will notice
on some other bags that do have the zipper
right down the middle, they will use a fatter zipper
because there's a lot more stress on the bag itself.
That's my theory on the zippers.
I haven't verified it with Timbuk2,
but it seems to make sense when you do think about it.
So let's hop into that main clamshell on the bag.
One thing to note here is that you never need
to unbuckle these two compression straps on the backside,
so that's really nice for quick access.
You will notice on another couple bags
that we have reviewed that you do need to unbuckle
all compression straps to get access
to the main compartment.
But since this folds down more like a duffle bag,
that is very nice for that access.
When we do take a look at the main part of this pack,
it's important to note that the top and the bottom pockets
will cut into the space of the main area
that you do have in the pack.
Here we're using some packing cubes.
This is the Peak Design Everyday Sling
that we just reviewed on our website in text format.
Be sure to go check that out.
This is really great to carry around camera gear,
you know, maybe not a DSLR but mirrorless camera gear.
Definitely check that out.
Also doubles as a packing cube so we've been using it.
Then two Eagle Creek Pack-It Spector Cubes.
When we pull everything out,
there's a nice roomy compartment here
and some nice compression straps to pull anything down
that maybe you'd want to keep a little bit more compressed.
So that's a nice feature that they have added
to this pack.
If we do look at the top area,
there are going to be these mesh pockets here
that are going to allow you to add additional organization.
So socks on this side, underwear on that side,
whatever you end up needing, you can fit
a bunch of T shirts in here too,
whatever makes sense for your carry.
And these are really great
if you're not utilizing packing cubes.
We always recommend utilizing packing cubes.
It's way easier to pack, but if you're not,
definitely take advantage of these.
One thing to note on the zipper placement
of these mesh pockets, is you kinda wanna try to tuck
items up into the top part to utilize the space fully
because this comes down about, I would say maybe
1/6 of the way down.
So you want to have access to that entire pocket.
So stuff everything in on the top and then the bottom.
Keep it nice and organized and compressed.
That's how you're going to want to use that.
[upbeat music playing]
At the time of this review, I've been testing
the Timbuk2 Wander Pack intermittently
for about the past couple months.
Most of the testing has come from Tynan,
one of our contributors who has used this
in New York City where he lives
and he's also tested this on a three week trip to Thailand
hauling around his camera gear,
all of his clothing on motorbikes,
going all throughout Southeast Asia,
so he's definitely given it a run for its money.
And that's how we figured out some of these issues
with the pack, specifically the harness.
So far we haven't had any issues with the durability
of this pack for the amount of time that we have used it.
And if there are any issues, Timbuk2 offers
a really great warranty program
where if there are any manufacturing defects,
you can send it back to them in San Francisco
and they will repair it and send it back to you.
However, just note that that does not cover
wear and tear or abusive damage to the pack itself.
We interviewed one of my friends, Sasha.
He is a UX director living in New York City
and he has used a Timbuk2 pack, not this Wander Pack,
but a different pack for over 10 years of travel
and I think he just recently replaced it
'cause he wanted an aesthetic upgrade.
But he's definitely had great experiences
with Timbuk2 and the durability they provide as a brand.
So to wrap this thing up, some of the pros of it,
there are a ton of well-thought-out pockets
on this thing for travel.
The way you can organize your gear,
everything that comes with it.
Great options for organization.
The compression strap in the main compartment
is really handy especially if you are not
using packing cubes.
The shoe pocket at the bottom of the pack
works really great if you want to kind of
hide your shoes in there or dirtier clothing
or some things that are a little bit damp.
Rolling into some of the cons of this thing,
the shoulder straps can come undone without warning,
especially if you do have a lot of gear in there,
which is tough because I mean it's a backpack.
You pick it up from the straps because
you want to put it on your back.
There is no hip belt and not even an option for one,
so that can be a turnoff for some travelers
that do want to take a bunch of heavier gear with them.
The sternum straps aren't physically attached to the bag,
and again, it seems like an afterthought.
It's too easy for them to fall off
and the way they fasten is simply by a looped button,
so again, not the greatest design there.
[upbeat music playing]
All things considered, the Timbuk2 Wander Pack
is a good option for one bag travel.
It kind of bridges the gap aesthetically
between a travel backpack look and a more urban
carry slick look.
So it has a good aesthetic.
The unfortunate part about it
is that a lot of the cons on this thing
are kind of big issues when you are using this thing
in everyday life.
So we really hope that Timbuk2 takes a look at those
and fixes that for the future iteration of this pack.
If you are still around, I'm guessing that you do like gear
and you care about optimizing your travel experience.
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Thanks for taking a look at this video
on the Timbuk2 Wander Pack.
We'll see you in the next one.
Mission works Fitzroy, error alert.
I pack bags and then I unpack them.
It's my life.
Just listen to those clips.
[upbeat music playing]