The Nomatic Travel Pack
is a 20 to 30 liter expandable backpack,
not to be confused with the Nomatic Travel Bag
we reviewed previously.
I'm Tom Wahlin of Pack Hacker
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and real world experience to provide practical resources
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Mark and I have been testing the Nomatic Travel Pack
for three weeks in Detroit, Michigan.
And it's important to note that this is a new version
of The Nomatic Travel Pack.
This came out in August of 2019.
There are a couple of minor tweaks that happened
between this version and the older iteration.
So, lets jump in and check everything out
with The Nomatic Travel Pack.
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Kicking it off with the main material of this bag
we have this tarpaulin material on the outside.
In our experience this material tends to mark up
a little bit more than other materials on the market
such as nylon or polyester,
but that's what you're getting into
with a materiel like this.
It's a little bit more rubbery feeling
than that of the old Nomatic Travel Pack.
So, it's a little more subdued, a little less shiny,
and just has a better feel to it overall.
At the time of this video,
the only color way available is black
and we are totally okay with that.
Moving onto the branding perseverative,
we have a decently sized Nomatic logo at the bottom here,
as well as some branding on the straps as well.
Now if we compare that to the older Nomatic Travel Pack,
they have a bunch of these triangles going on here
and I just personally didn't like the look of it,
a lot of people on the team don't,
they have the triangle on the straps here.
But in the newer version of the Nomatic Travel Pack,
it's just a lot cleaner and more of a subdued look,
which we definitely are digging.
Beauty is always in the eyes of the beholder though,
so that's why we tossed this out to our Instagram audience
to see what they thought.
Feel free to go follow us at Packhacker on Instagram,
if you wanna be involved in future polls.
So to wrap up the rest of the materials in this bag,
we have some durable Wujin hardware that's going on
on some of these strap adjusters and buckles.
We have weatherproof Zoom zippers going on,
which are decent but are a bit hard to open.
Especially on the corners,
since they are the weatherproof version.
And on the new version of the travel pack,
we have Y-K-K zippers on some areas of the pack as well.
More details on that later.
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Kicking it off with the external components,
let's start with the harness system on the back here.
Starting with the straps on the back here,
these are mediocre.
Now, there's not a ton of padding going on here
and the padding isn't dense at all.
So it's not necessarily the thickness of the straps
that makes a bag comfortable,
it's more about the foam density.
These are decently thick straps
but there's not a lot of dense padding going on overall.
Which means that it is uncomfortable
under a very heavy load.
It's not the biggest deal
when you have this in 20 liter mode
and you're kind of just carrying things
back and fourth for E-D-C
but if you're using this as a full blown
one bag travel backpack in 30 liter capacity mode,
fully stuffed to the brim with heavy gear,
maybe even some camera gear
you are definitely going to feel that on the shoulders.
Moving down the straps of course,
we have that logo there that we mentioned earlier.
And then we have a pretty much permanently attached
sternum strap, we like that this is attached securely
so you are less likely to lose it.
But at the same time it's still detachable,
basically you just put it to the top of this rail
and you can pull that sternum strap right off.
Moving down to the bottom,
we have some pretty standard strap adjusters.
These are definitely pretty durable, you can tighten
and loosen those as you need.
The only thing we wish that it had,
were some elastic keepers here
to manage the excess strap going on
at the bottom of the bag.
At the bottom here,
there are two rubbery-like Hypalon attachment points
for a hip belt
and we liked that those can kind of be hidden
beneath this foam padding in the back
when they're not in use.
When you do want to use them, just pull them out,
you attach the hip belt directly to it.
The hip belt itself is a tad on the bulky side
but we like the functionality
and we like that it makes this bag
more comfortable to carry.
We also dig the way that it attaches
with these sturdy metal buckles
so definitely had that as a big pro to it.
And it does help this bag carry more comfortably.
Not to mention some handy pockets on the hip belt as well.
Back at the top we have a nicely padded grab handle here,
way more padded than the regular shoulder straps here.
I kind of wish they would have
shaved some of this padding off
and maybe added it to the shoulder straps.
The strap is anchored between the two shoulder straps here,
so that can be a little bit unwieldy to carry and pick up,
compared to if it was mounted to the bag itself.
Now, we totally understand why
it's not mounted on the bag itself
'cause there's just not a lot of room
with all these zippers going on up here.
So yeah, we have to do with it
being anchored to the shoulder straps.
Moving on to the back padding behind the sternum strap
there's some decent padding going on, which we dig.
There's this kind of semi-rigid frame sheet
that will help keep some structure to the bag.
Yeah another thing with this bag is just the structure,
all the foam padding and the sides,
it can stand up on its own, which we definitely dig.
Now this back panel here, again nicely padded,
you've got a little channel here for airflow.
And you can hide these straps behind these buttons as well.
It does take a little bit long
to kind of get these unbuttoned, to get them situated
and then button this back up.
But there you go, it is hidden.
If you do want an example of the bag
that does this really well,
check out the Peak Design Travel Backpack.
There's a series of magnets and hinges and things.
The strap itself just really slides
really nicely into place.
Now, this definitely does the job on the Nomatic Travel Pack
but it could be a little bit more smooth.
Then we have a luggage pass through
at the back of this bag as well.
So you can put your roller luggage handle through it,
wheel this around the airport.
Due to the more boxy structure of this bag
and the pretty dense foam padding
and structure going on,
this bag does do a great job of standing up on its own.
And we like to mention that because a lot of people
have specifically asked us to find bags with this feature.
So to those people, here you go.
Nomatic Travel Pack does a great job
at standing up on its own.
To wrap up the external components on this bag,
we have a water bottle pocket
as well as a handle combo on both sides.
So you can kind of grab the handles here
if you want to carry the bag from any side.
We definitely dig that they included that.
They also have some stays in here
which allow the bag to keep its structure,
even as you're holding it by that handle.
Next up the water bottle pocket,
which has this magnetic design going on here
with this mesh so that opens way up when you want to use it
and when you don't it maintains a low profile.
Now, one thing to note here
is that when you have the side water bottle pockets
with water bottles in them,
it can make it a little bit harder
to utilize the side handles
because they do go inside of that water bottle pocket
so just note that.
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Moving on to the interior of the bag,
starting with this hidden pocket on the back side.
This little zipper pocket is hidden
behind the frame sheet here.
It's a little bit hard to access
which is a good thing.
That means it's more secure.
Perfect pocket to stash your passport
or other valuable items like extra cash or cards.
Next up, the quick grab pocket at the top of the bag,
which is pretty easy to access
and is a great size for a quick grab pocket.
This structured pocket features a soft liner material
that's gonna be good for protecting your cell phone
or being gentle on your sunglasses.
Plus there's a cord pass though here
that can be used to charge your phone
if you want to have a battery bank in another area
inside the bag.
Below that quick grab pocket,
there is a large U-shaped pocket that opens way up
and gives you a ton of organization options on the inside.
One note on the old version of this,
we notice that the liner on the side here
seemed to get stuck a little bit
while we were zipping and unzipping.
We're not sure why that is, but with the newer version
we have not run into that issue quite yet.
One other thing on the new version,
is that the liner is new here,
so we have this kind of heathered gray material.
We think it's an improvement on the old one
as it looks a little more polished
and feels a little bit better in the hand as well.
Moving on to the front flap of the pocket,
starting on the top,
we have this zippered R-F-I-D pocket
going on at the top here.
Below that,
a zip pocket that goes across about 3/4 of the bag
and from there pretty much goes to the bottom of the bag
when it's unzipped.
Directly bellow that, two mesh divider pockets
and then two pen, pencil or stylus pockets on the side
on the other quarter of the bag.
On the back side of flap,
we have two rows of mesh divider pockets going on here.
Going at half the width each.
And then we have this small liner pocket
at the bottom as well,
for additional compartmentalization and separation of gear.
The engineering here does seem a little bit overkill
but if you want to pick and choose
the pockets you use,
that's probably gonna be better
than if you're expecting to fully pack this thing out
and have it all work perfectly with any type of gear.
The good news is,
everything lays flat if you're not using it.
So it's still nice to have all these options,
should you choose to use them.
Moving on to the back of the bag,
we have this laptop compartment
that fully unzips and opens up.
Now this is an area, where I'm a little bit surprised
to see them using Zoom zippers here
when they said they updated the bags with Y-K-K zippers
I thought that would be throughout the entirety of the bag.
But, we have Zoom zippers here,
on arguably one of the most important parts of the bag.
The part that holds the harness system
to the rest of the bag.
If this zipper broke,
you would be pretty much left with a back panel here
and some straps and this small bag here
that you can hold by hand.
All zipper brands can break,
but generally we have had better luck with Y-K-K
than we have had with Zoom.
Okay enough zipper talk,
now let's get back to the laptop compartment.
So this opens up all the way, theoretically,
you could keep your laptop in here
when you go through security
that's gonna be up to the T-S-A agent,
whether they want to allow that or not.
There's a nice Velcro's laptop compartment here
with a false bottom going on.
Which means your laptop won't go all the way
to the bottom of the bag, protect it from unexpected drops.
And then we have a tablet pocket at the front here.
Kind of some nice soft material going on on the inside here.
Definitely dig that that's going on.
This Velcro will help keep everything secure.
And then on the back side,
there is a liner divider pocket going on here.
Definitely just fit in some flatter items
or documents in there.
To put this bag into expandable mode,
you unzip this zipper that's right in the middle of the bag.
Once you unzip this, the bag is now 30 liters
and it is open-able by clam shell below that zipper as well.
So this part of the bag is not really accessible
when the bag is fully compressed.
As a quick pro tip,
this is a perfect place to store the hip belt
when you're not using it.
So if you're using it as E-D-C
you keep this part fully compartmentalized and closed
and just grab this out when you expand the bag
and use it for travel.
This compartment has one large mesh divider pocket
going on here and a semi-elasticy liner pocket
toward the bottom to note.
Other than that it is pretty much a bucket going on here
in this clam shell.
If you like, you can keep this mesh part completely unzipped
to have access to both sides of the bag at all times,
maybe if you have some really fat packing cubes
and you don't want that dividing
or that compartmentalization.
But just note that if you do want to keep it open
there's really no easy way to hide that mesh.
Again, if you want another example of a bag
that does this really well,
check out the Peak Design Travel Backpack.
Where you can just roll that divider pocket down
and hide the excess fabric away.
Now if we open up the main compartment of this bag here,
that'll open right up,
you can see this mesh divider thing
we were talking about earlier
is towards the back of the main compartment.
Now starting with the flap on the top,
there's that nice cord pass through here.
That is accessible from that quick access pocket
towards the top of the bag that we talked about earlier.
Going down the front flap,
there are two zippered mesh compartmentalization pockets
on the front flap of the bag for additional organization.
Inside this main compartment,
there are four mesh pockets on the sides,
two on the right, two on the left.
The mesh pockets on the left are a little bit larger
so here we're able to hold
the included sunglasses case inside.
And they don't have any slants,
the mesh pockets on the right have these slants
and they're a little but smaller
and tighter for smaller items.
The sunglasses case overall feels pretty cheap,
although it does a decent job at keeping your sunglasses
inside a structured compartment.
Another negative of having this right here,
is that it kind of obstructs you
being able to use the full width of the bag,
so if you have this fully zipped up
you just kind of put it down
and you want to get some longer packing cubes in there,
this thing is gonna kinda get in the way and block it.
So just note that,
if you do plan on using the included sunglasses case.
On the right hand side,
with these slanted pockets they're a little bit smaller
if you go to the bottom,
there is also a little bit of a nylon loop
where you could hold in pens
or anything with a clip on the inside of it
to keep everything a little bit more structured
and secure inside of these smaller pockets.
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At the time of this review,
Mark our video editor and I
have been testing the Nomatic Travel Pack,
here in Detriot, Michigan for the last three weeks.
From a usage perspective,
it's been going pretty well overall.
We dig some of the side pockets and organization going on.
But overall feel that the design
and functionality is a bit overkill in some areas.
There are some marks and scratches on the tarpaulin
after about three weeks of use.
Again, this isn't necessarily
the Nomatic Travel Pack exclusively.
It's a lot of bags that opt for this material
on the exterior.
We really like the idea of expandability,
but when we go from 20 liters to 30 liter mode,
it does get pretty fat.
So while we're using this thing for E-D-C,
carrying around all our gear for daily needs
in the compressed 20 liter mode,
everything feels pretty slick, overall.
But when expanded to 30, fully loaded out with heavy gear
the harness system gets more uncomfortable
and the bag gets fatter and harder to manage.
So to wrap this thing up, with some pros and cons
starting with the pros overall:
there is a streamlined and low profile look
that's going on, that's also nice for travel
especially in the 20 liter mode.
Magnetic water bottle pocket design
on the sides, are clever and a nice addition.
And the compressibility adds quite a bit of versatility.
Moving on to some of the cons
overall it is an uncomfortable harness system
especially if the bag is fully loaded.
Its hard to utilize all the pockets
on the interior of the bag
especially if its fully loaded.
There's a lot going on with the bag
and holistically it doesn't all feel super cohesive.
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The Nomatic Travel Pack is a great improvement
on the travel bag which we've reviewed in the past,
but there's still a lot to be desired.
Although there are some interesting,
unique features going on individually,
some don't come together very well in a holistic sense.
If you want a full featured
structured bag with expandability
this bag could be for you.
But if you plan on hauling this around
with a bunch of heavy gear in 30 liter mode,
you may want to look elsewhere.
So there you have, our review of the Nomatic Travel Pack.
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 in the next video.