I saw this brand advertised all over my feeds, and the bag looks to have a lot of neat little touches — so I said screw it and ordered this small 17L backpack. To be honest, I didn’t really read much of the description about it, I thought it looked cool, might make for a neat daypack, and hit order.
I have mixed feelings, and I have only used this bag a little (but doubt I will use it more), so this is more of a quick look than in-depth review.
Materials & Size
This is probably the part I should have read, but oh well. At first glance this bag material look like a PU coated nylon — perhaps that oddly satisfying stuff that “Rains” uses on their bags. But it’s actually a Synthetic PU leather, and while that sounds only subtlety different, it is much different. This looks like a satin-sheened leather bag.
Inside the bag you find a polyester lining said to be 200D. Don’t let that last bit throw you off, this lining feels insanely cheap.
But that’s the quirk of this bag. Because the polyester webbing all over, actually feels a little more premium than the higher grade nylon webbing (poly webbing is softer, high grade nylon webbing feels rough/stiff). The hardware on this bag is silly, with the amazing looking purple accents, and seemingly custom made metal buckles all over. Even that PU leather stuff, it feels really nice to the hand.
There’s even purple accent stitching.
So you have all these details, and parts of the bag, which look pretty damned premium and feel that way too. But then you open up the bag and it feels and looks, well, cheap. I don’t get it.
From there, the only other thing to note is that this is a larger 17L than you might expect. That’s a compliment for sure, and while shorter than I typically like for a backpack, it doesn’t look like a toddler backpack on my back (6’-3”). Good stuff.
Usage Impressions
I took this to the office a few times and used it for a few work from home days (what, you don’t use a backpack when you WFH? Sounds like you are doing it wrong) and I was not at all bothered by the bag, while not being enamored by it either. Amazingly, the straps and back panel are comfortable with my full load. I suspect that might not be the case when you wear it for longer periods of time, but it’s certainly solid for going to and from the office and shorter spurts.
There’s no laptop sleeve, but both my iPad Pros fit in the pouch inside the bag, and there seems to be ample enough padding (on the shell of the bag) not to worry. The front pocket was a little small and silly. The top stash pocket is huge, but the pocket freely hangs inside the bag, and impedes with a laptop/device you might have in the pouch inside the bag. That’s an odd choice.
Overall
If you care more about neat design touches, and looks than you do about what the inside of the bag is like (and I think that’s valid for a lot of people) then you could do a lot worse for this price. You could also do a lot better for this price.
This bag is all about looks, and while I did fling it around while it was loaded, all I can say is that it is made well enough that I have no concerns with it as an EDC bag. So if you like the looks, good deal. I don’t like the finish character on this material, and that’s the reason I am moving on from it. I do like those purple accents though, they look great.