Matador SEG28 — Quick Thoughts

I’ve had been intrigued by this bag — a lot of people sing it’s praises, and it looks cool. It went on sale and I watched a couple of videos to discover that there’s more than meets the eye, so I picked it up.

It’s a very odd bag, which I would describe as “bizarrely good” within the niche of onebag travel. In fact, I would guess this is among the best onebag travel backpacks out there — certainly the best I’ve ever used.

Materials & Specs

As the name implies this is a 28L backpack which measures out at: 20″ x 12″ x 9″. I’ll note that it seems to push/form deeper than 9 inches when stuffed. Matador weighs this at 2lb 6oz.

The materials on this are really nice, and I am a huge fan of them. It’s 420D nylon UHMWPE reinforced ripstop, and 420D recycled nylon. It’s a fantastic material choice.

The bag is well executed and assembled, well done.

In Use

I only used this bag for a single trip, so my quick observations on this only:

You do not pack this bag like a normal bag. You should not have packing cubes. This bag is loaded from the face, with those front zippers. Each of those zippers is a packing cube area built in. It’s highly effective.

The straps are quite comfortable and fit well.

The laptop sleeve is fine.

The quick access can be impeded if you over stuff the rest of the bag.

It’s fucking clever, and if I traveled the onebag life, I don’t see why I wouldn’t want this bag.

This bag is exceptionally effective to ‘live’ out of when you are at a hotel/Airbnb, as everything is accessible from the front of the bag, and still segmented (hence the name).

The zippers can all be ‘locked’ so they are not easily opened, this is clever and well done.

In the white color I bought, it looks fantastic.

The grab handles are great.

If you pack clean clothes in the packing cube bit, then you can put your dirty items in the main compartment, and you don’t lose any volume.

Everything on this bag is clever, well done, and comfortable. It is big though. It is hard to see carrying this as a single item, as you wouldn’t want to move around a city with it as an EDC bag. But if you can go with a small sling for your EDC, then this is a near ideal single bag design for a backpack or really anything else.

Overall

This is specifically for people who only like to travel in one bag, and want something that requires no extra bits and bobs. Matador nailed this, it’s just not a type of bag I use.

Good stuff though.

Buy here, $269.