Anytime you get a group of traveling professionals together at an event, a conversation about what they carry and why they carry it breaks out. Comparing gadgets is a nerd’s honored past time and one of the best ways to get an honest to goodness opinion about why someone chooses to outfit themselves with the stuff they do.
At HPEDiscover, an old friend had a fancy new backpack. Stephen Foskett was showing off something new, unique and totally usable. Having recently and unexpectedly been thrown into the market for a new laptop bag to carry with me, I was all ears. After all, if there’s anyone that would research it more than I would, it was definitely gonna be Stephen Foskett. I trust his opinion and so as soon as I got home I placed my order.
While Foskett opted for the 20L size of the Peak Design Everyday Backpack, I went for the 30. I figured I was a little bit taller so it might fit my frame nicely to make my back feel a little bit better than last bag that I was carrying.
They have a really cool selection of normal and cool colors to choose from in both sizes. I went with good old fashioned black, knowing that I would be spicing it up with the WiFiStand.Com logo once it passed the test.
You get what you pay for
Now keep in mind, these bags aren’t cheap by any means, and I mean that in every sense of the word. They cost a bunch of money, but they’re extremely well produced. There seems to have been an insane amount of time put into the materials and construction of these things. Kudos to that.
But, it’s a Photography bag?
Now, if you’re a photographer, this is definitely a bag you want to take a look at it. However if you don’t generally carry photography equipment, you might not be able to take afvantage of all the features that this bag offers. There’s some really cool clips and things along side the compartments that are built to hold a multitude of lenses, camera bodies, flashes, and so on. I don’t carry photography equipment, so I ended up pulling off some of the stuff that served no purpose for me.
The weight
Overall it is a pretty light weight bag. It is a comfortable weight even when loaded down with 2 laptops and all the other junk I carry. This is great for me as I am constant walking through airports or from hotels to meetings.
The pockets
Are insane. So many cool places to store stuff. You can reconfigure them based on what you are carrying, move the dividers around and really customize the bag.
I didn’t like that all of my stuff didn’t fit the way that I imagined it would fit though. Some of the pockets were a little too slim for business cards, there’s not a place to store pens, pencils, and other items I carry with me, and The inside of it is just a large chamber which makes it difficult to store on route cables, connectors, and components. To get around this you have to purchase a The inside of it is just a large chamber which makes it difficult to store on route cables, connectors, and components. To get around this you have to purchase small zip across containers or bags that you can fill with all of your components and store them in the larger main cavity of the bag. Kind of a pain but really only because I don’t have that level of organization down.
Walking around with the bag
It fits well, the straps are sturdy and they have this really cool swivel action unlike anything I’ve ever used. It’s easy to pick up and instantly sling across a shoulder or wear it like a regular backpack.
There are handles on the top and both sides so you can carry it really anywhere you want. There’s even a part on the back that allows you to slide it over the handle of a suitcase or roller bag for ease of transport.
There is one pretty annoying thing though. This part:
Right underneath my arm there is the buckle for the arm strap adjustment. It may just be my body but it digs into my chest and inner arm. Painfully. This is my only major drawback with the bag. I’m trying to make sure the straps are in place to continue carrying it, but man, it hurts. Enough so that if I don’t figure out a way to make it not hurt I’m scrapping the bag.
One other small and kind of annoying issue is how it makes me sweat on my lower back. There’s a padded part on the bottom of the bag that goes up against your back:
For some reason, I don’t know if it’s friction or what, but it makes my lower back get a bit sweaty. Which is kind of awkward and weird. Can’t say I’ve noticed that before.
Overall impression
It’s a great bag. It’s made really, really well. Except for that one part. The front latch is awesome, FYI. The metal/magnetic/clasp thing is great.
The 30L is a TON of space. It looks incredible and doesn’t seem to be as heavy as other bags I’ve carried.
But.
But that part in my inner arms totally sucks because it hurts me.
Would I recommend it? Absolutely *if* it fits your body type.
I’m not in a hurry to get rid of it at all and this is my first trip with it, so we’ll see. But so far so good for the most part. 🙂
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