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Though thinking about traveling seems like a pipe dream these days – between cold, snowy weather and COVID – there will be a time where we’ll get out. Hey, even road tripping with your family can be done. And if you are getting out and about, good bags to keep your stuff together and organized is definitely key. To that end, the folks over at Peak Design have a few options that could help you out.
To be fair, Peak Design has a LOT of options out there, but we’re limiting our survey today to just four of them, and we’re going to work our way from largest to smallest. That means we’ve got the Peak Design Travel Duffelpack 65L ($215) up first. When my family goes camping, it’s generally the trusty suitcases that come out for our clothes – both for travel and organizing in the tent (it’s a big tent). However, something like the soft-sided Peak Design Travel Duffelpack 65L I think could easily take the place.
First off, it’s made of 600D nylon canvas, so it’s not going to mind getting put down on the ground or whatnot, and given it’s a bit weatherproof, it’ll also help keep your stuff dry inside. Like our luggage, it also has some zippers that allow the bag to expand from a 45L capacity to 65L, which is always handy for travel. Now, I’m envisioning this for camping, but really, it’d work for any sort of travel. And to help you carry it, well, you’ve got six different grab handles, as well as shoulder and hip straps that tuck away when you don’t need them. In other words, a ton of versatility here (just check out more of the images in the gallery down below).
Shrinking down on the scale a little bit brings us to the Peak Design EveryDay Sling, in either 3L ($79.95), 6L ($99.95), or 10L ($149.95), all in 400D material. In the past, I’ve found the utility of a smaller bag to be quite handy, either to get some things out of your main carryon, or to just have a more compact carry as you head about your day. Given the variety of sizing, you can also make your purchase based on what it is you’re carrying about.
While I could tell you all about the various ways to adjust and setup the Peak Design EveryDay Sling, that video up above does a much better job of walking you through what bag can do. They are way more than just a shrunk-down messenger back. There are some very excellent touches (cleaning up excess strappage, changing carry modes, and other tie-down spots, for instance) that take this way above something that’s just a glorified big pocket you’re carrying around. While it does seem setup for carrying camera gear, I can see this being a very flexible bag (I mean, the product page does say how many cans of beer it can hold, so…) with a lot of uses.
One thing you may be looking to do with the Sling is keeping some of your tech-oriented stuff organized and kept together – and that’s what the Peak Design Tech Pouch ($59.95). This is something I’ve never quite gotten to a solution that I’ve liked (and have settled in the past), so could this be the “one to rule them all”? Perhaps! It has elastic loops on the inside to hold things in their place, organized pockets, and it all zips up into a tidy, clean, no-snag pod. Oh, and worth noting? If you have a battery pack inside, there’s a passthrough on the external zip pocket so you can run a cable out to your phone.
Last – and breaking up my largest-to-smallest progression – we’ve got the Peak Design Packing Cubes in small ($29.95) or medium ($39.95). In many ways, packing cubes are made the same. You’ve got a roughly rectangular shape with a zipper that goes around three sides, and they keep your clothes organized in whatever bag they go into (say, the 65L Duffel we talked about up top?) Here, though, Peak Design mixed things up and put some handy features in.
For starters, the Peak Design Packing Cubes have an internal divider, so you can keep your clean and dirty clothing separated. Also worth calling out is the zipper, which has a “tear away” design, allowing you to get into things very quickly. They’ve also built in an expansion zipper (if you want to pack more in) that also – handily – works as a compression zipper. In other words, pack things in, and zip it down tight to save space in your bag.
And there you have it – a very quick rundown of just a few of the offerings that Peak Design has to organize your life, either in day-to-day or for bigger travels. Just to get a sense of what the brand is about (and what the bags can do), that video up there does a lot, as does reading through the descriptions on the sling bag page. We’re also working to get in samples of the 6L sling and the Tech Pouch, so we’ll be able to let you know how those work in the real world in the near future. In the meantime, you can check these out – or any of their other gear – directly over at peakdesign.com
Looking for a watch to be as ready for the outdoors as these bags? Check out the new ProTrek models we wrote about today over at WWR
