Topo Designs Day Pack Review
"I hate this bag, I hate this bag, I hate this bag."
That is what I said almost the entire trip to and from NYC. I took the Day Pack as my only luggage and I rode the train and walked almost everywhere to give the pack a good test. And the end result was that mantra, repeated over and over again.
That is what I said almost the entire trip to and from NYC. I took the Day Pack as my only luggage and I rode the train and walked almost everywhere to give the pack a good test. And the end result was that mantra, repeated over and over again.
"Where is my goddam Maxped PFII?"
In fact this review period is a perfect summary of the problem with hipster gear--form over function. When I left for the trip, a friend at work said to me "That's a nice looking bag" and she is right. But everything else about this pack is positively wretched.
The only point to read on any further is to see if the Topo Designs Day Pack breaks the record for lowest score. Don't buy this. Don't gift this. Don't fill this full of shit, light it on fire, and toss it on the porch of your enemy. It does nothing well.
Here is the product page. There are lots of colors and the bag was $129 (MSRP is $149). There is a smaller version of the pack, which may as well be called the Dora the Explorer Edition, but this version is the 22L version. Here is a review (they inexplicably like the bag, well okay, maybe not inexplicably...). Here is the bag (sadly purchased with site funds, think of this as a PSA--now you don't have to waste your money):
I am not posting an affiliate link. Why spread the cancer?
Twitter Review Summary: Hipsteritis as its worst--looks cool, works terribly.
Design: 0
In fact this review period is a perfect summary of the problem with hipster gear--form over function. When I left for the trip, a friend at work said to me "That's a nice looking bag" and she is right. But everything else about this pack is positively wretched.
The only point to read on any further is to see if the Topo Designs Day Pack breaks the record for lowest score. Don't buy this. Don't gift this. Don't fill this full of shit, light it on fire, and toss it on the porch of your enemy. It does nothing well.
Here is the product page. There are lots of colors and the bag was $129 (MSRP is $149). There is a smaller version of the pack, which may as well be called the Dora the Explorer Edition, but this version is the 22L version. Here is a review (they inexplicably like the bag, well okay, maybe not inexplicably...). Here is the bag (sadly purchased with site funds, think of this as a PSA--now you don't have to waste your money):
I am not posting an affiliate link. Why spread the cancer?
Twitter Review Summary: Hipsteritis as its worst--looks cool, works terribly.
Design: 0
As with most things this bad, it started at the drawing board. Fundamentally, the problem is this--how the bag works was secondary to how the bag looks. Here is a case in point--the side pockets, which are ostensibly for water bottles (that's what these pockets do on 100% of other bags that have them), did not work consistently. If I packed the bag full, they didn't function. If, however, I didn't stuff the bag full, they sometimes worked. It was a tight fit, but if you really wrestled with the bag, you could slide a Klean Kanteen in. These pockets were designed to look minimal and clean, which is fine, but they still should work, or, they shouldn't be there at all. To leave them there, in a place where we EXPECT a bottle pocket, and have them work some, but not all of the time, is just annoying.
All sorts of things were like this about the bag. The main straps were good, but they lacked a sternum strap, something that should be on a bag that was this expensive. Undoubtedly such a strap would, again, take away from the clean look. The end result is a less than comfortable carry. The Topo sternum strap itself was a separate purchase and it too was garbage.
Time and again, there were things about this bag that were simply wrong and they were wrong because to do otherwise would take away from the look Topo was trying to achieve. I have yet to review another product more hellbent on achieving a certain look at the cost of functionality.
But if it was just that, I'd be okay, I'd give the product a 1 here, but there is more. The bag's design has two other mortal sins. First, the pen slot/small item organizer is in the main compartment. When the bag is packed this is all but inaccessible. To get stuff you have to either take things out or hope you can get to them. Even when I wasn't in NYC and I was using this bag, the place of the small item organizer annoyed me. When I actually packed the bag, it rose from "annoyance" to "pissing me off."
Then there is this--the bag doesn't do a great job of protecting your stuff. In my Maxped bag, a bag that was $50 cheaper, BTW, there is a lot more padding on the back and stout non-permeable material on the bottom of the bag, in case you want to sit it down on something less than perfectly dry. Nothing like that can be found on the Day Pack. There were a couple of times when I set the pack down and heard a worrisome thud, caused by my iPad hitting the surface unprotected. There is a version that has a leather bottom, but from the pictures it looks like suede. Ugh.
Fit and finish: 2
Fit and finish: 2
For all of the design miscues, there is no disputing this is a well made item. The stitching was flawless, the fabric was cut nicely, there were no stray threads of any kind. This gives me hope for Topo as a brand. They know how to do fit and finish, they just didn't incorporate that with a good design in this pack.
Carry: 1
The lack of a sternum strap out of the box is a bit annoying when competitors include one in bags half the price. But that's not the real problem. The real issue here is how the lack of organization and the placement of the small items organizer impacts carry. When the pack is full, and a laptop is included (or in my case a iPad) it becomes very rigid. There isn't enough padding to comfortably mold the pack to your back.
When its not packed full, the lack of internal organization makes the pack feel sloshy on the back as stuff swings around and moves with momentum. This is not a pack for day hikes or public transit commutes. You will constantly feel off balance.
Materials: 2
Carry: 1
The lack of a sternum strap out of the box is a bit annoying when competitors include one in bags half the price. But that's not the real problem. The real issue here is how the lack of organization and the placement of the small items organizer impacts carry. When the pack is full, and a laptop is included (or in my case a iPad) it becomes very rigid. There isn't enough padding to comfortably mold the pack to your back.
When its not packed full, the lack of internal organization makes the pack feel sloshy on the back as stuff swings around and moves with momentum. This is not a pack for day hikes or public transit commutes. You will constantly feel off balance.
Materials: 2
Again, a win for Topo as they picked all the right materials from all the right places. The cordura is nice, the zipper pulls are great...I just wish there was a little more padding on the back and bottom of the bag, but those are problems associated with other things. The materials chosen were great.
Accessibility: 0
If I would have stored my belongings in the mouth of a living alligator, teeth and all, I would have had an easier time getting to them. Simply put, this is a fatal flaw, regardless of what else the Day Pack does wrong. I was at a conference, taking notes and my pen ran out of ink. I had to basically do the homeless person thing and unpack the entire bag to get access to the pen.
The rear compartment is even worse. It is so shallow and thin I only put small things in it, like my earbuds or a thin magazine, but when the pack was full, I couldn't reach anything. Add to that the lack of organization, and I am flummoxed as to how Topo thinks this bag is a competitive offering. That rear pocket is useless.
Accessibility: 0
If I would have stored my belongings in the mouth of a living alligator, teeth and all, I would have had an easier time getting to them. Simply put, this is a fatal flaw, regardless of what else the Day Pack does wrong. I was at a conference, taking notes and my pen ran out of ink. I had to basically do the homeless person thing and unpack the entire bag to get access to the pen.
The rear compartment is even worse. It is so shallow and thin I only put small things in it, like my earbuds or a thin magazine, but when the pack was full, I couldn't reach anything. Add to that the lack of organization, and I am flummoxed as to how Topo thinks this bag is a competitive offering. That rear pocket is useless.
But again, for this level of crapulence, you have to really dig and Topo did here. The main compartment is basically a sack, other than the underwhelming pen slot/small item organizer. At 22L this is a medium sized bag, but with almost no structure in the main compartment, I was left with the old "leave it on top" organization method. That was fine in the 80s when everyone had packs that had two pockets and only two pockets. But in a marketplace where Maxped's Pygmy Falcon II is $50 cheaper and Tom Bihn's Synapse is the same price or slightly more ($170 MSRP to $149 MSRP), this is just unacceptably awful.
I'd give this thing a -1 if I could without breaking the scoring system. IT WAS AWFUL.
Ease of Packing: 0
Ease of Packing: 0
While the Day Pack can hold a lot of stuff, given its external appearance, its 22L interrior is not put to good use. Additionally because of a shorter zipper track than many packs, such as the Maxped packs or the Tom Bihn packs, you have to be very strategic with how you put stuff in the Day Pack. That would be a 1, but here is the real problem--the more you pack it the less useful the other pockets are. At one point in my trip, I had the bag packed, not to the brim, but well packed and I simply couldn't slip my water bottle, a Hydroflask, into the bottle pockets. Try as I might, with force and manipulation, I couldn't get the bottle in. It was so tight at one point I pushed, the pocket closed, and the bottle make a load banging sound on the table underneath the pack, attracting unwanted attention. I then took stuff out of the pack, rearranged it, and put the bottle in. Screw that. This pack is just fundamentally broken. It is a bad design, with cues that make you think it can do certain things, like carry water bottles, but with functionality that makes those tasks difficult. Packing this bag is one of those things.
Pockets/Organization: 0
Pockets/Organization: 0
I am sure you have guessed by now, but the lack of organization here is really stunning. I get the minimalist aesthetic. Not everything needs to be covered in MOLLE, but here they took that to the extreme AND even with the little bit of organization they did include, they did it poorly. The pen/small objects organizer should NOT be in the main compartment.
You shouldn't have to rifle through your clothes to get a pen. This is such a fundamental lesson of pack design that even the barebones LL Bean and Jansports of the 80s knew this. Putting the ONLY organizer in the bag in the main compartment is akin to putting the steering wheel of a car in some place other than the passenger compartment. This is another fundamental failure of the Day Pack.
Snaps/buckles/zippers: 2
The ZIPPERS are great.
They are smooth, they never mismatch, they can take a lot of pressure and still close. The ZIPPERS are, however, comically large. If you can get over their appearance, which I can, they are wonderful ZIPPERS. The buckles are fine and there are no snaps on the bag. Its all about the ginormous ZIPPERS.
Straps and belts: 0
You shouldn't have to rifle through your clothes to get a pen. This is such a fundamental lesson of pack design that even the barebones LL Bean and Jansports of the 80s knew this. Putting the ONLY organizer in the bag in the main compartment is akin to putting the steering wheel of a car in some place other than the passenger compartment. This is another fundamental failure of the Day Pack.
Snaps/buckles/zippers: 2
The ZIPPERS are great.
They are smooth, they never mismatch, they can take a lot of pressure and still close. The ZIPPERS are, however, comically large. If you can get over their appearance, which I can, they are wonderful ZIPPERS. The buckles are fine and there are no snaps on the bag. Its all about the ginormous ZIPPERS.
Straps and belts: 0
Okay, so this is a $130 and there is no sternum strap. How 1980s of Topo. Worse yet, the sterum strap (sold separately) Is utter garbage. During my testing it fell off about once every hour or so of use. It is also terribly thin. Once snapped in place, and assuming it doesn't fall off, it works okay. But the built in sternum strap on my Pygmy Falcon II is way better and the waist/sternum combination on the regular Falcon is light years ahead of this sad excuse of a strap. Even the top hand strap was thin and cheap:
Modularity/expansion: 0
This pack can barely work without add ons, which Topo offers, I am not sure how they would incorporate here. Unlike the Tom Bihn line or the Maxpedition line of packs, there is virtually no way to expand the pack, other than to just buy smaller bags that fit inside. That's not really modularity though, especially compared to other options on the market.
Overall Score: 7 out of 20
Not quite the record, the Artifact seems poised to hold that title forever, but the Topo Designs Day Pack gave it a good shot. This is like Sammy Sosa chasing Mark McGwire. It feel JUST short. In all seriousness, this is just a terrible design and joke of a pack in the modern market. My Fieldline pack that was $11 at Wal-Mart is, in many real ways, better. Aside from the superb, utterly perfect zippers, the Topo Designs Day Pack is just awful. As I was walking through NYC and the sternum strap kept coming off I wanted to take the pack, throw it to the ground and light it on fire to warm the hobos nearby. At least then it would be serving a purpose. As a backpack it was a punch in the nuts.
Modularity/expansion: 0
This pack can barely work without add ons, which Topo offers, I am not sure how they would incorporate here. Unlike the Tom Bihn line or the Maxpedition line of packs, there is virtually no way to expand the pack, other than to just buy smaller bags that fit inside. That's not really modularity though, especially compared to other options on the market.
Overall Score: 7 out of 20
Not quite the record, the Artifact seems poised to hold that title forever, but the Topo Designs Day Pack gave it a good shot. This is like Sammy Sosa chasing Mark McGwire. It feel JUST short. In all seriousness, this is just a terrible design and joke of a pack in the modern market. My Fieldline pack that was $11 at Wal-Mart is, in many real ways, better. Aside from the superb, utterly perfect zippers, the Topo Designs Day Pack is just awful. As I was walking through NYC and the sternum strap kept coming off I wanted to take the pack, throw it to the ground and light it on fire to warm the hobos nearby. At least then it would be serving a purpose. As a backpack it was a punch in the nuts.
Do not buy the Topo Designs Day Pack. Its absolutely wretched. It is also emblematic of the problem with hipster gear--form over function in the worst possible way. Throw this thing on the pile of junk that includes cutely named, painted handled axes from a company with a red cross logo. If you want something that looks old fashioned and works, try a Filson bag. If you want something that looks good and modern, try a Tom Bihn bag. If you aren't afraid to go a little GI Joe, the Maxpedition line is much better and cheaper. If you want an amazing and functional bag, try the Triple Aught Design Lightspeed. Simply put, there is no comparison that comes out in Topo's favor in the current market. This is not a pack folks like us need to consider.