I’m a backpack addict, and trust me: The wrong backpack means you’re stuck with an uncomfortable, awkward bag, all day. A few simple choices will make sure you choose the best in comfort, style and convenience. I’ve found some common ground through my many, many backpacks that can help you choose yours.
Strap Comfort 101: Never Ignore the Seams
Have you ever worn a backpack that sagged on your back and just didn’t rest nicely like you wanted it to? Padding can help, but bags often sag because of how their straps are sewn onto the bag. Adjustable straps can help here, but you also need to pay attention to how the bag was built.
Most backpacks have adjustable straps, and you shouldn’t buy one that doesn’t. Unfortunately, those straps loosen with use and you’ll have to readjust them regularly. To make sure you get it right every time, mark the straps where they’re most comfortable. Fill it up with your usual items, put it on your back and then adjust the straps to a place where you feel comfortable walking around. Before taking the bag off, mark the location of the straps with a marker or, if you dare, cut a small notch in the side. (See below for an example.) I like the notch better because you can’t see it easily and therefore won’t harm the look of the bag, plus you can feel exactly where to adjust the straps. That will save you some neck strain. As you carry your bag around, you can mitigate some slack by carrying your backpack short distances by its top handle, and you should definitely buy a backpack with a top handle.
That’s great if you have a bag already, but if you’re shopping or a new one, look at how the backpack straps are sewn into the top. When the straps look like they were just sewn on and hang off the top, they will loosen at the seams over time and cause your sagging problem. If the straps look like they were folded a bit and form a curve, you will get better support from the bag. Check out the picture below for an example.
Bags with nice straps might cost a little more, but your back will thank you for it in the long run.
Examples of bags with all the right straps:
Consider Colour Carefully (or Always Go Grey)
Backpacks mostly come in black, but you’ll still find plenty in a variety of ugly and beautiful colours alike. Even a puke-green rucksack can work for you if it suits your style. When choosing the right colour, do yourself a favour by focusing on how it matches the way you dress rather than whether or not it looks good alone. Backpacks can occupy anywhere from about 20 to 50 per cent of the visual space your body fills (rough estimate obviously, not statistics) depending on your size, so if you throw that puke-green rucksack against your black business suit or dress, it will probably stand out, and maybe not in the way you intended.
However, if you wear black to work, you can get away with a lot of different colours so long as they don’t clash with any other accents in your repertoire. For men, that often just means a choice of ties or shirts. Women have more options, but with black garments you don’t have much to worry about. Only scarves, jewellery or other accent clothing really conflicts. Either way, if you like black, consider a black bag. It will match no matter what.
That said, most jobs let you wear business casual or casual clothes, so this may not be an issue. That, of course, leads to more colour in workplace clothing, so if you want to make sure your bag will always match your look, get a grey bag. Generally speaking, grey blends well with everything without causing too much contrast like black can. Darker greys like charcoal tend to work better, just so long as they’re a bit lighter than pitch black.
Of course, if you want to get colourful, you should go for it. Before you do, just brush up on your colour theory so you can find something that compliments your style.
Example of bags with great grey and colour options:
- Herschel Heritage Series
- Bronze Times Briefcase Backpack
- Timbuk2 Custom Prospect
- Timbuk2 Showdown
- Birksun Boost Classic
Know Your Storage Scheme
A traditional backpack has a front pocket for quick access and then just a giant empty space for whatever you want to do with it. For some people that’s fine, but most of us prefer a little more organisation. Before you choose a bag with helpful storage slots and pockets though, you need to understand what works best for you.
For example, lots of tiny pockets may sound great, but for me at least, very little that I’d actually carry around fits into them well. I also don’t carry 20 pens so I don’t need a bunch of pen slots. I like spaces for things like hard drives, external batteries, notepads, note cards and business cards. As a result, I have a highly variant storage scheme. I need pockets and spaces of all shapes and sizes — plus a couple of slots for a pen.
To figure out what you need, grab some paper and put your pocketable objects on top of it. Go ahead and trace all those rectangles — it gives you a visual representation of your stuff. You can even take that paper with you when buying a new bag to check if the pockets will suit your needs. If that all seems a little tedious and nutty to you, just lay your usual carry out on the table and take a photo. You won’t be able to match it up when backpack shopping, but you’ll at least have a reference for what you plan to store in case your memory fails you.
Examples of bags with great and/or clever storage schemes:
- Timbuk2 Uptown
- Timbuk2 Showdown
- Bronze Times Briefcase Backpack
- Polaris Anti-Theft Laptop Bag
- Snugg Premium Rucksack
Never Neglect Quick Access Pockets
I love quick access pockets (QAPs). Who wouldn’t? When you need something and it’s just a quick zip away, that’s always better than digging through deep pockets to find what you’re looking for. Too many small pockets cause their own problems, but you’ll rarely find a bag with too few fast methods for getting your favourite stuff.
Pay attention to the size of the quick access pockets on the bag you’re interested in buying. A spacious pocket is good, but one that’s too deep makes it hard to get your hand inside your bag, and easy for small items to get lost. Top pockets are particularly bad about this in bags with fold-over tops. You can get by if you only stuff a few thin, small items inside, but once you load that pocket up with too many goodies you’ll have trouble getting around the bulk. Good bags hide the quick access pocket inside the bag and use one zipper for full access. Furthermore, pockets in the posterior — the part of your bag that rests against your back — rarely work out because they make the bag feel stiff or bumpy, since you can feel the contents right against your back.
My favourite quick access pockets are the ones on the sides of the bag. You can access them easily when wearing your backpack, and if they add any bulk to the bag it will be towards the bottom. In some cases, it can even provide a helpful foundation. If you do want a bag with a topside quick access pocket, however, look for one that doesn’t have its own zipper and/or doesn’t take up too much space.
Examples of bags that do quick access pockets right:
Commute in Comfort
When you shove everything you need for the day in a bag, you might not like how it feels against your back. Imagine going to the pharmacy, picking up a variety of items, storing them in a thin plastic bag and then tying it to your back for the walk home. That probably wouldn’t feel very good. That’s why some backpacks have padding, and you should invest in one that does.
You don’t need a crazy amount of padding to make your back feel better and you can easily figure out how much works for you. If you can fill up the bag and it doesn’t lose its form against your back, congratulations — it will do! But you do want to consider the type of padding as well. Backpacks can create a lot of heat against your body (especially if you have a laptop stuffed in there) and most of us don’t want damp, sweaty clothing when we get to work (or anywhere). You can’t prevent this entirely, but breathable mesh makes a difference. Basically, when seeking the ideal padding on your bag just look for holes. If you see puffy padding with holes, like the example above, you’re golden.
Examples of bags that do padding right:
- Incase Reform
- Incase ICON
- Snugg Premium Rucksack
- Evecase Lightweight Laptop Backpack
- Timbuk2 Showdown
Stay Charged
You probably have a fair number of gadgets you’ll need to carry around in your backpack, too. You probably put them in your bag every day and take them out every night to charge. That’s fine, but I highly recommend finding a bag with an interior space for an USB battery (like this one above) to have a little extra power on the go. That way you don’t need to take your items out of the bag and plug them in to charge, and you can charge your gadgets while you walk around, or keep your bag secure and near you.
If you want to step things up though, you can build battery charging directly into your bag. It’s surprisingly not difficult, and I did it a while ago with a small messenger bag. This way you can plug your devices into your bag to charge, and then just plug the whole bag into the wall when you get home. Most people will find this overkill, but if you find charging all your devices as annoying as I do, you’ll appreciate a single-plug solution.
Examples of bags that make charging easier:
- Incase Reform
- Ivation 3W Solar Backpack
- Ampl Smart Backpack
- Tylt Energi+ Backpack
- Birksun Boost Classic
Pick a Bag That Makes You Happy!
More than anything, just pick something you like! Don’t stress about finding the “perfect” bag. Trust me, it doesn’t exist. Even if it did, your needs would change over time and you’d have to adapt your bag to fit, or replace it entirely. Have fun, pick something you enjoy and keep these tips in mind so that it’s one you’ll want to keep around for a long time.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.