GrüneStrasse Shellback — A Cycling to Work Backpack Review

“Necessity is the mother of invention.” That saying is at the root of many innovations and the story behind many entrepreneurs. Such is the case for GrüneStrasse as well, which was founded by retired U.S. Marine Lieutenant Colonel Aaron Weiss. Weiss commuted to work during many of his assignments, and following his retirement from the Marine Corps created GrüneStrasse, a concept that he had been working on for 15 years. His goal? Finding a way to neatly carry uniforms or formal clothing when commuting by bike.

Though Weiss didn’t have prior experience designing backpacks, he’s always been a backpack enthusiast. After retiring from military service he wound up living in Vietnam, arguably the world capital for backpack design and manufacturing. Weiss collaborated closely with other stakeholders, including a local backpack manufacturer and factory owner, to bring the Shellback Backpack to life.

Aside from making a backpack for cycling commuters, GrüneStrasse also stresses ethical and moral responsibilities by minimizing waste, donating part of their profits to environmental preservation, and using eco-friendly materials. GrüneStrasse aims to have 80% of the materials in their products be organic or recycled materials. It’s certainly befitting for a team that makes backpacks for cycling to encourage environmental sustainability, and we’re always glad to see companies act responsibly.

As we get into the review, I just want to note that this review was sponsored by GrüneStrasse. As always though, our reviews are honest feedback about the backpacks and include both the pros and cons from repeated actual usage.

The Shellback is intended to be a commuting backpack for cyclists. But I want to be upfront in mentioning that I don’t currently commute to work by bike. With the pandemic situation, my commute for the past 6+ months has been the walk from my bedroom to my living room. Prior to the start of the pandemic, I was commuting by bus, subway, and foot. However, I did spend a couple years commuting by bike and for this review, I did get back on the bike to test out this backpack.

Organization

When thinking about a cycling commuter bag, one of the key things I’d look for is organizing all my clothes. The quick summary here is that I have never tried another backpack that has so many features designed for clothing. There is a compartment or pocket for everything.

• Tri-fold garment sleeve — One unique feature of the Shellback is a 210D ripstop polyfabric tri-fold garment sleeve for your business clothes that folds down to about 12" x 19.5". It comes with an innovative clothes hanger that has a rotatable top. In one position, you can use the hook at the top of the of the clothes hanger like a normal hook, but then it flips over, revealing a buckle that attaches to the garment sleeve itself and keeps the hook out of the way. This way the sleeve doesn’t have that awkward shape too. The garment sleeve has two female buckle ends, so you can attach 2 hangers. The bag comes with one, but you can purchase additional hangers. The garment sleeve is a little bit narrow, and when I use it for a suit, the shoulders of the suit get folded in a bit. But I left the suit in there for days and it looked fine with no noticeable creasing or ruffling around the shoulders.
• Back clamshell compartment — The compartment closest to the back panel is a large, clamshell opening, compartment that opens along the left edge of the bag. It’s the same size as the entire back panel and includes 2 large elastic pockets, one is 12" x 12" and the other is 12" x 11.5". The upper pouch doesn’t go all the way tot he bottom of the backpack. This compartment is where the garment sleeve gets stored. There isn’t much depth in the compartment, so you can’t store very bulky items. I’d stick with just clothes or documents/notebooks.

• Accessories compartment — The next compartment moving forward is where all the accessories get stored. It’s the same overall dimension as the back compartment. It includes 7 pockets:
  1. an elastic 7.5" x 12" mesh pocket
  2. an elastic 8.5" x 12" pocket
  3. a zipped, 4" x 5.5" mesh pocket, useful for small things like cuff links
  4. a zipped 7.5" x 8.5" mesh pocket, a good size for your belt
  5. an elastic 7.5" x 8.5" mesh pocket, where I put socks
  6. a zipped 20" x 3.5" mesh pocket for a tie
  7. a velcro’ed 2.5" x 3.5" pocket for your watch, though depending on the type of strap, you may feel more comfortable putting it elsewhere

• Laptop compartment — Next compartment is where the padded laptop sleeve is. The 13.5" x 12" laptop sleeve itself is lined with microfiber, so tablets will be fine in there too. There’s also additional space for other documents or notebooks.

• Shoe compartment — At the very front of the Shellback is a shoe compartment that is opened from the bottom. It’s pretty large and easily fits my size 11 US shoes.
• Front top compartment (I need to find better names for these) — The compartment at the very front of the bag is just a large cavity to dump anything else you’re carrying. This compartment shares volume with the shoe compartment, so if you’re carrying shoes in your backpack, it significantly cuts down the volume here. But there is still plenty of space even with shoes and you can easily fit a 1L Nalgene bottle inside, even if you have shoes in the shoe compartment.

• Toiletry bag — The Shellback also comes with a toiletry bag so you can freshen up after your commute. The toiletry bag is large enough for the usual things like deodorant, soap, shampoo, toothbrush and toothpaste, hair product, and even a small towel. It has a hook so you can hang it up but the zipper opens the bag upward. I don’t think it makes sense for the bag to open upward since the mesh barrier is only a couple inches high so a lot of the contents can fall out if you open the bag while it’s hanging up. The mesh barrier should go most of the way up the bag and the zipper should be oriented the other way so that the flap opens downward instead of upward when you hang it up.

• Waist belt pockets — Each side of the waist belt has a pretty large pocket. A 7.5" x 4" zipped pocket on the right side and a 7" x 4" velcro microfiber-lined pocket. As far as waist belt pockets go, these are huge.
• Detachable shoulder strap pockets — Each shoulder strap has a connector system to attach additional pouches, allowing easy access to things like sunglasses or your phone while you’re cycling. The Shellback comes with 3 different sized pouches. A 3x5" x 4.5" microfiber-lined pouch, a 3" x 7" microfiber-lined pouch, and a 3" x 7" nanofiber-lined pouch for sunglasses. While these pouches do provide quick access, I feel like the waist belt pockets are sufficient.

• Side pocket for repair kits — As if that weren’t enough, there are a couple vertical zipped pockets on the side. One is meant to store a roadside repair kit. The zipper track is about 10.5" and the compartment is partitioned into 2 halves, each about 7" deep. My hand pump is too long to fit in this compartment, so I had to keep it in that large front compartment, but this is a nice place to stash an extra tube, wrenches, and patch kit.
• Additional side pocket — On the opposite side of the repair kit pocket is an additional 10.5" x 7" vertical zipped pocket. This compartment (and the repair kit compartment) don’t really have their own volume. So while it sounds like a huge pocket, the usable space is significantly reduced when you’ve got shoes in your backpack.

Additional Features

That’s already a lot of features. But wait, there’s more!

• Sternum strap — Fully adjustable sternum strap that is attached on rails. I wish the rails went higher. In the photo below, the sternum strap is as high as it goes, but I prefer it a bit higher (1–2 inches below my collar bone, ). This is a personal preference and you should keep your sternum strap wherever it is comfortable and effective at dispersing the backpack weight.

• Compression straps — There are compression straps with detachable buckles, one on each side of the Shellback. The female ends of the buckles are attached to wings but one nuisance with these is that the entire bottom face of those buckles are attached to the fabric. This means that you need to use the very tips of your fingers to unbuckle them, which can be a little bit more difficult than if you were able to use the fatty part of your finger tips. I’m not sure what the benefit of having the buckle in this position is, and I’d move it so that just the edge of the buckle is attached to the wing or just get rid of the wings.

• Hydration sleeve — In the back panel of the Shellback is an elastic pouch where you can store a 1L hydration bladder. It’s not inside any particular compartment and is just behind the mesh that is on the back panel’s airflow/suspension system. There is a rigid perimeter frame around the edge of the backpack, which also prevents the bladder from being squished. It’s a bit difficult to get the right angle to squeeze the bladder in place because the frame around the back panel is so rigid, so you won’t be able to get larger bladders in there.

• Rain fly — The Shellback also comes with a 330D honeycomb polyester rainfly, which is stored in a specific pocket at the bottom of the bag.

In addition, the Shellback also has a pretty standard adjustable waist belt, a Hypalon light attachment loop at the bottom of the front panel, load-lifter straps, and high-visibility reflectors around the edges of the backpack and on the entire bottom of the shoe compartment.

Comfort

Aside from organization, comfort is another key factor for cycling backpacks. The Shellback’s back panel is a comprised of an external frame that creates a ventilated suspension. It helps with airflow a lot, but when I’m cycling, I usually end up a sweaty mess regardless of how much airflow my back has. The whole system is covered in a honeycomb mesh, including the shoulder straps and there is additional padding for your lower back.

One oddity to look out for — because the hydration sleeve is external and right up against the mesh of the back panel, when you have a full hydration bladder in there you can feel it against your back. It’s not an uncomfortable pressure or weight, but it does sit against your back.

When you’re not carrying a hydration bladder, however, there is a cross bar that runs horizontally across the back panel and behind the ventilation suspension system. While cycling, when I leaned forward, which brings the weight of the bag more perpendicular to my body, I could feel that cross bar against my back. Again, it wasn’t enough to be uncomfortable though.

At 4.6 lbs, the bag itself is really heavy. Add on your laptop and work gear, full set of clothes, toiletries, etc., and this fully loaded backpack becomes quite hefty. All thing considered, the backpack is relatively comfortable considering the weight and the fact that you’re doing some strenuous exercise while wearing it.

Construction

The Shellback is made of 500D Cordura nylon, coated with polyurethane to provide water resistance. The interior lining is 210D polyester and the plastic buckles are all from Woojin plastic while the zippers are all YKK. Overall, the build of the bag feels very solid and there have been no issues with stitching or loose threads, so GrüneStrasse definitely didn’t skimp out on robustness.

Aesthetics

Aesthetics is where the Shellback lacks the most for me. It’s not a fashionable bag, in any sense. It seems pretty reasonable that a backpack that is intended to carry your clothes in an organized manner while cycling to work won’t focus on style, so this bag is definitely for people who value function over form. The reflective hits and plethora of zippers and straps give it a busy look, as does the honeycomb mesh on the back. And the removable pouches on the shoulders look a bit tacky.

The GrüneStrasse logo itself is a pretty clever play on the name of the company and backpack, and the function of the bag. But it’s very large and is front and center. I’m not a big fan of huge brand logos.

Aside from the blue ones you see in these photos, the bag also comes in black and red flavors. The green logos are consistent in all the other bag colors too.

Additional Notes

A additional thing that I noticed when testing the backpack was the jingling of the zippers. Most of the zipper tabs have turtle shell zipper pulls on them. However, the zippers for the two clamshell opening compartments do not. Since those zippers also have 2 sliders on the chain, the zipper tabs can be a bit noisy when you’re cycling, particularly if you’re pedaling out of the saddle. That extra body movement as you stand and pedal means the backpack moves around a bit more. Not an issue when pedaling in the saddle though. It’s very possible that the noise won’t be noticeable when you’re riding through traffic or loud streets, or if you’re just not as easily irritated as me. Adding some pulls onto those zippers would easily prevent the jingling though.

Lastly, the Shellback doesn’t really have a “main” compartment like most backpacks do. While the front dump compartment is probably where you’ll find the space to throw any large non-clothing items, like large headphones or a water bottle, it’s volume is cut down so much by shoes that it doesn’t feel like a main compartment. The clothing compartments and laptop compartments are all a bit too thing to store very bulky things. So there isn’t one place where you store all your work gear. You’ll end up storing it in a few different compartments.

Summary

Consider this backpack if you need to carry clothing while cycling or doing something active. Even if you’re not cycling, the amount of organization for clothing makes it worth checking out if that is what you need.

Don’t consider this backpack if having a fashionable or chic backpack is important to you, or if you want something that is lightweight.

• Utility: 4 of 5 — A lot of features packed into this backpack, like the garment sleeve and dual-utility hanger, and the removable shoulder strap pouches.
• Organization: 5 of 5 — So many compartments and pockets. A place for everything, from your laptop to your shoes to your tie.
• Construction: 4 of 5 — Solid build all around with the 500D Cordura, though it comes in a bit heavy.
• Aesthetics: 2 of 5 — Function over form bag. The bag is busy and the logo is a bit in your face.
• Comfort: 4 of 5 — Relatively comfortable for a bag this heavy. Ventilation suspension system with padded honeycomb mesh was a good call.
• Life Integration: 2 of 5 — There is a lot going on with this bag, so it can take a bit to get used to and figuring out.
• X-factor: 2 of 5 — When you first look at the backpack, nothing really calls out to you. Once you hear the details about the design is when you’d start considering it.

As always, thanks for reading our review. Follow us on Instagram (@pangolinswithpacks) to stay up to date on what bags we’re testing!