Greenroom136 Northseeker 20L Review
Greenroom136 is a softgoods workshop in Malaysia. They make a variety of backpacks, messengers, and compact EDC bags and pouches. In this review, we’re looking at their latest backpack called the Northseeker. I’ve been using it since June primarily as a parenting/diaper bag and it has gotten a lot of use in everyday outings and summer travels.
Overview
I’ve got the Northseeker 20 L in Black VX42 X-Pac but the it is also available in 25 L and several Cordura 1000D nylon colors. The X-Pac feels solid and looks sleek, so if you’re willing to pay a little extra for it, I’d recommend it.
At its core, the Northseeker is a rectangular/boxy bag with a full clamshell opening, a front half-zip admin panel, and a front vertical slash pocket.
At first glance it looks similar to a Recycled Firefighter, but it has more features and a more complex build. Even though the bag is sized at 20 L, its footprint makes it look bigger due to all the fabric layers and foam in the back panel and shoulder straps.
One perhaps surprising quirk is that there is no built-in laptop sleeve. It seems like an odd omission for a bag billed for EDC when a lot of people carry a laptop everyday for work. However Greenroom136’s solution to this is an add-on laptop sleeve called the Bookpouch, which comes in varying sizes and fits right into the Northseeker, either in the main compartment or the half-zip admin compartment.
A small side quick access pocket along the back panel and two water bottle pockets round out the exterior, while the interior is a nice, bright gold lining.
Comfort
True to Greenroom136’s style, the Northseeker has a beefy harness. The shoulder straps have a J-curve contour and are wide and padded. The undersides and back panel are covered with soft air mesh, but there’s definitely a layer of firmer, closed-cell foam inside. Say what you will about the quality of air mesh and its potential drawbacks in durability, but it’s comfortable against your body.
The Northseeker strikes a great balance between stiffness and flexibility so that it molds to your back when tightly adjusted. It feels like the bag is hugging you, but that also means it runs warm.
The bottoms of the shoulder straps are adjustable like any standard backpack, but one addition here is D-rings. I’m not convinced these are a significant enhancement, but they do make loosening the straps very quick and easy. In contrast, the sternum strap is a lot more difficult to adjust — it’s much more of a set-it-once-and-leave-it kind of thing. To be honest I’m puzzled that the threading of the webbing deviates from the “standard” approach on other sternum straps that make tightening/loosening easy.
There are load lifters at the top of the straps but they’re much shorter than those on other bags I’ve seen that have them. They came pre-tightened and the short strap ends are neatly tucked underneath a wide piece of fabric to keep them from flapping around. I’ve never needed to adjust them because the straps stay relatively flat against the back anyways. I suspect they’re more for sharing the stress along two points of contact, rather than cinching the load closer to your body. Similar to the sternum strap, these don’t seem to be designed for on-the-fly adjustment.
On the top of the bag is a handle made with some folded webbing to give it some thickness. It works just fine and is easy to grab.
Access and Organization
The main compartment and front admin compartment are both accessed with chunky #10 YKK zippers. They operate very smoothly and can generally be opened/closed with one hand, which is so so practical when you’re carrying a baby. The side quick access pocket on the back panel uses I think a #5 zipper, and is also easily opened and closed.
The main compartment features 5 internal organization pockets. The front wall has two vertically stacked zippered mesh pockets. They are a few inches from the top and I wish they were moved up to make good use of that upper volume.
The back wall has one larger dump slot near the bottom, and two smaller slots near the top. The slots are sized to accommodate some bulk which is useful for baby items like food pouches, pacifiers, and small toys. The bottom dump slot is great for stashing extra clothes.
Since these back wall pockets are a bit tucked underneath the main compartment zipper, it can be a little inconvenient to access them with a full pack. To mitigate this, there is a shorter top zipper along the back edge that also goes into the main compartment and makes it much easier to access items in the two slip pockets. I’d say it’s more of a nice-to-have since I rarely had the bag so packed out where the top was necessary. It takes some repetition to get used to using that top zipper, but once you develop the habit it becomes more of an instinct to leverage it.
The half-zip admin compartment has an opaque zippered pocket on the front wall with some pleats and 4 flat slip pockets on the back wall — 2 phone-sized slots and 2 pen slots. There’s also a D-ring attached to a short piece of webbing to use as a place to clip some keys. The admin compartment goes all the way down and has about 1.5 inches of depth,, which means it can hold more than you might expect.
The front slash pocket is just one spacious compartment that takes up the whole front face. It has some independent volume (*cough GORUCK) and can easily store a light jacket. If I’m being picky, it would’ve been great to have one or two slots to compartmentalize the space if I wanted.
Parenting Bag Load Out
Here’s how I utilize this bag for baby/toddler stuff:
- Main compartment top mesh pocket — bib, fork, spoon, and face towel
- Main compartment bottom mesh pocket — face masks, sun hat, lotion
- Main compartment back wall slots — extra set of clothes at the bottom, fruit pouch and crackers in the top slots
- Main compartment space — lunch box, food, jacket/long sleeve
- Front admin — toys, notebooks and pens for doodling, books, pacifier. Sometimes a phone.
- Side pockets — bottles for the baby, one water and one milk.
- Front vertical slash pocket — diapers, foldable pad, wet wipes, alcohol wipes. This means for diaper changes I just unzip this pocket and I’m good to go.
This set up worked well for me especially after getting used to it. One thing I noticed myself missing was a side handle. The reason for that is because diaper changes meant accessing the vertical front pocket, and in order to access it from top to bottom it was easier to rotate it on its side. Without a side handle I basically just set the whole bag on a flat surface, straps down, and rotate it 45 degrees. This doesn’t mean I think a side handle should be added, it’s just a consequence of relying on the slash pocket for frequent access.
Construction and Aesthetics
The materials used in all Greenroom136 products are high quality and from well-respected suppliers (X-Pac, Cordura, YKK), and the craftsmanship is quite good. There is definitely a distinct style in terms of construction and aesthetics and the adjectives that come to mind are “chunky” and “burly.”
There is double-layered fabric everywhere which means you never see the backside of any particular material. There is also thick, but not too thick, padding on the shoulder straps and back panel. All of this adds up in weight (about 3 pounds or 1.4 kg for the 20 L), but weirdly the bag doesn’t feel heavy in hand.
An interesting aspect of the bag is its balance. Because of the double-layered panels throughout, the bag retains its shape and stands on its own without being a rigid box. Most bags that stand on their own tend to lean forward a little bit, but not so with the Northseeker. If anything, when I have the bag more packed out, it tends to lean backward. I’ve never had a bag with that kind of leaning (hah), and I wonder if the lack of a laptop sleeve is a factor in this.
The construction of the water bottle pockets is unique. There is no elasticity whatsoever, but there are some pleats to create somewhat fixed space. This also means that the pockets stick out rather than staying flush against the bag when not in use. I will say that despite the lack of stretch, the size works well for a variety of bottles. My slim ISM bottle didn’t feel loose, and medium-sized S’well-esque bottles fit very nicely. A benefit of the pockets sticking out is it’s really easy to stick a bottle back in one-handed without any fuss.
A minor note from using these pockets for baby bottles which tend to be short — the bottles can be totally enclosed which makes getting them out somewhat of a challenge. I found that when a bottle gets stuck, it’s best to push it out from the bottom rather than try to slide it out with your fingers.
I also observed that the binding under the main compartment zippers has started to develop these really thin loose strings. I wouldn’t call them threads because they’re not causing any kind of unraveling. It hasn’t caused any issues with the zippers at all. It’s just something I noticed after 4 or so months of usage.
You can see in the photos that there are paracord zipper pulls on the bag. These I added myself, but you can order the Northseeker with paracord pulls for a little extra money. Whether you purchase or DIY, I highly recommend them. They reduce some of the jingle bells effect and make it a lot easier to quickly find the zippers. And they add a nice pop of color.
The interior as mentioned is a bright gold lining which makes it really easy to see and find items inside the bag. You can also see that the binding and trims are all black, which is fine but looks a bit harsh in contrast to the gold. It would be really cool if the internal trims and bindings were color matched.
Additional Features
There is a dedicated small hanging loop on the top/back of the bag, so you can use that in the toilet stall without the need for something like a HeroClip.
But if you want to attach a HeroClip, there is a 2 x 2 grid of PALS webbing on both sides, and also the bottom of the bag. On the black colorway these are really subtle, which I appreciate. Extra lash points for when you need them, but invisible when you don’t. D-rings are also tucked under a flap on the shoulder straps.
Speaking of lash points, the bottom front has a branded lash point for something like a bike light.
20 L vs 25 L?
Compared to other backpacks I have, I think the Northseeker 20 L feels and packs more like a 22 L. I’m glad I went with the 20 instead of the 25. The 25 L has the same width and height, but has a depth of 8 inches. That makes it stick out quite a bit, and there’s no compression straps to cinch in the load. For that reason, I’d recommend the 20 L unless you have a need to carry more.
Summary
I really enjoyed using the Northseeker 20 L as a parenting bag. It has plenty of pockets that were all well-utilized, the zippers operate very smoothly, it’s comfortable to wear, and the materials are high quality. And it’s a good value to boot — about $138 USD for the 20 L in Cordura, and $161 for the VX42 X-Pac (excluding shipping).
I think the main deciding factor is whether you can live without a built-in laptop sleeve. Technically the front admin pocket can easily house your laptop, but it doesn’t have padding on the bottom apart from the fabric layers. For a parenting bag the padded laptop sleeve is not a necessity, but it might be for others looking to use it as a work bag.
Otherwise, I don’t have too many critiques for the bag. Sure there are things I wish were changed, but overall I wouldn’t consider anything a deal-breaker. If “chunky” and “burly” is your style, I think you’ll be happy with the Northseeker 20 L.
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Disclaimer: Greenroom136 provided the Northseeker 20 L as a sample for review. Nevertheless we do our best to publish our honest and unbiased opinions to best inform our readers.
