Traveler Backpack by Lander — Comprehensive Review
The Lander Traveler was designed to be a backpack for short trips and is a hybrid of a tech backpack and an adventure backpack. Lander positions their brand as products that allow you to take your tech outside. The Traveler is the largest backpack in their collection at 35 liters (3 lbs and 27" when unrolled, 21" when rolled) and was launched on Kickstarter (along side its little brother, the Commuter, a 28L version) back in August 2017.
Typically, 35 liters should be enough space to last for week-long trips, and if you’re really good at traveling light, it should be enough for even longer trips. I’ve used this bag for roughly a month as an every day bag for work, school, and gym. I’ve also used it several times for short weekend trips (typically just one or two nights). Though the Lander Traveler claims to be 35 liters, it does not fit quite as much as other backpacks of this size, such as the Cotopaxi Allpa. It’s also more difficult to pack compared to other travel bags. You’ll see why below…
BACKPACK FEATURES
Cargo Section
- Roll top with single-side zipper — The roll top is the first item on the list of flaws. While the roll top idea is great (it can unroll to fit longer items and roll tops are good for keeping rain out), the zipper along the right side means that side is much thicker when rolled up. This leaves the left side, where there is no zipper, very loose. The roll top is secured down with a G-hook on each side. Unfortunately, the looser side’s hook easily comes undone on its own. In fact, when the backpack is not full, the hook on the non-zipped side ALWAYS comes undone after a bit of walking. If the bag is full, there is enough tension on both sides that neither hook comes undone but it needs to be really packed.
- Furthermore, since the G-hooks are the only means of closing the roll top, the top can’t be used expanded unless you are okay with leaving the top open. A better design would be what the Code 10 backpack did — have a zipper close the mouth of the roll top in addition to the buckles that hold it down when rolled.
The fact that only one side of the backpack has a zipper also means it is terribly inconvenient to load this backpack for traveling. Ironic considering ITS NAME IS THE TRAVELER. More unfortunate than ironic actually. Because only the top and right side can be opened, you can only ever open the bag half way (diagonally). So you won’t be able to lay the bag open to fill it up when packing like you would with a clam-shell opening. I suppose it’s better than having the top be the only opening, but it’s still severely inadequate for a travel bag and definitely not “full access”, which is how Lander’s website describes it.
- One convenient result of the zipper along the side is that I can access the main compartment without opening the roll top. There are two sliders on the chain, so even with the top rolled and covering one of the sliders, there is another on the bottom of the chain you can use to open the main compartment.
- Internal mesh pocket — On the inside for the main compartment is a mesh pocket nearly the size of the whole compartment. It’s useful for separating clothing but I wish it weren’t mesh and were a complete separation. Lander’s website says it’s used to separate your dirty clothes from your clean clothes. But since it’s mesh, your dirty clothes will still come in contact with your clean clothes. The mesh pocket is also quite thin, so you can’t fit much in it, maybe a couple t-shirts. It may be more suited for separating documents or books.
- Shoe compartment — The bottom of the backpack has a U-shaped opening for another medium-sized compartment. This is a shoe compartment and is completely sealed off from the rest of the cargo section. Though Lander’s website says it’s for boots, you will have a very difficult time getting actual boots to fit in there. I am a size 10.5 US and though I can fit sneakers in there, I cannot fit any boots that are ankle-cut, whether hiking boots or more formal boots, or even high top basketball shoes. It’s still a useful pocket for keeping things separate, whether that’s shoes or dirty clothes or anything else. But certainly not quite large enough to comfortably fit boots. Also keep in mind that whatever you put into this pocket will deduct from the volume of the main compartment.
- Front organizer compartment — On the front face of the backpack is an organizational compartment for all your small items. In the inside is a short key ring as well as three separate pockets for small items like a mouse, cables, or of course that bag of M&Ms. This compartment is actually large enough to fit a book as well. I definitely wish that the three small organizational pockets were elastic. They have zero give and all three have different widths. The first one on the left is the most narrow so it’s good for pens or cables. The middle one is the widest and the third is a happy medium. The fabric that creates these pockets is not cut horizontally but rather diagonally. So the pocket on the left is the tallest and each gets progressively shorter as you move toward the right. The zipper is YKK water-sealed, which is great for bad weather but also makes it stiffer. So you need two hands to close and open the zip.
- Top fleece-lined pocket — Above that front organizer compartment is a great fleece-lined compartment. This small pocket is perfect for storing your smart phone or sunglasses. It’s actually much larger than you’d expect for a small phone pocket, so I usually keep a lot more stuff in there including a phone, sunglasses, wallet, keys, and earphones. Similar to the organizer pocket, this zipper is YKK weather sealed so it’s not the easiest to open with one hand.
- Water bottle pocket — One feature I think too many backpacks are getting rid of is the water bottle holder. So I’m glad that Lander has kept it around. The smaller cousin of the Traveler (the Commuter, which is a 25-L version non-roll top) also keeps the water bottle pocket. The Traveler’s water bottle holder is non-elastic and can fit most sizes of water bottles. The fat 1-L Nalgene bottle does fit in there, but just barely and it’s a tight squeeze so it’s not the easiest to get it in. One good thing about this bottle holder is the pocket sticks outward enough that it doesn’t really take away much volume from the inside of the main compartment.
Crash Pad Section
- Crash pad laptop sleeve — One of the key features of both the Traveler and Commuter backpacks is the “crash pad”, which is the laptop housing system. From what I can tell, the crash pad utilizes a thick protective foam. It is over half an inch of foam between your back and the laptop and at the bottom of the laptop sleeve is an extra ~3 inches of foam so that your laptop isn’t against the floor and doesn’t absorb impact if you drop the backpack. But the sleeve doesn’t offer the same amount of protection on the sides, so be careful not to throw the backpack onto its side. The sleeve is large enough to fit a 17" laptop. I don’t have a 17" laptop to test that claim, but it’s definitely a huge sleeve (~ 17" x 11"). Because the Crash Pad section of the backpack is so thick, it takes away volume from the cargo section, which is probably why I can’t fit as much stuff in this bag as I can in other 35L backpacks.
- Two hidden pockets — on the back panel of the backpack are two small pockets with vertical zips. These are great for small items, like your wallet or passport, but also for small electronics like a portable hard drive or an external battery pack. There are small holes cut out that allow you to run a cable between the two pockets and between the upper pocket and the laptop sleeve as well in case you need to keep something connected to the laptop. Lander calls this the “hot route”.
Additional Features
- Sternum strap — Going to cut to the chase with this one. This is THE WORST sternum strap design I have yet to encounter. The Traveler (and the Commuter) uses daisy chain webbing loops for the adjustable sternum strap. BUT the anchors are too small. With enough force (and it doesn’t require much force at all), the anchor on either side will get pulled through the webbing loop, which kind of negates the purpose of the sternum strap. They aren’t able to support enough tension to help distribute weight when the backpack is full. The sternum strap’s buckle is also small enough to easily fit through the webbing loops. In fact I can get it out with one finger. I checked the comment section on their Kickstarter campaign and have seen many other users make similar comments about the sternum strap.
- Grab handles — I’ve mentioned a lot of negatives for this backpack, but there are some positives. I love all the grab handles that this bag has (one on each side with two on top). It allows you to grab the backpack from any angle and handle it in any direction with ease. All the grab handles are made of layered nylon webbing so they’re durable but not so thin that they hurt your hand.
- Compression straps — Additionally, the Traveler has four compression straps. Two on the left and two on the right. This allows you to squeeze the bag down to give it a thinner profile when you’re not carrying much, and can also be used to strap in gear, such as a tripod. One of the compression straps goes direction over the water bottle holder and can be used to secure your water bottle. On the other hand, it can also make using the water bottle holder inconvenient as you need to loosen the compression strap first.
- Front lash tab— Like many other backpacks, there is lash tab (the patch with 2 vertical slits) on the front face that allows you to tie things to the backpack or attach a carabiner. It’s reflective, but nothing fancy here. Btw, did you know it’s also called a pig’s snout?
Construction
The backpack’s main material is Cordura EcoMade, which is manufactured from recycled plastics. This was one of the key selling points of the backpack for me. The fabric is also DWR coated to provide some weather resistance. All the zippers are weather sealed YKK zippers, including the zips on the small pockets. So you can tell they really had the outdoors in mind when they designed this backpack. I’m not certain what the density of the EcoMade fabric is, but according to Cordura’s website, it is most likely a 600D polyester engineered from recycled polyester yarn. Using recycled fabric extends the lifetime of the original polyester and also consumes less energy than having to grow, extract, and spin new raw materials.
The Crash Pad is made of a rip-stop TPU coated nylon and a mesh covering on the back. It also has all of its seams covered in a tape to make it completely waterproof, though there is still a small opening where the zippers meet where water could leak in. All the stitching around the backpack, the Cordura fabric, the webbing, and the buckles/zipper hardware seem very durable. However, the tape covering for the Crash Pad may not last very long. Though it is still well intact, I can already see some fraying starting around the edges. Still a cool add-on though.
Lastly, there seems to be some inconsistency with the backpack across units. Matt also got the Lander Traveler and when comparing the units we received, we both noticed that the opening to the two small pockets on the back seem tighter on my backpack than on his. It’s tight enough that the weather sealed zipper are abrasive on my hand when I reach inside. The pockets on Matt’s backpack seem much looser and easier to use. So there may be some quality control issues at the manufacturing factory.
Additional in-field usage notes
The slightly contoured shoulder straps feel like a closed-cell foam. It is covered with a mesh and light rip-stop fabric. One odd thing about the shoulder straps is that they are very narrow (not how far apart the straps are, but how wide the individual straps are). They are about 2.5" wide around the part that would rest on my collar bone area. Other backpacks of smaller volume that I have range from 2.75" to 3" (e.g., the DSPTCH Bookpack, Boundary Prima System, and the Cycop Daypac). While the Evergoods CPL24 is also roughly 2.5" wide, it is 11 liters smaller (if we are to believe that the Lander Traveler is really 35 L). Theoretically, this means less surface area to distribute the weight of the backpack onto your shoulders, so more stress for your shoulders. But I’m guessing that it doesn’t make a huge difference in actual usage unless you’re carrying a bag full of bricks, in which case the foam material probably has a bigger impact on how it feels rather than a 0.25" difference in the width of the strap. The foam padding on the Traveler is pretty solid support anyways.
One last gripe about these shoulder straps is that the webbing that joins the bottom of the foamed portion of the shoulder strap to the bottom corner of the backpack is not stitched to the very bottom of the foamed portion. It is instead anchored 2" above the very bottom. This means there is an extra couple inches of foam which serve no purpose and just get in your way. When I put the backpack on, sometimes that extra couple inches of foam gets caught against my arm and ends up getting folded or just poking into my armpits. I have no idea why Lander designed the straps this way. Perhaps there is some secret benefit that I am oblivious to.
Overall, the bag itself is more comfortable than I was expecting. Seeing the bag online, you’ll notice there are no air flow channels on the back panel, which I thought would be made it an uncomfortable sweaty mess. But it turned out to be alright. The ridges in the back panel’s foam mean that it is not entirely in contact with your back and the mesh wrap around it helps as well. Still, the back panel is a very large single flat piece of foam (with ridges). Some sort of contouring may help even more, though I suppose it might interfere with the integrity of the Crash Pad’s foam.
Summary
While there are a few nice points about this backpack, the negatives are far too many and far too major for me to really love this bag. It does looks great though, so if you decide to pull the trigger on this one, it’s best used for short trips (2–3 days) or for EDC if you have a lot of things to carry around (e.g., hitting up the gym after work).
Utility: 2 of 5 —I debated giving it a 1. There are just too many major design problems. The issue with roll top’s G-hook coming undone, not being able to open a travel backpack enough to pack it properly, a separate pouch for dirty clothes that doesn’t really separate your dirty clothes, and the non-functional sternum strap. It’s just too much.
Organization: 3 of 5 — There are some very useful small pockets, but for the most part they’re just pockets without much uniqueness to them. The organizational pocket on the front of the backpack could do with more functionality (such as elasticity on the small pockets).
Construction: 3 of 5 — The fabric and stitching are fine. 600 D polyester is a decent fabric and all the water-resistance treatment and weather-sealing are key. But with the minor fraying of the tape around the Crash Pad’s seams after what is not considered prolonged use, I have some concerns. Additionally, the inconsistency of the construction of my backpack and Matt’s Lander Travel raises some eyebrows.
Aesthetics: 4 of 5 — Thankfully, the backpack did come out looking like their promotional media. The backpack has a fairly minimal style with just the small logo patch on the front and the slash zipper running across. Though there are a lot of handles and compression straps, they are small enough that they don’t make the bag look messy. The only minor downside is that the back panel looks a bit odd since it’s just a single elliptical foam piece with ridges.
Comfort: 3 of 5 — The back panel’s mesh and ridges help provide some comfort. Could definitely be improved with a working sternum strap, slightly wider shoulder straps, and maybe even a waist strap.
Life Integration: 3 of 5 — On the surface this seems like an easy bag, but with the complications around how to pack it properly when it doesn’t open very wide and how to handle the G-hooks that keep coming undone, it requires figuring out a few tricks.
X-Factor: 4 of 5 — Matt and I were both pretty excited about this bag when we saw it on Kickstarter. It’s a good size for short trips, looks great, was touting a unique feature no other backpack has (the Crash Pad), and is sourced from recycled materials. Unfortunate that this excitement didn’t pan out in the end.
Thanks for reading! As usual, please comment below if you have any questions or suggestions, and let us know if there are any bags you’d be interested in reading about!
