WiWu OnePack — Comprehensive Review and Experience

Geoff
Pangolins with Packs
15 min readNov 1, 2018

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I’m going to start off this review a bit differently. Instead of an amazing company profile, I’m going to tell you a story of an atrocious experience that has left a lot of people angry and feeling like they’ve been conned. If you don’t care for my experience with the bag maker and how long it took to get the bag, you can skip down to the next section.

The OnePack enjoying the big city life in Time Square

Purchasing Experience

Typically when we write about a backpack that was funded on Kickstarter, we start with all the anticipation and how well-received the bag was, and how it crushed its funding goals. The OnePack had a lot of potential to start out the same way. The campaign was widely praised and raised over $176,000 through 1,668 backers. It’s original funding goal was $10,000. Everyone was excited about this tech-compatible backpack that was supposed to be the one backpack for all of our everyday carry needs. Unfortunately, this is where it starts to deviate from most Kickstarter successes. The OnePack’s funding closed at the end of March 2018 and they promised the backpack delivered in April 2018. One. Month. Later. With 1,668 backers, which means even more backpacks!

A one-month turnaround is absolutely absurd. I, and other backers, brought this up in the Kickstarter (KS) campaign’s comments, but the WiWu team assured us that it would be feasible since they already have a small inventory of bags. This should have been a red-flag to us — the were not running the KS campaign to raise funds to design and produce a new backpack, which is what all other backpack campaigns do. They already had a backpack designed and produced and were just using KS as a sales platform. Alright… not a big deal. Still looks like a great backpack for a decent price. But still… a one month turnaround for that many orders?! I tried multiple times to flag to them that their timeline was unrealistic and they were just setting themselves up for an impending firestorm.

The following 5 months were filled with a complete lack of communication and frustration shared by all the backers. I received my backpack in early September. During the months of delay, WiWu spent very little effort trying to communicate the situation with its KS backers. People were constantly asking what was going on and how long they should expect delays, but no responses were received. When WiWu did send messages, they always proved to be inaccurate and lacked any useful details. To be fair, I have experienced other Kickstarter backpacks that have been significantly delayed. But the communication from the makers was much better so they weren’t met with a thousand angry comments (like OnePack’s KS page). They also at one point shared the personal information of a couple dozen backers with everyone through a mass email and it was not accidental. The email was addressed to all backers and included a screenshot of some people’s information. The backlash for that was not met with any apology.

Further, backers found that WiWu was selling the same backpack on Amazon and that people purchasing the bag through Amazon would receive their backpacks within a few days of ordering (for expedited shipping) or a week (for standard shipping). Of course this fanned the flames of our collective furor since WiWu was selling these bags on Amazon without having fulfilled any of their KS orders yet.

Many backers who did finally receive their bag found that their shipment did not include all the components they ordered (e.g., additional bags). Fortunately, my order was complete when received. Backers in many ex-US countries were also receiving notifications from the postal service that their bags were held up at customs because import taxes were not paid by the sender, so the recipient would have to pay the fee in order to receive their bags. Further fanning of the flames.

Most people were also not receiving any shipment notification or tracking numbers, which WiWu promised everyone. So while it was a pleasant surprise when the bag finally showed up, it was also frustrating to not know the status. The founders asked backers to send their purchase and shipping information to them by email or Facebook direct message and they would respond with the tracking numbers. I did this multiple times through each platform and messaged the founder himself as well, remaining as polite as possible each time. I finally received a response a few weeks after I had given up trying. Speaking of Facebook, many KS backers were also leaving complaints on WiWu’s Facebook ads about the backpack (yes, they were advertising their gear on social media already without having fulfilled their KS orders), which WiWu promptly removed. If only they were so prompt with anything else.

Lastly, the backpack everyone received is not the same backpack that is advertised on Kickstarter and Amazon. It’s similar but missing a key feature — a removable tech sleeve organizer. Yeah, this is just getting to the point of fraud.

So overall, my experience (and I think that of all the KS backers) has been absolutely abysmal. I would warn people not to buy this backpack from WiWu, but it seems like if you order through Amazon you’ll have no issues and will get your purchase in a timely manner. This might be a reflection of the consumer protection that Amazon has to offer; KS doesn’t really have any protection whatsoever. Funnily, WiWu emailed all the OnePack backers last month, before a lot of them received their bags, to advertise their next KS campaign for a travel backpack. Fund at your own risk. There are also some comments by purchasers on Amazon about confusion on what bag is actually being sent. Purchase at your own risk.

Okay… onto the backpack.

OnePack Review

The OnePack is a roughly 20–22 L backpack that features a ton of internal organization while providing some additional storage space. This makes it suitable for carrying your tech for work and an additional change of clothes, a pair of shoes, lunchbox, or camera, etc. Despite the terrible experience with the bag maker, the backpack itself is pretty good. I really wanted to find a reason to hate it, but it has a lot of nice features.

OnePack Features

  • Main compartment — The large compartment has a clam shell opening. But if you don’t want it to open completely flat, there are also flaps that will prevent it from opening all the way. These flaps are attached by Velcro and a button. This compartment is the largest part of the backpack and takes up the vast majority of the volume.
  • Internal organization — Inside the main compartment are a bunch of organizational features. The main compartment is split into two sections. The first is the back panel portion that is adjacent to the laptop sleeve. This portion of the compartment has 5 organizational pockets. Two on the bottom and two in the middle are elastic mesh pockets and are good sizes for small items like cables or chargers. Above those 4 is a larger zipped pocket. The opposite of the main compartment can be completely separated by a zipped mesh flap. If you’re traveling, you an use this mesh barrier to separate all your clothes. The mesh barrier’s zipper runs along all sides except the bottom. When it’s not in use, it can be stowed and hidden at the bottom of the bag with a Velcro’ed flap. Inside this section is also 2 internal water bottle pockets that are large enough to hold most water bottles. The standard fat 1-L Nalgene bottles can fit in there but it’s a very tight squeeze and feels like it’s about to explode. The advertisements showed a detachable tech organizer that attached in this section, but that is nowhere to be found. Instead there is a hammock-system that can be used to separate items in the main compartment. To be honest, this hammock system is pretty pointless. The elastic straps it uses are far too loose to hold anything securely and they aren’t adjustable. The removable tech organizer that WiWu advertised would have been better.
  • Tech compartment— Behind the main compartment is a tech compartment with a large laptop sleeve (holds up to a 17-inch laptop if you believe WiWu) and a elastic Velcro strap that holds the laptop in (though I never use those straps, they’re pretty pointless). In front of the laptop sleeve is a slightly smaller sleeve for a tablet or a smaller laptop. The fabric for both these sleeves have a tiny bit of padding sewn into it to protect a bit of protection, which is a really nice touch. Opposite of these is yet another sleeve for documents or that third laptop you lug around. This compartment is actually really useful. I carry separate laptops for work and for personal use. Both are pretty portable — a 13.3" XPS and a 15" Surface Book. But I can keep both laptops and a folder and a small notebook in all those sleeves with no difficulty.
  • External side pockets — on both sides of the backpack are tall zipped pockets. These look like water bottle pockets but they are not elastic and are fairly narrow so you wouldn’t be able to fit most reusable water bottles in it unless it’s something fairly small. They also do not have their own dedicated volume. So whatever you put in these will push against anything in the internal water bottle pockets. You won’t be able to have a bottle in both the internal and external pockets on the same side of the backpack.
  • Integrated electronic ports — Another main feature of the backpack is the built-in USB port and 3.5 mm audio jack. I tested and confirmed that the USB port works. It’s advertised as a USB 3.0 port but this pocket is clearly designed to be used for an external battery pack so being a USB 3.0 doesn’t really matter. Large battery packs will have difficulty fitting into the external pocket though. The audio jack and cable, however, do not work properly. It’s a pretty low quality audio cable so a lot of static comes through and only one side of my earphones were playing sound. I tried it will multiple earphones and confirmed on other devices that the earphones work fine. I don’t really see the purpose of these audio jacks in backpacks. Audio jacks are going to become obsolete in the not-too-distant future. USB ports are also migrating to the smaller USB-C. So having technology integrated into the backpack can sometimes be unnecessary.
  • Anti-theft buckle — On the bottom of one of the shoulder straps is a tri-squeeze buckle (i.e., you squeeze the sides while pressing a button on the top) that allows that shoulder strap to detach. This allows you to buckle the backpack to something like a table leg or chair, preventing thieves from grabbing your bag and making a quick getaway. The buckle is a bit finicky to use so it can be a little annoying to get the buckle to release. There are some photos of the buckle below.
  • Front pockets — On the front of the backpack are two additional pockets. The top pocket is roughly 4 inches deep and an ideal place for small items like your phone, wallet, keys, sunglasses, etc. Below that is a larger pocket for any additional small items you may have (about 9 inches tall).

Additional Features

  • Sternum strap — The OnePack has a fully adjustable sternum strap. You can change the height and the width through the adjustors on the nylon webbing. Unfortunately, the sternum straps are a bit too low to be used effectively.
  • Card pocket on shoulder strap — On the right shoulder strap is a small zipped pocket to hold some cash or a subway card. BUT if the sternum strap is buckled, it will block access to this pocket, especially considering the height of the pocket is the same as the height adjustment range of the sternum strap. This is another design hiccup.
  • Luggage pass-through — The back panel of the backpack features a wide nylon webbing that acts as a luggage pass-through, making this a very useful travel back.
  • Grab handle — The OnePack has a single grab handle, which is at the top of the bag. It’s a folded piece of nylon webbing but with some padding inserted into the fold as well so while it’s better than nothing, it could be improved.

Construction

On the Kickstarter campaign’s comments I have seen other users complain about the backpack falling apart after a very short period of use. Almost all of these complaints are regarding the shoulder straps ripping off. I haven’t noticed anything tearing at this point and the backpack exterior uses multiple layers of fabric so it has a fairly robust feel to it. That said, however, I can see that the straps do not have as much reinforced stitching as many other backpacks typically have.

I’m not certain what the specifications of the materials are but the exterior is a water-resistant treated polyester while the inside is lined with a thin nylon. Having the treated materials and multiple layers or fabric makes allows it to perform fairly well in light rain. The exterior zippers have aqua guards to help keep water out as well.

Though the materials seem to be working okay so far, as I have mentioned, the audio component didn’t function properly.

In-field usage

One absolutely terribly designed component of the backpack is how the shoulder strap that has the anti-theft buckle adjusts. It cannot be easily adjusted at all and making even a slight adjustment is a massive hassle. Rather than just pulling on the extra slack, you have to push both sides of the strap through the adjuster. Then slowly weave the shoulder strap through the adjuster buckle to get any change in the shoulder strap size. It a HUGE hassle and requires a lot of work. I’m not sure why they couldn’t just use a normal adjuster buckle like all other backpacks that have this anti-theft feature. So once you’ve adjusted the straps to fit your body, you’re basically expected to keep it that way. Additionally, while that shoulder strap has the extra nylon webbing slack going upward, the other shoulder strap has the slack going downward. I’m not sure why they decided to have each strap’s going in opposite directions, but these shoulder straps are enough to be a deal-breaker for me even if there are a lot of positive features.

The shoulder straps also feature loops to hold the extra slack in place. That way the straps aren’t dangling and flapping all over the place. While this is a nice touch, it isn’t very effective for the shoulder strap that has the anti-theft buckle. Since the excess slack goes upward, you’ll need to keep the loop high up on the webbing for it to do its job. Unfortunately there is this force called gravity. Though gravity is the weakest of the four fundamental forces of the universe, it does happen to be strong enough to pull that strap loop down, rendering it ineffective.

One other nuisance of the bag is how small the internal zipper tabs are. The external zippers all have great and practical zipper tabs (except the small card pocket on the shoulder strap), but the other tabs are very small, thin, and slippery. So it’s not very easy to grab them. Fortunately, all those zippers don’t have aqua guards to they’re not as stiff as the external zippers.

On a positive note though, the backpack’s exterior is firm enough that it retains its shape even when completely empty, but isn’t a hard exterior. It doesn’t have a floppy bag look like bags that others have. One such bag that comes to mind is the Minaal Daily.

Comfort

In terms of how it feels, the OnePack is surprisingly comfortable. The backpack and shoulder straps have some sort of closed-cell foam. It’s firm enough to provide support while not being too hard. The back panel also has airflow channels to help prevent your back from becoming a sweaty mess (at least for a little bit). Unlike many other backpacks with airflow channels, it’s not just one single large channel up the middle. There are large channels in the middle vertically and horizontally supplemented by additional smaller vertical channels.

Summary

Overall, this is actually a pretty good backpack for everyday use. I don’t think I’d really use it for travel. It’s not large enough to carry much unless you pack very light or you’re just going for one night. But it offers a ton of organization for all your tech. The biggest flaw, and it’s very significant, is the inability to adjust one of the shoulder strap’s length on the go.

But despite the positives, if you’re interested in the backpack, be aware of what your getting. Many people had had a poor customer service experience to say the least. As of yesterday, I still see people commenting on the Kickstarter page that they are still waiting for their backpack. And if you’re expecting the detachable tech organizer, don’t get your hopes up.

Utility: 3 of 5 — Lots of usefulness in the bag though nothing ground breaking or super innovative. A few things could be executed better, particularly the shoulder strap design, which is a big deal.

Organization: 4 of 5 — Fifteen organizational pockets in total. The KS campaign advertises 19 but I think that’s with the detachable organizer that they never delivered on.

Construction: 3 of 5 — So far no major complaints though they could have used better internal zipper tabs and the shoulder strap stitching could definitely use some reinforcement. The audio jack/cable’s quality is also quite inferior.

Aesthetics: 3 of 5 — A clean and minimal look. But also a bit tech geeky. Maybe that’s some people’s style but I’m pretty indifferent on it. It’s not ugly. It’s not exquisite.

Comfort: 4 of 5 — Good choice of padding and use of airflow channels.

Life-Integration: 4 of 5 — There’s nothing about the backpack that hasn’t been seen before so it’s all quite easy to use. The only thing that might take some getting used to is the electronic component with the USB charger and audio jack.

X-Factor: 1 of 5 — While there was a lot of anticipation through the Kickstarter campaign, that quickly died when everyone realized there was no sign of when they’ get their bags, the bags were not exactly the same as what was promised, and the maker wasn’t totally upfront about the situation.

Thanks for reading! Unfortunately my conscience won’t let me post an Amazon Associates link for this backpack. That’s how bad my experience was in trying to get it. But if you are really interested in it, just search “OnePack” on Amazon and it should be one of the first bags in the search results. There is also a brand of trekking/hiking backpacks called ONEPACK though so just make sure you choose the right bag.

More Time Squa-oh look a new Dragon Ball movie!

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