Filson also thought it fitting to include an expandable waterproof liner in one of the cavernous side pockets, so you can keep your wet gear separate from your dry gear. If you’re traveling for the weekend, going to the gym or pool, hiking, or dealing with an accident with young children, this isn’t a bag, it’s a godsend.
In fact, wherever you look on the Duffle Pack, you’ll find that the care and love in the details makes all the difference. According to Adam Hogarth, associate director of design at Filson, the stock zipper at the top was deemed insufficient. “In the end we used size 10 zippers, which are not only super durable, but also very functional. They don’t freeze easily,” he says. “If you take it out into the field and it gets really cold, it’ll just keep working.” The brass zipper pull with leather ring is purposely larger for gloved hands as well.
Designers widened the top opening so you can get things in and out quickly. Filson easily attached the handle with more ballistic nylon and some Velcro. but not. Here you get premium saddle leather handles secured with metal fasteners that are stiff at first but become buttery smooth over time and very flexible.
“It’s always been designed for field use,” Hogarth told me. “But it’s adopted by the everyday carrier because it’s so versatile. I have one too, and I use it a lot as a carry-on when I travel.”
Me too. In fact, every time I fly, I eschew more expensive wheeled luggage in favor of this Duffle Pack. Low-cost, money-grabbing British airline Ryanair is a favorite to charge you extra even if you take your overhead carry-on bag on board, but backpacks are free (for now). I can easily fit more than a week’s worth of clothes, all my toiletries, my tech, adapters, cables and sunglasses into the Duffle Pack’s 46 liters of space – more than the Away’s 40 liters of carry-on luggage – and climb aboard with ease There is no extra penny for the bag in Airplane Backpack mode. joy.
In airports and subways, I jumped down steps and escalators with ease, as queues on wheels pushed their sliding suitcases, struggling to line them up instead of marble floors. I left them behind and was again the first through security.
If my Duffle Pack does let me down, Filson offers a lifetime warranty against failure or damage “for its intended use”, but I’m not sure what you can’t use this bag for.
Hogarth ended our conversation by assuring me that Filson wasn’t giving up on this miracle-carrying plan right away. “It’s going to stay on the line somehow. It’s probably going to be updated. When I say updated, I mean it’s only going to get better,” he said. Impossible, if you ask me. For my money, this is the best bag ever.
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