Minimalists will love these foldable bags that roll up into a palm sized bundle that you can hang from your keychain when you’re not using them to hold your gear. For those of you who don’t like to carry a messenger bag, backpack or duffle bag all the time, these foldable bags are perfect for those days when you find that your pocket capacity just isn’t enough for all your gear. The bags are made of a light weight tough nylon that has been treated with silicon to make them water resistant. They feature double-zippered openings and reinforced stitching on stress points. The foldable bags are available from Lee Valley and range in price from $29.95 up to $39.95 depending on the style.
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I have the backpack. The brand is actually Sea To Summit. Not sure why the website omitted the brand name, but it’s clearly visible on the bottom of the orange backpack stuffed in its own pouch. Anyway, this bag is awesomely small, and is indeed very handy. I’ve used it on many foreign travels, and have always found some use for it. Unfortunately, it’s super ultralight design does mean some compromises:
1. It’s completely shapeless with zero padding, so it can be uncomfortable when carrying hard objects which will poke you in the back.
2. The straps are also shapeless, which means they bunch up and become pencil thin and uncomfortable. You’ll have to manually spread them out so that they can do their jobs of spreading weight across their width, every single time you use the bag. The thin straps also mean they tend to ride outwards, so you’ll need to rig a makeshift sternum strap to keep them close together.
3. The buckle for adjusting the strap length is also very tiny, maybe about 5mm (or about 0.2 inches) wide, which makes it fiddly to adjust, and very prone to slippage. This means you’ll need to adjust it frequently.
4. The lack of any kind of pockets (other than the tiny pouch which it squeezes into) is rather inconvenient.
5. Once you unscrunch it from the pouch, the bag is super-crumpled, and with its crinkly material, it looks and feels more like a super-market plastic bag than a backpack.
If you can live with these issues, then this bag is great to have around. Personally, I love it for it’s size and weight, but I’m looking for alternatives due to the rather long list of cons (especially 2 and 3).
@chriszzz Thank you for your first hand info about these bags. Very helpful!
I’ll chime in and say that I also have these Sea to Summit bags, a duffel and a sling, and they are definitely worth it.
The duffel goes into my travel luggage, so I can pack an extra check in item for the flight home after taking a vacation. I can easily put 8kg worth of clothing into the duffel bag, which leaves plenty of extra space for other purchases from abroad in my real luggage. This extra duffel has saved me from enough airline fees (due to my check in luggage being over the weight limit) that it’s paid for itself many times over.
The sling goes into my small messenger bag as an overflow bag, since I have, on purpose, a minimalistic sized messenger bag. I pull it out mainly for groceries, to keep from wasting those disposable paper/plastic bags.
Like chriszzz mentioned though, these are very thin bags, so they aren’t comfortable to use day in, day out. They really shine as adjunct bags, to be used sparingly, in conjunction with your existing gear.