Peak Design  Travel Pack 45 L

Generally this is a great pack. Looks good. Has lots of well thought out features. Awesome entry options. Good organization. Clever designs. Good materials and structure. Good handles and pockets. There is a lot to like. I used this pack on a 10 day European vacation and it served us well. Ultimately, however this backpack did not work for me for the following reasons: 1. My primary complaint is that the shoulder straps were not long enough. I have broad shoulders and I found that the hardware would dig into my armpits, especially under a full load. 2. Related is the fact that the shoulder straps do not have enough padding. I understand that the straps were designed to be stowable, which limited their thickness. This could very well be forgivable if the straps were longer, but unfortunately these two points alone were enough for me to return the pack. 3. I did not care for the adjustable volume. Instead of choosing to limit or expand the volume, I wish the pack were just 40 L. I didn’t care for the zipper expansion mostly because it shifted the load volume up and away from your hips. This could have been mitigated to some extent by better packing, but traveling is dynamic. How you pack at the outset will change, and you may not be able to adjust for the geometry and load balance of the pack. 4. The buttons for limiting volume also seemed pointless. I get the intent, though I would never have chosen to use it. Part of the reason why is actually a plus for the pack. It was fairly rigid and structured which was very nice for packing and organizing. Due to the inherent rigidity, I don’t think the pack needed to be intentionally reduced in volume. Unlike some packs, it could maintain its shape without being fully loaded. 5. Side bottle pockets, though highly desirable, were less expansive and stretchy than I expected. I don’t see how anyone could squeeze a liter Nalgene in there while the pack was loaded. Narrower bottles were tight, if secure. 6. The side handles were not reachable at the center of gravity which was awkward at times. This criticism supplements my critique of the zipper expansion which would throw off the center of gravity. I know I have been somewhat harsh. As previously stated, the pack is really nice. Had the straps fit me better, I would have forgiven everything else. I hope potential buyers find my comments helpful.

After a ton of online research, some real life test-drives of this bag when spotted at airports (people who own this bag are generally excited and proud to show it off, especially to someone who recognizes what it is), and a long time drooling and plotting, I used my 20% off member's coupon this past spring 2020 along with some dividend earnings and went for it--quarantine shopping therapy. The first bag I received had misaligned snaps so that the bag could not be converted to 35L; the female and male halves of the snaps were offset from each other by about an inch, requiring major torsion of the bag in order to fasten. In the photo I'm pinching the inner half of the fastener, and my thumb shows where the outer half should be, which is not I might not have noticed had I not watched all the Peak Design tutorials about this bag and handled it in person prior, but I knew how this function should perform, and it was not user error. I requested a replacement, and that bag was lost in transit. Third time requesting the bag, and the same problem with the snaps came up. It couldn't have been the same bag sent to me twice because of the overlapping timing between when I received the replacement and when I sent the original defective one back. REI said there wasn't much they could do because it wasn't possible to pick through the stock to make sure that the next one I got didn't have the same defect. They suggested I contact Peak Design directly. I sent photos and an explanation of the problem to PD, including the fact that I'd received more than one defective bag from the REI stock. Peak Design said nothing about checking the REI stock and just offered to replace the bag under warranty, but not before "reminding" me that snaps can be stiff at the start and will loosen up over time, as if that were the issue rather than the manufacturing defect illustrated in the photos, plus I'd have to pay shipping. As a company that seems to pride itself on design and precision, I was surprised at the cavalier response. I ditched the whole thing out of exasperation/frustration and returned the (2nd) defective replacement bag. PD's response made me wary about their customer service/warranty policy, and I lost out on my 20% coupon because of the time it took to process all the replacements and returns with the scanty REI customer support during quarantine. I'm considering buying again because I haven't found another bag with the same combination of features, and I could still return easily to REI if there is another issue, but buyer beware that there may be some snap defects floating around in the REI inventory. :( If you don't plan on converting to the smaller 35L format, this won't matter much to you. For me it was an important function, and for the money, I expect all of the features to work properly.