Transcript of Is The Western Rise Voyager 25L the Perfect Travel AND Daily Backpack?

here's the Western rise Voyager 25 L backpack had it for about 10 days now and I'm excited to share my thoughts with you guys if you've seen my last two videos you know I'm trying to find a great bag that can work double duty as a personal item during travel and then also work well as a daily walk around bag while being an urban tourist and it would be best if it had a quick way to access my camera but how does this Western rid Voyager 25 L bag do with this used case in mind actually surprisingly well let's get into [Music] it now I went into this with hardly any expectations my experience with Western rise is that I tried a couple of the pants and they didn't really fit that well around my thighs so I wound up returning them otherwise I know they have a good reputation among Travelers when it comes to bags well this is their first swing at the plate but the bags did look good from the promo videos and the kickstarter so I decided to take a chance on this 25 L bag it like I said it was Kickstarter but I didn't order the kickstarter I just ordered from the website during Black Friday and I ended up getting my bag around the same time as those that backed the project which was about 10 days ago maybe 2 weeks ago from the time of filming so consider this more like my first impressions video and not really like a full review I've carried this bag around Town some and work in some coffee shops and walking around the neighborhood on my daily dog walks now I think the design is a decent option for the organized but minimal traveler I think they've designed a travel system that can really work for some people the tech sling a 15 L roll top a 25 L that works great as a day pack and a 35 L travel bag and they also have packing cubes speaking which packing cubes uh I'm going to be doing a packing Cube Roundup video in the very near future got like 25 brands of packing cubes with some several Unique Designs and Concepts so subscribe so you don't miss that this bag is taller than many similar size bags and it has a slightly narrower width now I like this about it I have a long torso so this works out well for me the dimensions are 20.5 in tall 11.5 in wide and 8 in in depth it weighs 2.8 lb when empty and it feels very light like it's surprised me when I picked it up I was like this bag feels really light the materials they picked are lightweight materials now one of the things that appealed to me on this bag is the Side Access so I inserted my own Timba camera Cube to hold my small Fuji kit perfect for just the minimum needed while on vacation or just you know daily carrying so we'll we'll we'll take a closer look at that in a minute so let's quickly think about how this thing is organized front it's got a front panel loader pocket here that goes down almost all the way you know more than 2/3 of the way down the bag and it comes open like that so let's quickly look at how I got this pack I got a book in here this this there's a PO let's see there's a pocket up here this is just where I've got my travel battery for traveling that's a mesh this mesh is a little bit plasticky it's just a little bit of a plasticky mesh uh it's not the most comfortable to rub against it you know it doesn't feel good rub your skin on it there's a little bit of room down here so for whatever is right there on this on the front panel here you've got let's let's look at it like this you've got a uh sort of a magnetic closure here and here's where I just got my action camera uh tripod selfie stick thing and an extra tripod for my camera and that's that pocket that's just like a storage pouch for cables or batteries or whatever and it's got a magnet and I think that's it's a pretty good little pocket just be mindful of whatever you stick in that pocket will could bulge on the front here and then this is this pocket up here is one of their big like selling points I guess is that this pocket is designed to fit the sling that's part of this package or you know that can be part of this design collection so you unzip you got the same mesh again it's kind of plasticky and you got a a western rise logo right there and then this pocket holds uh this is a boundary Supply pouch I don't have the the Western rise sling but it just fits in there real nice now the the thing is is that it bulges right there you can kind of see how this bulges like this now that's a design aesthetic that when you're wearing it it will bulge out up at the top and it's not that many bags will do that um it's it's a it's a strong design characteristic I guess you may like it you may hate it you may not care but that's what that's for quick and easy access to your sling or other quick quick access style items so that's the that's the front panels call it the admin compartment and then let's look at the back which only goes it only goes down to here on both sides so it's it's not a full clamshell style opening it's you know that's oneir it goes down about a third of the bag here on the back and it doesn't give you a whole lot of like you know open ability but in the top here I have another pouch another carry pouch this is the Tom bin handy little thing I like using this for travel and then you can you can see this is where the laptop and iPad compartments are there's a suspended laptop compartment back here that holds they say up to an 18-in device my 16-in MacBook Pro fits in here uh really well but I have a little bit of a tough time believing a a wider laptop would fit a taller one might fit in here a little bit but this is kind of the maximum size I think um or close to the maximum size and it is suspended and it does feel pretty padded and it's protected by this magnet to keep it slightly secure and from the camera's perspective you can kind of see that there's another mesh pocket right here and I just have uh action camera and action camera batteries right there now it's a little tricky to get into this section but that you can see my camera Cube so whatever I put in here is sitting on top of the camera Cube and so for the camera Cube I access it from the side on on on the other side and what's taking up all the space on this side is that's where the water bottle is water bottle pocket the water bottle pretty much takes up interior volume of space but it's a big water bottle pocket the standard 32 o n Jee fits just fine and it's a little taller so you can have something a little bit taller than an Alene but um it's a it's a pretty big water bottle pocket and so when when I have stuff sitting when I have stuff in here the water bottle and the packing Cube the camera Cube kind of create like the shelf and everything just kind of sits on the Shelf but there's just not a whole lot of space in here what I can do what I wanted to one of the things I wanted to show you is when you have this bag kind of packed out the zippers can be a little especially on these two side pockets on the camera pouch or the you know the just the two side pouches they can be a little hard to zip up like they kind of catch right there and it's it's putting the most pressure on this part about one one or two inches into the pocket it just it just doesn't want to go see that it's a tough spot uh and I feel like there's pressure being put on right there by something uh and that's why so I can you know I can kind of feel something inside here is like I'll try and show you on a closeup but even the teeth of the zipper are being pulled apart so I feel like there's structurally inside the bag there's tension being pulled on the fabrics and it's pulling that zipper apart which is making it harder to zip up that thing right there if I take the water bottle out it's a it's a little better but I think the laptop and the water bottle are competing with each other a little bit on the top there is a quick access pocket that's lined with uh felt and it's got a pretty nice keychain for your a key hook Loop for your keys or for whatever you want to attach to here one of the unique things that's not that common in bags is that this key hook is uh removable quickly and easily you just unsnap it from the magnetic clip and now you have a pretty nice keychain so you can you can put put this on your keys take your keys with you and then when you're ready to secure your keys you can just attach it right there and put them in there but it's felt lined and a phone will fit put put my this is iPhone for this is a big iPhone 14 um slides in there the pro Max it goes in there just fine so it's a pretty decently sized quick access ET let's talk about the back of this bag a little bit start with the shoulder straps shoulder straps are about 18 in long maybe just maybe slightly longer but about 18 in long and that's that's okay for a bag I like shoulder straps that are a little bit longer it's like 19 in or 20 in but 18's not too bad mini bags have much shorter straps so I could live with that it does have a uh sternum strap and the sternum strap is connected you connect it via this magnetic clip that's pretty standard on this bag for all the clips like the keychain clip the sternum strap and we'll talk about the belt in just a second but they all use this magnetic clip in system and uh it's quick and easy you just want to be a little bit extra cautious to not lose your if it's clipped in and by a magnet that can come undone or the belt the belt clips in with a magnet and that can come undone let's go ahead and look at that for a quick second the uh on each side there is a little receiver for the clip and so if you want to put your this is one half of the belt you want to put it on you just slide it in there and get it clipped and it's it's locked in and then you can use the other put the other one on here and just kind of slide it in there I imagine that's a little hard to do while you're wearing it but maybe it's not too bad and then this is again a magnetic clip just like so we'll get it close with that but so it's a it's it's nice to have this quick and removable uh belt so that you can have it or not have it just quick and easy it's a pretty comfortable bag I think it's pretty comfortable I found the padding to be adequate even though this it's kind of a thin strap it it it is pretty comfortable and the back padding is pretty comfortable um I it's got an air channel here but uh I just have a feeling that this bag will make will make me sweat a little bit when wearing it it just feels like it's that kind of material that's going to uh make me sweat but it is kind of comfortable it does have a luggage pass through right behind all this padding which is great cuz luggage pass through is are nice to have of course I'm always a fan of a luggage pass through that allows you to keep the bag upright while it's on your luggage but on this bag you would have to slide it put it sideways not a deal breaker what you'll notice if you haven't already noticed is it stands up on its own I think that's almost a must have with a bag not quite a deal it's not a total deal breaker but if a bag doesn't stand up on its own minus a bunch of points but this one stands up on its own pretty well even if I T you know give it some Taps it doesn't really want to fall over it wants to stand up right that's pretty good I'm impressed with with that I like that about it now I think that might be sort of dependent upon what you have in the bag since I have a camera Cube it's I think it's sort of holding the bag up a little bit so your mileage may vary on that but with a camera Cube stuffed in here it stands up on its own now speaking of camera Cube let's go ahead and take a take a look at this camera Cube uh so you can see what I've got in here basically Fuji camera and then just some odds and ends to go with it but this is the let me pull it out it it's not velcroed in or attached in in any way it's just kind of stuffed stuffed in there this is a uh tenba by o insert bring your own bag insert so this is designed to go in other bags um and it h it has a zipper lid so it can stand on its own as just a pouch you put this in any bag this is not the newest version the newest version has uh Clips so you can actually use it as a sling if you want a camera sling but I just tuck it into tuck it into this tuck it in back here and then slide it in sideways and now I got a camera Cube that's customizable and I got some other stuff in here like a microphone and another lens and just some other little items that I need while uh photographing things so bob10 from tenba fits in there and it does quite well but now you can get a look inside this pocket see now well it's standing up just F the water bottle is now supporting it so if you got a water bottle in here I think you're in luck now let's see how well it stands up oh that ain't bad that is not bad totally empty bag well it's got a laptop in there so the laptop is was pushing the weight over but um that ain't bad that is not too bad yeah so I just stuffed that camera Cube back in there and you know to be honest this whole time it stayed in there quite well I think I'm would consider adding some velcro to it to help keep it in there really well but maybe I don't need it one thing I wanted to show you while I have this in here is that W with the camera cube in the bottom and the water bottle on the other side I just wanted to show you that this is a western rise packing Cube uh they I can't remember what size this is I think it's a 5 L um but I wanted to show it show it shoved into the top here it does fit so you got 5 L of clothing you got a camera Cube you got a water 32 oz water bottle and then you still have this full open here for a few other like put your sling in here let's go ahead and do that put a put a sling in there and then let's just go ahead and put a toilet let's pretend like this is a toiletry kit and shove it in there in that little pouch under there and just because we're Let's Pretend We're going on an airplane uh we're taking our book we don't we haven't realized this kind Kindle exists so we're taking a real book and there we go packed up ready for travel now you can see this bulge that I'm talking about it just kind of whoop like that's a that's a big that's a big bulge and whether you can live it that or not it's up to you but I don't mind it that much I think it's a it's an okay way to to get a little more space now the the materials of this bag I think are pretty good overall I'm really impressed with uh how it all came together and well except for two places and I'll talk about those in just a second but here's here's the materials the exterior Shelf fabric is a 420d ballistic nylon robic with a dwr coating the external coated fabric is a 630d Oxford nylon with carbonate coating the internal fabric the is a uh gray scape nylon polyester rip stop with pu Coating in the hardware is YKK Aqua guard zippers and it has magnetic buckles it's got these hypon uh zipper pulls the ones on the exterior of the bag are are not that bad but the ones on the inside of the bag on these Pockets uh these are smaller zippers but these zipper pulls uh in my opinion feel cheap look cheap not comfortable to pull and uh I'm interested in changing them out right away I just don't like them I don't like these these zipper pulls so on the interior of the bag I want to change the zipper pulls now the other place the materials kind of let me down is all the way running all the way around the bag is this is this handle the handle there's this handle here a handle here on the side so a handle on each side and a handle on the top um and it's stitched in right here but this handle while it does feel like kind of durable enough to be grabbing um it doesn't feel that nice it feels kind of it's a rubbery plasticky kind of material um and you know while I do think it's durable enough for this job it's it doesn't feel luxury it doesn't feel premium it doesn't feel quality it feels cheap um and that's not the end of the world I I'm not complaining about that about it that much I just think the rest of the bag is so nice that this particular selection of material doesn't match it doesn't feel premium that's my that's just my opinion I'm just one dude just just a bag nerd walking around trying to live life but in my opinion I think an upgraded uh material if it would I'm not I'm not suggesting they go with leather uh but I could imagine leather has a very premium feel a nice premium leather strap but a lot of the bags a lot of backpacks just use that kind of seat belt material wrapped around a piece of foam and I feel like that feels really nice to hold and I something like that would have been a good fit with with this material overall these materials are um they feel high-tech they feel sophisticated uh they probably are very sophisticated but but I just think this this kind of weird leather this kind of weird plasticky vinyl uh strap that's kind of just even the stitching on it sewn in it doesn't look all that good so that's it two two two places where I think the materials are a bit of a let down the interior zipper pulls which is not a big deal at all and then this big handle which while it does feel durable enough it just doesn't feel uh premium one other thing I wouldn't mind having uh uh added to this bag is a couple of lash points for some for for something I mean you kind of got this handle you could lash something to and you got these side handles but I wouldn't mind having um something to to just like when you'rea like like think of it like this when you're traveling you don't necessarily know what you're going to what you're going to wind up with you don't know what the day is going to bring so you got extra stuff just a place to latch something that not these handles so that's a minor very minor thing but it' be nice to have very nice to have overall I feel like I'm very impressed feel like I'm very impressed with this bag I'm impressed by how it looks I'm impressed by the materials I'm impressed by cleverness throughout some of the design throughout some of the little magnetic pouches um I feel like it for me it's probably a little bit less of a travel oriented bag but it's quite nice as a daily carry bag or qu especially nice for somebody who is uh a little more minimal aesthetically oriented office like person if you like I feel like you could get away wearing this backpack with a suit if that makes any sense I don't ever wear a suit so I don't I don't really know that world all that much but I just feel like uh aesthetically it could it could it could work in that world a little bit it's pleasing to the eye from a aesthetic uh it feels like a like a a cool stock broker might even have this back I don't know if I'm making any sense or if you get what I'm saying but it feels it feels like it looks uh very nice for an office uh daily carry bag does it meet my needs for a Trav a travel personal item and a uh and a c quick you know a daily carry around for urban touristy stuff um I think it could I think the layout of the bag leaves a little question mark for me because um the space to put I mean I guess it's big enough for this you know to put this in there and that's you know that's enough for a jacket and some bagels or whatever so I guess that that does work um but I think that it's just this kind of two two opening system it doesn't quite work as well as a one openening larger you know larger area does that make sense like if if this was the only if this clamshell plus the side AIS was all there was that might work a little better but this does work this this is a very nice this is a very nice travel option a daily carry option check the links in the description I hope you enjoyed this one and I will catch you guys on the next one