Keen Keizer Universal Commuter Backpack

Overall, I am not thrilled with the bag, but it is serving its purpose fairly well. It is comfortable. The general design is good at keeping the load distributed. It is utilitarian, and that is a style of its own, but there is no way Haute Couture is going to give this bag its stamp of approval. I have major quibbles with certain aspects of design. That said, even after several weeks of poking around sporting stores and the internet, this was the best backpack to fit my needs: super spacious, water resistant, & has a laptop compartment. The main compartment on this is the biggest of the bags I looked at. The bag has protected the contents against rain fairly well and the zippers are made to be water resistant (see "flap/strap/laptop compartment seams" below for a caveat). The laptop compartment is padded and set slightly higher than the rest of the interior so that placing the bag roughly on the ground will not immediately smack the laptop into the floor (but this does render the bag unlikely to sit upright unless leaning against something). The sternum strap and general shape and back padding does make this bag reasonably comfortable to carry even when loaded down. The handle at the top is pretty durable (I have given it plenty of abuse and it is holding strong). On to the issues, in descending order of magnitude: -Padding: the padding in the straps is very poor given the price of the bag and the reputation of its maker. Within a month I had already reduced one strap to 50% the thickness of the other. I do not always carry the bag across one shoulder, but for short trips (between rooms, car to house) it is carried on one side only. This is most likely the reason I will have to retire the bag pretty soon (after less than one year of use). Frankly, I am disappointed as Keen is a well-respected brand that produces high quality items, and for me to shell out so much for a bag, I darn well expect it to last more than a year. -Division of interior space: I do love the massive central space, but there's not much for pockets/smaller compartments. In the main compartment, there is a small zippered mesh area, three small pockets and some pen slots. There is a pocket on the flap, and one more pocket on the outside of the interior compartment. I had to purchase a separate organizer (GRID-IT) so I could carry things like an iPod, data cable, more than three pens, etc. I cannot keep much in the flap pocket because any weight causes the flap of the bag to be unruly. Like Carlos, I tend to ignore the buckles as the Velcro is usually sufficient, but with a set of keys in the pocket, I have to buckle the flap down or else it will swing and sit skewed when I put on the bag (and expose the interior to the elements, and look dumb). It turns out that I use the water bottle holster pretty frequently as a makeshift pocket: the space is large enough to accommodate my water bottle, some granola bars, a small folding shopping bag, and probably my keys. -Flap/strap/laptop compartment seams: actually, I cannot be certain that this is not a problem that plagues all bags with a similar design, but I was livid when I noticed, after less than 30 minutes walking in a medium rain, that the material binding the edges of the flap of the bag was of a non-water-resistant material and it was wicking water in to the interior of the bag. Since this was at the junction of the straps/flap, the water was heading directly towards the laptop compartment. A full size laptop would certainly have gotten its corners damp, if not worse. -Straps absorb water: again, this may be an issue common to all/most backpacks, but it does not mean that I will not complain. The straps absorb water, so for several hours afterwards I cannot put the bag on unless I either wear my raincoat, or suffer soggy shoulders as the water transfers from the straps to my clothes. I suspect the straps cannot be water-resistant-ized, since that would make them stifling if the wearer is not bundled up and is sweating, but after a morning of damp shoulders in a very cold room, I have learned to be very careful with the bag after it has been in the rain. -Cinch/compression straps are utterly useless: there are adjustable straps and metal hook-things at the sides of the bag so you can compress the interior. Unfortunately they're only at the top, and, more importantly, I have never managed to get the hooks to stay put and do their job. I have had to just tie the things out of the way, since I did not have the heart to just cut them off. Would I buy this bag again? Only if I could not find another comparable bag (spaciousness, water resistance & laptop compartment), but I will be looking very hard to find a superior bag before purchasing another Keizer.

I'd also recommend: Timbuk2