Cotopaxi Allpa 50L Duffel Review
Cotopaxi throws it’s weight into the ring for the crowded world of duffels. Read on for the results.
Cotopaxi Allpa 50L Duffel Review Introduction
Cotopaxi - the “Do Good” brand with the great company mission and concept. Home of the Del Dia line where the factory workers get to choose how they create your one of a kind colorway pack. The brand that folks choose when they want to express themselves a little bit more than the standard, minimalist travel packs. You know them by now! Just keep an eye out for the loveable alpaca on people’s kit. Cotopaxi covers the range now from travel packs, clothing, and EDC gear.
Beyond their 80s color block styles (love it on their Fuego insulated jackets) - they actually output some pretty rugged bags in their top end stuff. We’ve already reviewed their Allpa 35L backpack - a much loved, debated, and talked about travel pack on the bag scene. Yes, there’s a bag scene folks! But, they’ve also got a competitor to the King - the Patagonia Black Hole duffel. And when you come for the king, you best not miss. Right?
This is my review of the Cotopaxi Allpa Duffel 50L. I took this on a trip with a crazy amount of flight legs - to China. After 8 legs to, from, and within China, 4 cities, and two countries with another 2 in transit, I was able to really put it through its paces while testing out the carry options a number of ways. As a bonus, you’ll see some shots with their packing cubes as well, which I’ve now added a blurb about in my Packing Cubes Comparison for Travel article.
As always for full transparency….well this is an interesting one. I did reach out to Cotopaxi for a review unit, but couldn’t really connect. So I bought the blue version (and the packing cubes) before my trip in order to ensure I had it. Then just before my trip, Cotopaxi ended up sending me the black unit. So, I used the version I bought but will include both for photos’ sake. That said, this is not a sponsored article, I received no money from Cotopaxi, and they had no input on the content of the review. I do use affiliate links which help to support the site if you decide to use them to make a purchase, but you’re under no obligation to do so and there’s no additional cost to you. Thanks for stopping by!
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Cotopaxi Allpa 50L Overview
Side view. You definitely need to be OK with branding.
OK so let’s quickly go over what this bag is. Cotopaxi strove to release a bag that was going to be durable, and meant for longer trips based on the volume they decided to go with. We’ll see if that was a good decision or not later on.
Fully featured, they took the classic “open space” duffel and Cotopaxi’d it, while also adding a couple of features along the way. The design however is slightly subdued for Cotopaxi, without losing any of the brand feel. The materials are a heavier weight, and the carry options include classic duffel style handle carry, and also backpack straps.
Here’s the tech specs from their site:
Specs
Shell 1: 100% recycled 840D TPU-coated nylon
Shell 2: 100% recycled 840D ripstop nylon
Lining: 100% recycled ripstop polyester
50L (3052cu in)
23 x 13 x 12in (58 x 33 x 30cm)
2lbs 10oz (1200g)
As of June 2024, You get the choice of black, fatigue, blue spruce, tamarindo, or smoke.
It retails for $180 USD right now.
Cotopaxi Allpa 50L Features
Standard duffels are not always the sexiest in terms of features but Cotopaxi did a surprisingly good job on putting some useful things here.
For one, they’ve got backpack carry straps. This is actually my preferred way to carry a duffel so this is a good thing for me. While I never remove them in any duffel of this style, the straps are removable if you like. I just find that’s never worth the extra effort.
There are two external grab handles, one on each end, plus various lash points made of sturdy nylon in case you’re one of those crazy kids that likes to hook all sorts of things up to the outside of your bag. (Matador Beta Lock perhaps?)
Inside, there’s not much going on here. But, there IS a large mesh pocket underneath the main flap for the bag. I used this for documents and my iPad Pro 11 Inch with type folio, as an example.
On the outside, there are a total of four pockets. One on each long-side of the bag secured by velcro, with an additional zippered pocket added on to one of those, and another pocket added to one end (or the “top” in backpack mode). This is where I’d add any of my things I’d need quickly or wanted to store for security - phone, passport, Matador sleep mask, whatever.
Finally, one of the more interesting things about this pack - is that it has a bottom compartment which is separate from the main compartment. Cotopaxi states this is for dirty laundry - and that’s a great use case. I found it very useful and I’ll let you know how I packed it later.
Lastly, the bag comes with a stuff sack to roll it up inside of when you’re not using it.
That’s about it from a feature perspective.
The Good
It’s not a trip to Asia if you don’t eat durian with a glove, outside, because your mother-in-law doesn’t allow it in the house.
Materials, designs, and color options. I LOVE the different color options and frankly I had a hard time deciding which one to pick up. The Tamarindo one is SO good. Ultimately, since I was going to meet my wife’s extended family, I didn’t want to be TOO “outdoorsy, loud American” in China. So the blue was a good option for me. I also like how if you are a travel ninja, the logos on the black version are fairly subdued and harder to see unless you’re in the right light.
Materials and construction are on point. There were lots of reinforcements and bartacking all over, ripstop materials even in the liner, and I love a bag with TPU coating. I just do. It adds a nice weather resistance to it and makes it feel pretty tough and high quality.
The organization on this bag is pretty great. Often in duffels a lot of this gets cut out, and I get that. I think Cotopaxi did a great job of not making this too spartan from an organizational aspect without going all NOMATIC on us. The thing is when you’re using this as a backpack for international airline travel, you need those pockets on the outside. Not so much on a domestic car trip, sure. But for the style of travel I’d mostly use it for and certainly for my testing - I find those to be a necessity.
The bottom compartment! My wife has a duffel/tote travel bag that she’s had since before we met (giving her credit for being an OG with that before the bag got popular) and it’s got one of these nice sized underneath compartments that I’ve always been a little envious of. Sue me. But it’s so practical. Aside from the dirty laundry aspect Cotopaxi pins on it, it’s a fantastic place to put your extra shoes (style/height depending), a packable backpack, or a compressed packing cube. It’s just the right amount of height and volume to put the Tortuga Compressible Packing Cube in there, or a similarly sized one like a Thule or Eagle Creek. Loved this aspect of the bag.
Carry straps in backpack mode were solid. You’re never going to get Tortuga harness level comfort out of a duffel. Stop with that thinking right there. If you want that, buy a backpack with a harness. But I found the straps to be plenty comfortable enough, similar to the Patagonia ones. I was carrying this around multiple airports, air trains, and cabins and never felt uncomfortable. It does sag a little under its packed weight, but that’s because it’s a duffel, again. That’s also a symptom of not having it fully packed to the gills, which in a 50L I think that’s a good thing. I wasn’t sherpa’ing up K2 here (thought I’d say Everest there, didn’t you?).
Folding this up to put in its stuff sack I found to be easier than the Patagonia Black Hole bags. This can also be used as a stuff sack on your trip.
Did I mention the colorways? I did? OK whatever I’ll say it again. I love the color options on this bag. Cotopaxi can be a bit much for a lot of people - my wife being one of them - and even she said the color options were cool and not over the top.
I think they hit a really good price point as well. Brands that use more conscious manufacturing processes need to cost more - it’s just the way it is right now. That kind of manufacturing hasn’t scaled fully yet. But where many indie bags are around $300.00 right now - this is a welcome price point to make it more accessible for more folks.
The Bad
50L is a lot. There’s no way around it. I don’t love that size and it can get pretty heavy if you really try and pack that out. Since there’s no real harness system being a duffel and all - that can lead to a lot of sagging and change the comfort level of the carry. I don’t think it needs to be this big. I’d like to see them also release a 40L or 35L. I think 40L is a sweet spot for carry-on duffels and would be a good choice. Then they could make this a 55L instead, but I also think 50L is a good “large” bag. That said to be clear - even though I bet this doesn’t meet many carry on specs - I had zero issues in practice with it. I flew on BA twice, China Southern, China Eastern, Korean twice, and Singapore twice. Zero issues with it. Singapore, bless their unreal service, even tried to help me put it in the overhead bin which was unnecessary but kind (Read more about Singapore service in my Business Class Comparison article).
Being completely fair to Cotopaxi here - they CLEARY state this is not meant to be universally carry-on compatible. So good on them for doing that.
Coming right out and being honest - the carry handles on top of the bag had the most annoying snaps I’ve ever experienced. Nothing that would make me not-recommend this bag. But like, WTH Cotopaxi how did that pass testing? They are plastic and this kind of low-profile, new age snap that you need to line up JUST perfectly or you can’t get them to snap into place. Yeah get rid of those and put some old school, metal rivet style snaps in there. Those have worked for ever and still do. They got a little too cute on these and it makes it annoying to get the hand straps secured together.
Like many duffels, there is no dedicated laptop sleeve. This is a complaint on a lot of them, including Black Hole duffels. You can either place it on top of your cubes/clothing, in between layers, or if you want and have a laptop case (Like the Bellroy Caddy or Matador Base Layer) it’s an option to put it inside the mesh pocket under the main flap. There is no built in protection for it though, so case that bad bad boy up.
While the materials have general water resistance based on the choice (good job), the zippers unfortunately do not have any water sealing. This would add to the cost, I know, but it would also be a differentiator for the bag.
Packing The Cotopaxi Allpa 50L Duffel
So here’s what I did with it. As I mentioned, I did not in fact fully pack this out as I don’t travel that way and frankly filling 50L outside of a car trip would have been bonkers to do. Don’t do that.
In the top compartment I had most of my clothes and these were always in packing cubes. A large Cotopaxi cube. Matador small cube. A double sided Arc’Teryx cube (which seems to be discontinued, FYI). Pioneer Carry Global Pouch. Aer Split Kit for toiletries. Matador Camera Base Layer for my Sony A7 IV w lens. Extra 16-35mm lens in a protective pouch.
Underneath, I had a shoe bag with a pair of loafers, the new Tortuga Packable Backpack, and a Tortuga compression packing cube.
On the way home, I had a few more things in there like some packs of hawberry sweets for my nieces. And maybe some hawberry cake for me. Don’t judge me.
Keep in mind I’m 5’6” so adjust the scale of the bag up or down based on your height.
Final Thoughts On My Cotopaxi Allpa 50L Duffel Review
OK so there’s the full, written AW review of the Cotopaxi Allpa 50L duffel. Is it a winner? Yes. I think it is.
In fact, and I might take some heat for this, I think it’s probably a better duffel OVERALL than my (and many other people’s) beloved Black Hole in terms of usability. The organization is just better and that bottom compartment is a game changer. It really was. You can get into the rabbit hole of company mission and manufacturing ethics of course (on which Patagonia is really tough to beat, they kind of wrote the book on that), but usability alone and compared to the 55L Black Hole - I think this one wins out.
It’s a bit big - so be prepared to maybe get stopped on some budget carriers. But, on real carriers I had no issues even though it’s pushing and maybe passing limits.
The build and materials are great, the color choices are phenomenal, and it’s got the Cotopaxi brand mission behind it.
Offer up a 40L as well and replace those buckle snaps - and there won’t be a lot to argue about with this one. I think you should definitely give this a really hard look if you’re in the market for a travel duffel - it might surprise you if you’d had your eyes set on a certain other brand. Thanks for reading.
As always with the indie brands, I’d suggest buying directly through their website for best service.
Wander more - and wander smarter everyone.
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