Gravel Domestic Duffel Review
A well priced, lightweight cavern to put your gear in. Does it live up to the promise from the young brand?
Gravel Domestic Duffel Review Introduction
Gravel is back with their next travel bag product. The first one, was a traditional travel backpack with some additional features that might have been a bit over designed - but it also was in a different stratosphere from a price perspective. Doesn’t make it a bad bag, just limits the appeal to many non-niche-loving travelers.
Enter the Domestic Duffel - a bag that’s designed simply so as to not over complicate things, not be over priced, but still using proper quality. It comes with the promise of multiple carries and being good for many types of travel. Let’s see if it succeeds.
This is my review of the Gravel Domestic Duffel. I tested this out on two different trips (one flight) as well as a car trip…well…domestically. These are my findings.
As always for full transparency, I did reach out to Gravel to see if they had a unit for review and they were nice enough to send one my way. That said, I had no interaction with Gravel for the review itself, and this is not sponsored. 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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Gravel Domestic Duffel Overview
So what we’re looking at here is a bag that was simply designed to carry your stuff sufficiently. It’s meant to be durable without being heavy, and it’s also meant to not put you in debt to buy it.
It’s a convertible 40L duffel that plays in both worlds, but went in a little different direction than the other brands. Instead of a duffel that you can wear like a backpack, this duffel packs like a duffel, but it's shaped more like a backpack than the other brands. More of a clamshell opening vs traditional duffel “flap” or “middle zipper” style. Worth noting.
With that in mind, you can carry on your back, on your shoulder, or with the straps and just your bare hands. I honestly don’t recommend the shoulder carry method on bags this size, however.
That said, the easy open and non real organization to speak of is classic duffel. But, it’s a perfect scenario to get organized with your packing cubes (something I support around here).
Stats from the site:
Liters 40L
Weight 1.1lbs
Outer Shell Gravel's Signature QuarryPoly (scratch & water resistant)
Duffel Zippers #8 YKK
Fabric Weight Denier 300D
This carry-all comes in one color - black.
It retails for $129 USD as of August 2023.
Gravel Domestic Duffel Features
Gravel worked really hard to trim this bag down while keeping the quality where they wanted it. And for partly that reason, we won’t have a ton of features to go over today.
We mentioned above it’s a kind of vertical-clamshell style opening. Closer to a clamshell than a traditional duffel opening at least.
It’s got a single flat-ish, vertically opening pocket on the front. There are small side pockets on each side (one meant for a water bottle and one with small sleeves inside for quick storage). Keep in mind there is NOT a dedicated laptop sleeve on here because it’s a duffel. So, I’d recommend using your preferred sleeve (more so luxury items but I like the Matador Laptop Base Layer and the Bellroys).
We’ve got a clip to help cinch down the top a little, as well as various lash points if you want to attach different cords or accessories of your own choosing (on the inside as well, for attaching compression chords).
There are beefy (but unobtrusive) grab handles on all sides. We like to see that.
I got the straps with mine, and those are used with g-hooks to attach to some lashpoints et voila - you’ve got backpack straps. If you’re going house to car, camp to car, or whatever - I’d say you don’t even need those and the handles are perfect for that. But because they are removable, you can put them in your pack or leave at home when they aren’t needed. I want to mention that the same straps can be changed into a duffel strap. It’s an interesting take and it does work - but I never used it that way just because a bag like this I think is just more reasonable to carry on your back or with the handles. That’s not a knock on this bag in particular, kind of a critique of many over 40 duffels.
The back is not a hard structured bag - distribution of weight inside of it will distort the shape a bit - but it IS a bit of a soft structure. It holds its shape for the most part when unpacked and will stand on it’s own if balanced right.
There is a Velcro patch for you to add one of theirs, or one of yours. (Plug alert! Just made the first prototype of mine!)
The Good
There’s no point in not starting with this, we don’t want to bury the lead here. The price to quality ratio is really, really nice. I think this is a well made, and well thought out bag with a fantastic price point. Let’s be honest - the indie bag scene is getting a LITTLE crazy on price points. I know there are a bunch of us bag nerds out there and we’re fine with that, but the much, much larger part of the population out there that needs a bag? They kind of need a bag like this. Their fabric is also great. So, kudos to Gravel for accomplishing that.
Fabric Macro.
I think Gravel settled on a good size here, too. For me, I can fit my dress shoes and my camera in here, while still being able to pack my clothes with no issues on what I might need. Those two items are often the difference between me carrying a 30-35L bag. But, sometimes 45L can be too big for my personal liking (like at times the Tortugas or even Matador’s GlobeRider can be pretty big). Settling on 40L I think helps solve that problem for most.
The handles on four sides - that’s a win for me. That means you don’t need to worry which way you store it. It’s always easy to grab and pull out of the spot it’s in. Trunk, back seat, overhead bing, doesn’t matter.
I was NICELY surprised with the backpack straps. With fully detachable straps you often never expect much, and that’s OK. Part of the deal. But I found the straps on the Domestic duffel to be SURPRISINGLY comfortable. More so than the straps on my Patagonia Black Hole duffel. Now, it could be that they just worked perfectly on my frame. I can’t pinpoint it. All I know is when I carried stuff around (this includes a 10 minute walk to the subway in NYC and on the subway itself, as well as in the airport) it was just really comfortable, if big.
The opening. This makes it super easy to pack and organize, or remove, items in your pack. Just a gaping opening on this bag.
Lastly and while small, it’s thoughtful. The zipper garage on the main front zipper looks to be reflective.
The Bad
The lack of a huge amount of features and the nailing a few that are there means there won’t be a lot to criticize on the Domestic Duffel. Don’t worry though, I’ll put a couple out there.
For one, lack of aquaguard zippers might put some people off of this bag. Especially since there’s no dedicated laptop sleeve. If you’re going to be in places with bad weather, you’ll want to consider this. Zippers are often the fail point in any water resistance.
Another thing that might make this bag not for you is that there isn’t much organization. Some people are pocket fiends and they want a spot to put every, little, thing. Which is totally OK, that’s why options are great. But this bag won’t be that.
There is a surprising amount of people out there that are obsessed with how a bag looks when it’s on your person. This can droop a little and it’s not hard sided so it changes shape based on the weight and what you have in it….a little. See my pics. This isn’t something I really evaluate in a bag but I’m mentioning it because I know some readers do.
Lastly, I just don’t think this bag is the best in shoulder carry mode, it’s just an awkward shape because the bag itself leans more towards backpack shape. So, I’d just recommend not bothering with this unless you really are a die hard shoulder strapper.
The Improvement Requests for the Gravel Domestic Duffel
For me, the obvious adjustment I would make would be to use aquaguard zippers. Realizing this might add price to the bag, I think it still keeps it in a pretty fair and low price point considering the quality.
I think they can probably eliminate the dual-function of the strap, but then again there are probably people that hate to carry this like a backpack and only would use the duffel handle. MY opinion isn’t the only correct one, haha. But, just putting it out there as it would prob simplify the experience.
I’d also like to see a pass through on the bag for roller luggage. Not really for me, but for when my onebag turns into two because I’m helping my partner with their roller!
Packing The Domestic Duffel
Packing this bag is going to very much be a personal canvas. Paint what you want. Because it’s a duffel style, it’s just really a hole that you put your stuff in. But, that’s the entire point.
So, I’d recommend using your favorite packing cubes (Here are some of mine in our packing cube comparison article) and organizing how you love to organize. In this picture I actually packed this for me AND my wife as we were just heading home to my parents for a 2 nighter in the dead of summer. So, not a need for a lot of clothes and layers. You can see my packing cubes, tech pouch, and the Bellroy Laptop Caddy that I’m currently testing. I also had some boxed items inside and some snacks for the family. Lastly, I had my toiletry kit in there. (in this case, the Gravel Explorer Mini that I’m also testing)
Really easy and flexible. Because the sides are steep, this bag is more forgiving when you have thicker cubes.
Under Seat With The Domestic Duffel
Most times with my travel bags, I put them in the overhead and pull out my tech pouch. Since my flights were so short (NYC to DC) I decided to see if the Domestic Duffel would fit under the seat. I was on an American Airlines regional jet with 2x2 Biz Class and 3x3 Economy. For me, it was totally fine. Protrudes a little bit. I’m short however. I think on a longer flight, and especially if you’re tall, you might want to put it over head. But, if you’re extremely stubborn about that or really don’t mind cramped foot space, you can get by in a pinch on some airlines, depending on the under-seat structure. If there’s a computer box under there, might not work. First image is from domestic business class, second is from economy. The third picture is how I packed it out for this air-powered trip. I had a Bellroy Laptop Caddy under the cubes and I used two Patagonia Black Hole packing cubes. Also had my Matador Refraction backpack (Review), a Gravel Explorer Mini toiletry kit, and a Bellroy Venture pouch (Review) in the front.
Final Thoughts On My Gravel Domestic Duffel Review
When reviewing a bag I always do my best to consider WHO the bag is for - even if I don’t explicitly make that designation in writing. For this bag though, I think it’s important for me to say who I think this audience is. And frankly, I think that audience is most (non-bag nerd) people.
Too often many of us in the space get caught up in fancy new, high priced bags. And that’s OK - we love this stuff and are passionate about it and so are our readers. So that makes sense. But what I don’t want to lose sight of here is that not everyone needs a travel bag that is $300.00 USD (or more, gulp). That said, I don’t like recommending cheap or poorly built items either. If you need to buy a new one every few years, what’s the point? Pointing to a random budget bag on Amazon is also not the answer. For a lot of reasons, some people’s personal ethics being one.
With all that said I really think Gravel did a great job here of creating a bag that’s easy to pack, easy to grab and chuck into a car, and easy to add some surprisingly comfortable backpack straps for when you’re walking through the airport or to your trains.
The Domestic Duffel seems to accomplish what it set out to do: be an open canvas to allow you to pack how you want (cubes, sans cubes, whatever), be easy to carry in a few different ways, be well made with quality materials you aren’t going to worry about too much, and frankly not put you into debt. Check all the above.
I enjoyed my time with the bag, and I appreciated the “has what you need”-ness of the Domestic Duffel. This really is kind of an “everyman’s (person’s) bag”. And THAT is certainly something we could use more of in the travel bag space. If you’re looking for a bag that’s well made with solid materials, is easy to pack/should fit all your stuff, and you don’t have to think too much about it (including on the price!!) - put this on your short list and check it out.
For best purchasing experience and customer service, I’d recommend buying directly from independent brands.
Wander more - and wander smarter everyone.
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