Topo Designs Global Travel Bag 30L Review
They take their well known 40L and downsize for shorter trips, and more experienced Onebaggers. Will the bill still fit? That was brutal - lets get into the content.
Topo Designs Global Travel Bag 30L Review Introduction
Topo Designs is retro. Retro design language, retro shapes, and retro color combinations in big blocky patterns. In short, they are much loved in the travel community for their quality and aesthetics. They make EDC bags, travel bags, slings, pouches, and have even branched out into clothing. Today, we’re focused on their travel bags - the smaller of the two.
This is my Topo Designs Global Travel Bag 30L review.
The little sibling of the bigger 40L bag, it’s got all the same design with less liters. Does the smaller size work? We’ll find out.
As always for full transparency, I purchased this bag with my own money and had no interaction with Topo before writing. I do use affiliate links which help to support the site if you decide to use them to make a purchase. You’re of course under no obligation to do so and there’s no additional cost to you. Thanks for stopping by!
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Global Travel Bag 30L Overview
The Global Travel Bag 30L is designed as a onebag and carry-on-compliant travel backpack. It’s made of recycled materials and has three different ways to carry if you so choose (backpack, shoulder strap, and grab handles). I’ll be looking at it strictly as a backpack today as those other methods really aren’t for me personally.
At 30L, this is going to be targeting those more experienced Onebaggers, as well as people that like to pack “comfortably” for long weekends and such.
The materials are beefy, without seemingly adding much weight (to my non-scientific feel-test). It utilizes a huge combination across the bag with the beefier materials being used in high abrasion areas - 1000D recycled nylon, 400D recycled nylon, 210D recycled nylon, 1680D recycled ballistic nylon.
Zippers are YKK as you’d expect at this price point, and they are mostly the big fellas. I like this - makes them super easy to slide open and closed.
Priced at $189.00 USD it’s right in line with competitors in the space. Kind of a right-sized price for this range.
Coming in 5 colorways at the time of this writing (April 2022) you should find the right combo to express yourself. The Olive green I have is fantastic, and there’s even an orange that I secretly wanted but wasn’t sure if I could pull off. Dealer’s choice here, but you have great options.
Global Travel Bag 30L Features
There are some solid features on this bag. Nothing revolutionary and they aren’t really bringing anything new to the table (In fact, their retro design actually prevents much pushing of the envelopes so to speak). But that doesn’t mean it’s LACKING in anything either. Let’s cover off on them.
As we mentioned, there are three ways to carry this bag. You can use it in backpack mode, briefcase style carry, or with the included shoulder strap. The backpack straps stow away nicely when not using them or when boarding the plane, which is great to see.
In terms of pockets, there’s a front slash-style pocket for smaller items. It has a little bit of volume but mostly this is going to be best for your quick grab stuff. This has a key clip too, which is great. From there, we have another pocket that is more of your “admin” style pocket with some slip pockets inside, a zippered pocket perfect for a tablet/Kindle, and it goes the full length of the bag. Another thing to note about this pocket is that it’s got decent volume - it extends about 2 inches which means you can definitely put packing cubes in here (or headphones cases, tech cases, etc.).
Then, you have a vertical clam-shell opening for the main compartment. This is where you’d put the brunt of your stuff, and there are also two mesh organizers on the inside of the flap. Those are good for smaller items and separation, or you can use them as built-in packing cubes for small clothing like underwear and socks and such.
Lots of other small things - latch points all over the place, nice big zipper pulls, two small water bottle pockets, grab handles on three sides, and the interiors are all bright yellow on my olive green version for better visibility. This bag also has a laptop compartment as well, though it’s pretty close to the bottom of the bag so keep that in mind. Lastly, there’s a luggage pass-through which is great to see.
The Good
Great design! If you want to feel and look like one of the characters in Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom trekking across the outdoors, this is your bag line. Jokes aside they use a retro, old-school trekking aesthetic with obviously updated modern materials. I’d not describe this bag as sleek because it’s a true rectangle, but it’s a lovable look. I think the red details on some of these bags add a great bit of pop, without being obnoxious. I really like the logo in general, and how it contrasts the rest of the darker, muted colors. Looks wicked good.
There’s not a single complaint on materials here. They’re recycled, bomb proof, and well sewn together. I love the choice of big number 10 YKK as it makes the usage of the zippers really nice and effortless. I really like the grab handles they’ve put on. Nice and hefty without being overbearing and getting in the way of everything.
The structure of the bag will work for a lot of people, too. Since they put most of the volume into the rectangleness of it, that means it stays relatively flat against your back when packed, even if it does still take up a lot of horizontal surface area. Though - don’t get too comfortable here, I’ve got a bad thing to note about this later on.
As I’ve harped in other reviews, I love a brightly colored interior on a bag. For one I think it just adds to the design (Aer’s X Pac bags with that orange? Yeaahhhh), but it does in fact serve a purpose. It’s easier to see things at times as they stand out more rather than a gray or black interior. I know that sounds like made up marketing fluff, but it’s actually true. It might not be the hugest problem in the world, but it makes the scenario better.
Lastly, I like that the front pocket has volume and is not just a flat admin pocket. This means that you CAN use it for your admin pocket, but if you choose not to pack that way, you can easily fit your tech pouch in here. Perhaps a headphones case. Or more packing cubes to maximize the space.
The Bad
I do have a few things to complain about on this bag. That said though, like anything it’s subjective and these might not be complaints for you personally, so do with these what you will in your evaluations.
The first being the orientation of the front slash pocket. This isn’t just a Topo thing, I’ve seen it on a few bags. But the vertical alignment of the zipper just doesn’t do it for me. I know it’s about being able to access it without taking the bag off (swinging it around to the front), but I have two issues with this idea. For one, and this is a me problem, I’m lefty dominant so if I WERE to swing the bag around, that puts this pocket on the bottom. Next, I would just prefer to take the bag off and access this pocket from the top. By putting it as a regular top-down orientation, you don’t risk eliminating the usage for this group of people. Something to think about.
For me, I did kind of have some packability issues on this one. And this isn’t going to be an issue for everyone. But because of how they use the shape here, even though the volume number is right-on for many Onebaggers, that volume is “spread out”. Stay with me here.
What I mean by that is that most of the volume is spread out on the X and Y access, but not on the depth side of things. So with a lot of packing cubes, you’re probably fine in this case, especially since that front pocket has its own volume. But where it becomes a problem is for those of us that also travel with camera gear. The main compartment really isn’t deep enough to carry a camera cube with you. In fact, I had to give my cube (and it’s a small one) to my wife to put in her roller. For those of you that don’t need to carry a camera cube or equipment cube or anything, then you have nothing to worry about. This bag is still great for you. But the issue of depth definitely is a knock against the bag in terms of versatility across the board.
While that’s just one use case, I do think it’s a viable criticism as travelers with cameras are not exactly a small segment.
No water resistant zippers! Come on Topo, this is kind of a miss. Going to rule out a lot of people that would otherwise look at this bag.
The Improvement Requests for the Global Travel Bag 30L
While the depth set up is a problem for the use case I mentioned, I’m not going to list it as an improvement request. I think it would be unreasonable to expect them to completely redesign this bag. This point either works for you, or it doesn’t.
That said, what I would say is to change the orientation of the front slash pocket. I don’t think you lose any functionality on the pocket itself by doing that, and you’d actually make the Lefties happy by doing this. Somewhere, Ned Flanders is smiling in his store.
This is a small thing - but maybe find a way to make a longer zipper for the laptop compartment. You have to angle your laptop to get it in there, and mine is a smaller Macbook. So for a bigger one, this might annoy you after a while. Not a huge issue, but if I’m getting anything I want, I’d ask for this at the end.
At least add water resistant zippers to the laptop pocket but preferably, that and the front slash. I get that they can’t in the other places as the big #10 zips are part of the aesthetic.
Packing the Global Travel Bag 30L
The bag should be easy enough for those with packing cubes to take advantage of the smaller space for longer weekends and this 30L is also kind of a sweet spot for really experienced (but not hyper-liter focused) Onbaggers. Here’s how I packed it out for a long weekend trip.
I packed: 2 travel button downs (Limitless Merino Review and Bluffworks Meridian 2.0); 1 travel focused pants (Western Rise Evolutions); 3 daily t-shirts (one Aviator Merino, review ); 5 pairs of various travel friendly underwear; 2 pairs merino based socks (Western Rise StrongCore and Darn Tough); 2 Airism undershirts; one sleep t-shirt (Session T); Bellroy Tech Pouch Compact; NOMATIC Toiletry Bag 2.0 (Not pictured; Review); Laptop; pair of brogues for dinners out. Fairly standard packout for me in terms of a short trip and a smaller bag. The shirts, pants, underwear, and socks I brought all were travel focused to allow for more wears and less items if I needed. As you can see, there was no issue with this packing list on this bag.
I'm 5'6 for reference. Though remember, I did not get my camera cube in here.
Final Thoughts On My Topo Designs Global Travel Bag 30L Review
What’s the verdict on this bag? Simply put, overall it’s a great one. It’s got a very nice, throwback design language to it and it’s made of highly durable and quality materials. They’ve thought of a lot of nice touches in how they use the logo, the bits of color pop, etc. When you want to stand out a bit from the crowd, but aren’t ready to scream it from the rooftops with Cotopaxi, this could be your huckleberry. There’s plenty of variety for you in that sense.
While this isn’t going to be the best choice for someone that has a gear or camera cube and needs more depth (You’ll need to try the 40L instead), I think for virtually anyone else it’s a great choice to use as your onebag. For those looking for less turtle-shelling outward from your back, that lack of depth here really accomplishes this and depending on your build can provide an illusion of less bulk. Both pockets are absolutely usable when it comes to packing cubes and clothes. For a trip that doesn’t require a camera and lenses, I would 100% grab this bag to use. Car or plane or train, doesn’t matter.
The 30L size is a very good compromise for experienced onebaggers on any length trip or the less experienced packers for a long weekend. If you’re in the market for a bag of this size and don’t want the urban-black aesthetic, be sure to evaluate this bag. It’s a fair price as well.
They sell directly from their website and have good, speedy shipping:
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