Grabbed the black version from the Kickstarter and after a couple months of use I've come to the conclusion this is a great bag but could be amazing with a few tweaks. I love the simple clean look and the high quality materials.
The interior materials are great and I love the brown color they chose. So many companies just go with gray nylon type material and it can really kill the feel of a bag. The pockets and organization are perfect and it's exactly the setup I look for; just enough to cover EDC items like wallets, earbuds, a powerbank, keys, glasses, and of course a small camera.
The exterior does look really nice but I will say the material feels a little rough. Nothing major as I have confidence the bag can withstand some light weather (especially with the zipper guards) but the exterior having the same smooth feel as the interior would have made it a 10/10. The strap feels really nice and high quality and I love the brown leather badge on it. A magnetic clasp instead of a push in buckle would be nice to have but again not a big deal. The bottom straps are nice but I do wish they were clip buckle like the main strap. On a recent trip I had a rain poncho with me that I had to roll down into a really tight tube in order to get it through the loops. Having buckles would have made getting that poncho in way easier.
Final two things which really hurt this bag for me; to start I wish the interior was just ever so slightly wider to accommodate an iPad mini. It's literally off by centimeters to fit it comfortably. You CAN squeeze it in the back interior pocket, but it's a tight squeeze where you have to insert the iPad then pull the sides of the bag around it to close the zipper. Second, if I want to use this bag as an EDC bag, I like to have that sitting on my chest, but with the straps sewn in at the sides of the bag, it means that wearing in chest mode will cause the bag to float off of you and the strap will bend at a weird angle, making it slightly uncomfortable. Because of that I think the bag works better on your back or in fanny mode. Adding in some swivel hardware or even moving the straps to the top corners would have went a long way to making this more chest wear friendly. They have a swivel for their bigger camera bag, and I think that would have been perfect for this. Many companies have tried to figure out a way to make a bag work for both fanny and crossbody, but I don't think anyone has truly nailed it. Usually a bag performs better in one mode or the other, and this one goes more towards fanny.
So overall, I really do like the bag a lot. I think they got a lot of things right but here's the TDLR of tweaks I think would make this perfect
- Make the bottom straps clip on
- Make the bag JUST slightly bigger to accommodate an iPad mini comfortably
- Give the straps a swivel or change the sewn in location so the bag can sit on the chest at a better angle