Cotopaxi Batac 16L Review
I’m going to switch gears a bit for this post and talk about something I take with me when I travel. Hopefully it’ll help someone somewhere decide what to bring or not bring in order to make their trip better. And I’ll do it a couple more time in the future for some other stuff as well. This time I’ve chosen to start simple and talk about my day backpack, the Batac 16L from Cotopaxi.
The water bottle pouch is a necessity. And it doubles as an umbrella holder.
This is not the bag I use to travel to new places; it’s much too small. It’s the bag I use after I’ve gotten where I’m going to get me through my day and I’ve found it does a pretty good job. I like bags. I’ve got some small messenger bags I carry around the city and another on the way. A bigger messenger bag for work. A backpack I’m fond of if I need to carry more stuff somewhere or maybe for a nearby weekend trip. I find myself browsing bags on Kickstarter all the time and keep looking at bags I could use as a carry on. So last year when I realized I needed a better daypack for traveling I eagerly jumped in. For years I had brought a string bag with me when I traveled but the string bags never really cut it. At the beginning of that year I had picked up a small 10L bag at the local sports store and it was okay, but missing some things I wanted. And it was a little small. So I was in the market for something new when my mom picked up a couple of Cotopaxi bags. I checked them out and was pretty impressed so I decided to grab a Batac 16L while I was home.
So far it’s done the trick. At 16L the bag is enough bigger than the 10L bag I was using to make a difference without being too large. It also solved the second biggest problem I’d had with that bag; this one had a water bottle pouch. This may not seem like a big deal but when you’ve only got 10 liters and you need to to use some of it for a water bottle, you’ve actually got a good bit less space. Having a water bottle pocket outside gives me the full 16 liters of the bag. Plus it’s got some more useful bits.
The main compartment has a zipper that goes all the way around (as opposed to a top loading bag or one that zips around the side like a suitcase) which lets you open it wide to get to things that aren’t right at the top. Inside the main compartment there’s a small mesh zippered pocket at the top for storing smaller things and a sleeve where you can put a book or magazine or just separate some bigger stuff. The Cotopaxi website says the sleeve is actually for a water pouch, like a Camelbak which…honestly hadn’t even occurred to me. There’s also a smaller front pocket with a vertical zipper that runs most of the height of the bag. This pocket can hold smaller things or things you want to grab easily and is still quite spacious. There’s one small mesh holder inside for further separation as well. In addition on the outside are the water bottle holders I mentioned earlier. There’s also the necessary top handle and adjustable shoulder straps with a chest strap between them.
Here you can see my power bank in the sideways mesh pocket
The size is great for a day. In the large pocket I carried my action camera bag, my gimbal with the action cam, my notebook, and an umbrella if I thought it might rain. I also sometimes put my hat in there or my jacket if I thought it might get chilly. In the smaller pocket I had my small stuff like change, my power bank, and tissues. I took it hiking as well and it had no trouble holding my water, some snacks, a light jacket, and an extra pair of shoes. It struggled with a big towel when I had many other things in it and would probably have the same problem with a larger coat or sweatshirt.
The bag is light and flexible which makes packing it a breeze. It’s easily rolled and folded to store in your main travel bag until you get where you’re going, then pops out to take you around town. This is a great space saver if you don’t like checking luggage.
Although I enjoyed using the bag on my trips this year it’s not without it’s problems. While I don’t expect much separation in the large compartment I wouldn’t mind a little more in the smaller one. A couple more mesh pockets, maybe some with zippers, wouldn’t hurt. Furthermore the one mesh pocket the bag does have is pretty small and open on the side, not the top. I assume this was done so if you sling the bag around to your front on one shoulder it’s easy to unzip (vertical zipper) and grab whatever is in the pocket. In practice I found that whatever was in the pocket was in danger of falling out. I kept my power bank in it and never really felt that it would definitely stay in. I also didn’t keep the cable to charge my phone in the pocket with the power bank because the side opening was too awkward.
The other weakness of the bag is also one of it’s strengths, how it’s constructed. Since it’s so light and flexible it’s easy to pack in your larger travel bag or suitcase, but that also means it sometimes gets kind of uncomfortable. I find that a bag with more structure is more forgiving of oddly packed loads. The Batac 16L isn’t always comfortable to carry if the things inside have shifted and made uncomfortable lumps. More than once I had to stop to rearrange the bag to make it more comfortable. A bag with more…well bag between your back and your stuff wouldn’t have as much of a problem. But it also wouldn’t be so easy to bring.
One last thing to note is that the Batac 16L is part of Cotopaxi’s Del Día collection. This collection consists of bags made by their employees in the Philippines using leftover bits of fabric (think the end of the roll when there isn’t enough left for a full bag). This creates a lot of vibrant, and sometimes strange, color combinations since the employees can mix and match the colors however they want. Sometimes you don’t have any idea what you’ll get. You order a bag and hope for the best. Some of the bags in the Del Día collection allow you to choose one of the color combinations they have at the time or opt for a random one. The bag is a safe bet if you can choose your color but if you order one that doesn’t allow you to choose it can be risky. Sometimes you just don’t like the colors you get*
Overall I was quite pleased with how the bag turned out. It may not be perfect but it certainly got the job done and solved the problems that I had with the bags I used before.
Thanks for reading and I'll see you on my next trip. Don't forget to click the links below and follow to stay up to date on what I'm doing and where I am and to see all the pictures and videos from my trips.