The leaves are falling, and so are our grade point averages… It must be Autumn. Your new terms might not have gotten off to the start you were looking for, but it’s all about how you finish things, right? Once, while rejecting my invitation to prom, a young woman told me that everything works out in the end, so if it’s not all right, it’s not the end.
So keep your chin up, and listen to Sally: If everything feels all right, watch out, because the reaper might be just around the corner. Suffering is a part of university just as much as drunken hook-ups and ramen noodles. The right backpack won’t magically transform the world into your oyster, but it will carry your homework for you. Hopefully, that’s just the start of it.
Just like being a student at University, the last thing a school backpack has to worry about is getting to class on time. While it is certainly a factor, there is much more happening on campus to consider when choosing your backpack than how many textbooks it can fit.
Your bag will carry your schoolwork, and it might come with you to a festival, miss the bus, help a friend fit a day’s worth of beers, keep your secrets, head out on a hike, get caught in the rain, fill up with food from an all-you-can-eat special, and help you grow. Who knows what’s going to happen out there.
Here’s what we do know: the more your backpack can do, the more times you’ll say yes. The better you feel with your bag on your back, the more doors you’ll walk through with your head held high.
A great backpack can take some weight off your shoulders and give you the extra boost you need to make the most out of your time at university, whatever that means for you. Whether you’re looking to start this term fresh or your taped-up Jansport finally snapped on the way to class last week, let’s get you a fresh perspective and a fresh university backpack.
Stubble & Co – The Backpack
- Capacity (L) > 21
- Price (£) > 130
Osprey – Daylite Plus
- Capacity (L) > 20
- Price (£) > 60
Kodiak Leather – Kobuk
- Capacity (L) > 40
- Price (£) > 164
Osprey – Archeon 25
- Capacity (L) > 25
- Price (£) > 150
Tortuga – Laptop Backpack
- Capacity (L) > 24
- Price (£) > 205
Mahi – The Classic Backpack 3.0 (Vegan)
- Capacity (L) > 23
- Price (£) > 107
AER – Fit Pack 3
- Capacity (L) > 18.7
- Price (£) > 122
Fjällräven – Kanken
- Capacity (L) > 14
- Price (£) > 82
Nomatic – Navigator Sling 6L
- Capacity (L) > 6
- Price (£) > 106
Osprey – AETHER 65
- Capacity (L) > 65
- Price (£) > 250
Peak Design – Travel Backpack 45L
- Capacity (L) > 45
- Price (£) > 247
Tropicfeel – Shell Backpack
- Capacity (L) > 20-42
- Price (£) > 172
AER – Travel Pack 3
- Capacity (L) > 35
- Price (£) > 205
Solgaard – Lifepack Backpack
- Capacity (L) > 18
- Price (£) > 202
Able Carry – Daily Backpack
- Capacity (L) > 14
- Price (£) > 82
We Found The Best Backpacks For Uni
Before we start rummaging around the depths of individual backpacks, let’s establish the criteria for what makes a backpack truly student-worthy, whether you’re heading to college or the school of hard knocks.
You might be studying physics, but a solid backpack doesn’t have to be rocket science. Several uni specialists have extra tricks up their sleeves, but all the fancy features don’t mean a thing without a quality build holding them up. The best backpacks are built using quality materials, preferably sustainably sourced.
Once you’ve got a basic ballistic nylon shell on your hands and you slap a quality, durable water water-repellant coating on there, the real fun begins. Student backpacks for university can take on timeless forms with added laptop compartments, or they can be as creatively made as an interdisciplinary studies design your own program.
Every backpack on our list – with the exception of our favorite sling pack – will carry plenty of textbooks to and from class. Beyond that, they each help out in their own ways, adding on solar chargers, shoe compartments, classic looks, roll-top closures, leather tassels, vegan cork, and more.
Because no backpack can do it all, we’ve broken down this round-up into two sections: day-to-day and travel. The first section is your daily drivers, specializing in lightweight functions and ready for class.
The second half, our travel to & from section, seeks to fit as much gear as possible into a bag that you can still manage to haul around without undue struggle, as long as you leave your rock collection at home.
Day To Day Uni Backpacks
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Stubble & Co – The Backpack
- Dimensions (in) – 12 x 18 x 5
- Weight (Lbs) – 2.6
- Capacity (L) – 21
- Price (£) – 130
It’s called The Backpack because that’s what it is. Our favorite day-to-day bag for school personifies (bagifies?) What it takes to get through the school day. A lot of bags we’ll cover today are great for many things; cross-country travel, backcountry hiking, bike riding, etc., which make them, somewhat accidentally, a great school backpack. But not The Backpack.
This lush option from Stubble & Co. Is a gym class hero wrapped up in TekWax canvas that will keep your shine on from freshman year through a super senior victory lap. Inside the unique protection and cushioned back panel is a cozy spot for laptops and a roomy main compartment that holds a square shape to sneak in a few extra liters of availability.
Finishing off the job is one exterior zippered pocket and a water bottle holder that helps this bag take care of day trips as well as full classloads. The crisp black color is more than meets the eye, also bringing quality water resistance to get you through the surprise showers that will occasionally dampen your year.
- The confident yet not too flashy look means business
- G-hook and drawstring provide great closure
- Takes care of the details with full-grain leather and plush cotton lining inside
- Square shape can feel like you’re walking around with a jetpack on
- Some students might want a few more compartmentalizing options
- 21 liters might not be enough for everyone
Osprey – Daylite Plus
- Dimensions (in) – 19 x 11 x 9.5
- Weight (Lbs) – 1.29
- Capacity (L) – 20
- Price (£) – 60
Some students might wear many hats throughout their time at school. You could be a club president, a lunch lady, a footballer, a workaholic, an alcoholic, a study buddy, and a teacher’s pet all in the same afternoon. So, meet the bag that’s uniquely built to fit in anywhere it goes.
The Daylite Plus is Osprey’s most middle-class, one-size-fits-all option, squeezing together some of Osprey’s signature technical prowess with good old-fashioned value to help you bend and flex your way through a variable day.
It’s nothing fancy, just lightweight materials, sturdy straps, and sneaky pockets. But the bag all comes together quite well, especially considering the relatively low price. I brought a Daylite bag into the mix to use a bag for gym class, but it ended up coming in handy in more ways than I could have possibly imagined.
- Incredibly cheap, especially considering it is covered for life
- Comes with a beaver pocket that helps open up storage potential
- Uses a whole lot of recycled materials in production
- A relatively barebones backpack that might not feel super comfortable with a semester’s worth of textbooks
- Included hip strap is more trouble than it’s worth
- Osprey tried to make a bag that fits all occasions, but that means it excels in none
Kodiak Leather – Kobuk
- Dimensions (in) – 21 x 13 x 11
- Weight (Lbs) – 3.5
- Capacity (L) – 40
- Price (£) – 164
Leather bags are timeless, especially with the signature black bear behind the design. The Kobuk from Kodiak Leather is the company’s most modern leather bag, bringing an old-school look with a new-school twist. The bag keeps things classy with Top-grain leather, but it’s not your grandfather’s leather satchel.
Most trendy is the bag’s wide rolltop opening with a solid zipper closure. Not only does this key feature make the bag look and feel like today’s trendy bike messenger backpacks, but it also allows The Kobuk to change in size based on what’s inside. Once you get this bag in your hands and give it a rundown, you’ll see plenty more eye-popping value.
My favorite part about leather is how long it lasts, but in such a technically advanced backpack, leather isn’t the only thing you’ve got to worry about. There are all sorts of buckles, straps, and tassels on this bad-boy, and I’m happy to report that the magnetic closures and solid brass hardware are built to last just as long as the timeless leather exterior.
- The Kobuk can carry more textbooks than any other day-to-day bag on our list
- Diamond patterned reinforcement on the bottom helps durability
- A leather backpack with a tablet, phone, and laptop compartment
- Fully packed, this bag sticks out like a sore thumb
- Leather takes a long time to bend and wear into shape, expect it to feel a bit weird at first
- Don’t bring this backpack to an animal rights club
Osprey – Archeon 25
- Dimensions (in) – 21 x 12 x 9
- Weight (Lbs) – 2.8
- Capacity (L) – 25
- Price (£) – 150
This pack is one of the safest choices in school, alot like signing up for an intro to creativity as an elective. They are both going to take you places you didn’t expect, and neither one is going to make you sweat to get through the semester. In Archeon’s case, that’s largely thanks to the epic suspension system, one of many high-tech features on this eco-friendly backpack.
The panel is solid against your back but malleable in a luggage compartment, helping you get to class without back sweat without the rigid nature of Osprey’s more backcountry options. That, plus a barebones sternum and hip belt system, help the Archeon feel like much more than a typical backpack.
Another huge factor helping the Archeon feel like much more than your average Jansport is the sustainability score. Osprey’s entire Archeon series is some of the company’s most harmless bags yet, proving you can get through the semester without undue harm. It’s one of the top roll top backpacks for good reason!
- Made out of recycled and vegan materials
- Called a hiking backpack, but comes with a padded laptop sleeve
- Huge rolltop central zipper opens up the Archeon like a bodybag
- No pockets in the hip strap
- No easy access external zip pockets
- Relatively low-tech for an Osprey
Tortuga – Laptop Backpack
- Dimensions (in) – 19.1 x 10.8 x 7.1
- Weight (Lbs) – 2
- Capacity (L) – 24
- Price (£) – 205
Just call this sleek backpack the two-laptop solution. While Tortuga says it has one laptop compartment and one tablet stowaway, in addition to a Kindle pocket and phone storage, the secondary section can hold a 13” tablet. If you ask me anything that big is a computer. Thus creates the perfect backpack for those who bring one for work and one for Call of Duty.
Tortuga backpacks are defined by their tough, sailcloth exterior. There’s no better way to protect your laptop, tablet, phone, and burn book than Tortuga’s comfortable and waterproof shell. The laptop backpack gets a huge boost in the waterproofing score thanks to the water-resistant zipper track.
There aren’t many backpacks that will protect a Macbook in a Monsoon better than this one. Stay dry, get to the library, and unfurl your long list of study materials, each of which will have its own spot in this backpack, chock full of tech spots, pen dividers, and nifty mesh pockets.
- One of the few backpacks that says waterproof and really means it
- Tons of sneaky pockets and dividers for variable storage potential
- Zippers are water resistant and lockable
- Most expensive day-to-day backpack on our list
- Only comes in black
- Tortuga says there is a warranty, but it does not provide specifics, and it says it does not cover normal wear and tear
Troubadour – Orbis 1 Pocket
- Dimensions (in) – 12 x 15 x 5
- Weight (Lbs) – N\A
- Capacity (L) – 16
- Price (£) – 295
The Troubadour Orbit 1 Pocket Backpack is part of the Orbis Circular Collection, emphasizing sustainability and innovation in its design. Made entirely from super-durable recycled polyester, this backpack not only stands out for its eco-friendly composition but also for its fully recyclable nature at the end of its life, ensuring zero waste and no contribution to landfill.
It’s been crafted to offer versatile performance and on-the-go organization, featuring a fully opening main section for easy access, a large separate back compartment for work essentials, and a dedicated padded pocket suitable for a 16-inch laptop or tablet. With a total of 11 pockets, including a large mesh pocket for tech accessories, this backpack is designed to keep your belongings well-organized and accessible.
The backpack’s structure is thoughtfully designed with adjustable S-shaped padded shoulder straps for comfort, a breathable 3D mesh back panel for cooling, and a padded vegan leather grab handle for easy carrying. For those who travel, the inclusion of a trolley sleeve to slide over luggage handles adds a convenient feature. It has been recognized for its design and innovative excellence with several awards, including the 2023 Red Dot Design Award, 2023 ISPO Award, and being a winner in the Marie Claire UK Sustainability Awards for Fashion – Progress Towards Circularity.
- Stylish and sleek
- Excellent materials
- Very expensive
- Capacity is a bit limited
- Again, this is very pricey!
Mahi – The Classic Backpack 3.0 (Vegan)
- Dimensions (in) – 17 x 15 x 6
- Weight (Lbs) – N\A
- Capacity (L) – 23
- Price (£) – 107
New and improved can sound like one of the oldest, most nonsensical cliches in the books until you get your hands on an upgrade like this one. Mahi’s Classic 3.0 checks off almost every box left unconquered by previous editions of the backpack to look and feel like a completely different bag, and Mahi somehow still pulled off the upgrade using completely vegan materials – yep vegan backpacks are a thing.
The improvements start outside, where the backpack added on two cork water bottle holders and an extra splash of water resistance to keep your cork looking sharp. The bags inside has also seen some renovations, with a newly padded and larger laptop compartment holding down the fort.
Mahi’s Classic backpack already provided ample storage between a sizable zippered exterior pocket and a roomy main opening, but before, that was all it came with. These improvements elevate this pack and will help elevate your year.
- Completely Vegan cork backpack
- Cork leather bends and flexes over time to provide each backpack with a slightly different look
- As of October 2023, this pack is on sale for almost 30% off
- The cork look won’t fit every outfit
- Lacking any kind of support system
- Buckled shoulder straps can rub after long-distance
AER – Fit Pack 3
- Dimensions (in) – 17 x 12 x 8
- Weight (Lbs) – 2.5
- Capacity (L) – 18.7
- Price (£) – 122
While AER is more focused on intercontinental travel than bus rides and school days, the Fit Pack crosses the gap and serves as a great school backpack for now, and a tremendous everyday carry after you graduate. Thanks to a hefty layer of Cordura Ballistic Nylon wrapping things up, you can trust this bag will last much longer than the sharpie on the bathroom stall.
This plush exterior bends and flexes depending on your load, compacting down to save space or stretching out when you’ve got a full day to pack for. The bag even comes with a separate compartment to keep dirty gym clothes away from your packed lunch. And there are a whole lot more unique features than a place to store your shoes.
A full duffel-style opening helps you keep everything crisp inside the main compartment, and a clutch stowaway zipper up tops stores passports, bus cards, and cell phones for easy access. A hefty set of shoulder straps finish off the backpack and create a rare chameleon just as capable of getting you through the weekends as it is the weekdays.
- Solid back panel with sternum straps
- Laptop sleeve includes extra dividers and pockets for cord storage
- Cotton liner includes an antimicrobial coating
- Dual compartments don’t mean double space
- Zippers feel finicky
- Duffel style opening doesn’t open up so wide
Fjällräven – Kanken
- Dimensions (in) – 14 x 12 x 6
- Weight (Lbs) – .6
- Capacity (L) – 14
- Price (£) – 82
You don’t have to think long and hard about your university backpack. Just get a Fjällräven, and everyone will love it. The red fox is the hottest thing to come out of Sweden since IKEA, and both brands are great choices to outfit your college years. The Kanken is Fjällräven’s most university-ready pack, providing variable wearing styles to fit all occasions.
Kanken’s Tote carrying style is great for grocery shopping, thrifting, picking up orientation paperwork, and slipping in a case of beer. When Monday rolls around, slide your laptop into the included compartment, stack a couple of books in there, and use the shoulder straps to help out with the extra weight.
In addition to the roomy main compartment, the Kanken spreads three more pockets along the exterior to help you iron out your details. While it looks like your typical black hole tote option, this pack brings along a sneaky amount of utility.
- Three separate carrying styles
- Three roomy exterior pockets and a clutch laptop compartment
- Nobody makes more good-looking backpacks than Fjällräven
- The seat pad sounds nice, but is largely useless
- Not all water bottles will fit in the side pockets
- 14 Liters isn’t enough for a long day
Nomatic – Navigator Sling 6L
- Dimensions (in) – 13 x 9 x 4
- Weight (Lbs) – 1.3
- Capacity (L) – 6
- Price (£) – 106
While a fanny pack can’t be your daily driver, no kit is complete without a clutch accessory to take care of the details, and that’s exactly what you’re getting with the Nomatic Navigator Sling. You won’t find a single better usage of space than this slim sling that sneaks tons of surprises into one single shoulder strap.
At six beefy liters of storage split across several compartments, you might be able to get away with only bringing this sling to campus on test days and Fridays. The pack provides a zippered pocket for loose change, a tablet compartment, a water bottle holder, and a stealthy pocket on the backside that no rent-a-cop can hack.
Nomatic doesn’t mess around with any of their backpacks, which are mostly geared around digital nomads and heavy travel. While some of my Nomatic bags stay in the closet until I’m leaving the country, I hardly ever leave home without this sling pack around my shoulder. It sort of works like a wallet I can fit a raincoat into.
- Nice water resistance for a fanny pack
- Comes with an RFID blocking pocket and a secret stash spot
- External slot lets you scan a bus pass without taking out your card
- More expensive than many full-sized backpacks
- All the separate compartments and dividers take away some storage space
- The sling itself is a bit too bulky to wear underneath a sweater
Now, you could spend a fat chunk of $$$ on the WRONG present for someone. Wrong size hiking boots, wrong fit backpack, wrong shape sleeping bag… As any adventurer will tell you, gear is a personal choice.
So give the adventurer in your life the gift of convenience: buy them an REI Co-op gift card! REI is The Broke Backpacker’s retailer of choice for ALL things outdoors, and an REI gift card is the perfect present you can buy from them. And then you won’t have to keep the receipt. 😉
Buy on REI!For Travel To/From Uni
Welcome to part two. Now that we’ve seen some of the schoolyard’s best backpacks, we’re going to take things up a notch with backpacks that help convince you to pack it all up and go out of state for Uni.
Whether you’re headed a few hours down the road or to another continent, you’re already leaving plenty behind when you take off for unknown destinations. You might as well bring all that you can with you to school. These backpacks help you make that happen without having to hire a porter.
Osprey – AETHER 65
- Dimensions (in) – 33 x 15 x 11
- Weight (Lbs) – 5
- Capacity (L) – 65
- Price (£) – 250
If you can get it to your booth without drawing attention, this is the ultimate backpack for sneaking food out of a buffet – just make sure you pack enough Tupperware, or better yet, just plastic wrap the entire inside.
The Aether 65 is one of the best backpacks on the planet, period. Whether you’re heading into the woods for six months, around the world in eighty days, or just studying abroad, you don’t need to overthink your backpack choice. Just go with the Aether and start packing.
At 65 liters, you won’t have to leave anything behind, but as long as you aren’t packing your home gym with you, you’ll still manage to carry it all on your shoulders. Thanks to myriad adjustment options across hip belts, shoulder straps, and torso tuning, this bag fits every body and helps you head to school with the right reinforcements.
- Loaded with external attachment loops for oversized items
- Helps you get to school and helps you get off campus on four day weekends
- Comes with eight separate external pockets
- Much too large to take with you to class
- Front pocket zippers are rumored to snap easily
- If you’re not bringing your ice pick, there are lots of extra straps hanging about
Peak Design – Travel Backpack 45L
- Dimensions (in) – 22 x 13 x 10
- Weight (Lbs) – 4.5
- Capacity (L) – 45
- Price (£) – 247
Peak Design got its start making gear to protect cameras and other expensive electronic equipment. The brand slowly but surely transitioned into a full-on luggage specialist, but they’ve never lost sight of what brought them success in the first place. There’s not a whole lot of safer ways to travel with expensive electronics than with a Peak Design backpack holding things down.
At 45 liters, the Peak Design Travel backpack is their biggest bag yet, capable of packing up an entire studio for a trip to music school, bringing your photoshoot tools with you to school, or just making sure your Xbox makes it to campus in one piece. A recycled nylon canvas shell brings solid waterproofing to the table, and a rugged 900 Denier bottom lining softens the blow of a tough day.
Rest assured that this bag is much more than a toy hauler. Thanks to its internal divider system, this bag is my go-to for one-bag travel. I can bring my laptop with me to the ends of the Earth, as well as enough clean underwear to make it home without my thighs chafing. Billed as the one bag to rule them all, there’s no campus out of reach of this bag.
- Easy access to laptop compartment
- Several handles for variable carrying options
- Not one but two hidden pockets
- Packed full this bag feels like you’re wearing an animal carrier
- The backpack comes with a 20-minute instructional video telling you how to use it
- To get the most out of this backpack, you’ll have to buy some add-ons
Tropicfeel – Shell Backpack
- Dimensions (in) – 20 x 12 x 9
- Weight (Lbs) – 3.3
- Capacity (L) – 20-42
- Price (£) – 172
Around the time you head off to college, people tell you that you can do anything. Most of the time, that’s a slight exaggeration unless you’ve got a Tropicfeel Shell on your back. This backpack is exactly what college students are supposed to cook up: a fresh take on a problem as old as time.
You can practically see the late-night design sessions the Tropicfeel team enjoyed spitballing different ways to make backpacks better. There were likely cheez balls, light beer, and Griz music playing in the background while the team said, wait – what if we put a closet inside a backpack?
The result is tremendous, representing one of the industry’s boldest leap forward in decades. The shell bag is full of magnetic clasps, levers, and attachments that will have the bag literally double in storage capacity for big trips or condense down to a great daypack form.
If you travel to uni with the Tropicfeel Shell backpack and an add-on accessories kit, you can skip the trip to Target to find a wardrobe, you’ve already got one on your back.
- Great opening for easy access to the laptop compartment
- Made from 100% recycled nylon
- Bottom kangaroo pocket is perfect for gear you’d like to keep separate
- Full of the backpack industry’s own version of microtransactions
- Buying a bag means you join “Tropicfeel Nation”
- Fully kitted up the bag feels a bit cumbersome to carry
AER – Travel Pack 3
- Dimensions (in) – 21 x 13 x 9
- Weight (Lbs) – 4
- Capacity (L) – 35
- Price (£) – 205
Bigger, bolder, and badder than the FitPack 3 we looked at earlier, this hefty option from AER squeezes a whole semester’s worth of value into a compact carry-on specialist. The Travel Pack 3 is a great choice for students flying on a budget, as the bag is completely geared around milking every inch of usable space out of your personal item.
The bag’s stated purpose is to skip baggage claim and hit the terminal door, and based on the amount of underwear I’ve been able to shove inside this pack, I’d say mission accomplished. All the hits, like a laptop compartment, secret stowaways, and a triple-decker of divider storage, are squeezed into a slight frame, thanks to a stellar usage of compression straps.
There is nothing more satisfying than skipping the chaos of thousands of jetlagged travelers searching for the right carousel at customs and heading straight into a new city. Whether I was heading out to a semester abroad or flat-out relocating, This AER travel pack has helped me skip the line countless times.
- Solid internal frame helps carry your load
- Full clamshell zipper opening gives you the lay of the land
- Super robust compression system helps you control the size of your backpack
- Slightly heavy for the storage capacity
- Hip belt sold separately
- 35 Liters won’t help you bring much more than two pairs of shoes to school
Solgaard – Lifepack Backpack
- Dimensions (in) – 12 x 19 x 7
- Weight (Lbs) – 4
- Capacity (L) – 18
- Price (£) – 202
Have you ever wished your backpack could play music while it was charging your phone? Well, meet the LIfepack, the undefeated champ for the coolest backpack to whip out in line for four square. The backpack comes with a little window in front, and for an additional fee, you can add on a power bank or a boombox power station, that charges on your back throughout the day.
The solar charging capability of this backpack is its unique selling point, but the bag can store as well as it photosynthesizes, splitting your gear into the work zone and the life zone.
Contrary to popular belief, the laptop compartment is actually in the life zone, alongside ample space for a pair of gym clothes, a peanut butter jelly sandwich, and a raincoat. The work zone is a smaller compartment out front that houses cords, pens, ID cards, and other loose ends.
This unique backpack will charge a cell phone 25% for every hour of direct sunlight, which doesn’t sound that great, but it really comes in handy. Google Maps drains my poor iPhone 8 battery in a hurry, and having a bit of extra juice from the Solgaard Lifepack has saved my ass from navigating bus routes blindfolded more than enough times to justify the purchase.
- Combines anti-slash heavy-duty materials with recycled plastic bottles
- It’s a backpack that can charge your phone
- Best in class security features
- Solar charger sticks out like a sore thumb
- 18 Liters barely qualifies as a daypack
- Life zone compartment’s zipper stops quite early
Able Carry – Daily Backpack
- Dimensions (in) – 14 x 12 x 6
- Weight (Lbs) – 2.1
- Capacity (L) – 14
- Price (£) – 82
In university and in life, showing up is half the battle. Making it to class gets way easier with the right daily driver sitting next to your door, ready to roll, so Able Carry put it on themselves to make the perfect everyday option. This modern backpack is all about streamlining the process to get you from Point A to Point B faster.
There’s nothing unnecessary coming along for the ride with this daily carry. The outside is almost completely devoid of flash or pompous circumstances. There’s only one side-angled external pocket, one super useful secret pocket up top, no water bottle storage, and not even a logo gracing the exterior of this pack. It’s all about what’s on the inside.
Underneath the hood, you’ll find one of the most extensive sets of internal organizers currently available. A spacious laptop compartment backs up against a large mesh zipper pocket, and the two are flanked by deep and long charger slots. It’s a perfect backpack for a hyper organizer, giving you more ways than ever to bring extra pens along for the ride without any leaking ink.
- Heavy for a 21-liter backpack
- Loads of external lash points
- Some models use 1000D Cordura Nylon – stronger than many rugged backcountry packs
- Heavy for a 21 liter backpack
- Be wary, different color options are made out of different materials
- No water bottle holders
| Name | Dimensions (in) | Weight (Lbs) | Capacity (L) | Price (£) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stubble & Co – The Backpack | 12 x 18 x 5 | 2.6 | 21 | 130 |
| Osprey – Daylite Plus | 19 x 11 x 9.5 | 1.29 | 20 | 60 |
| Kodiak Leather – Kobuk | 21 x 13 x 11 | 3.5 | 40 | 164 |
| Osprey – Archeon 25 | 21 x 12 x 9 | 2.8 | 25 | 150 |
| Tortuga – Laptop Backpack | 19.1 x 10.8 x 7.1 | 2 | 24 | 205 |
| Mahi – The Classic Backpack 3.0 (Vegan) | 17 x 15 x 6 | N\A | 23 | 107 |
| AER – Fit Pack 3 | 17 x 12 x 8 | 2.5 | 18.7 | 122 |
| Fjällräven – Kanken | 14 x 12 x 6 | .6 | 14 | 82 |
| Nomatic – Navigator Sling 6L | 13 x 9 x 4 | 1.3 | 6 | 106 |
| Osprey – AETHER 65 | 33 x 15 x 11 | 5 | 65 | 250 |
| Peak Design – Travel Backpack 45L | 22 x 13 x 10 | 4.5 | 45 | 247 |
| Tropicfeel – Shell Backpack | 20 x 12 x 9 | 3.3 | 20-42 | 172 |
| AER – Travel Pack 3 | 21 x 13 x 9 | 4 | 35 | 205 |
| Solgaard – Lifepack Backpack | 12 x 19 x 7 | 4 | 18 | 202 |
| Able Carry – Daily Backpack | 14 x 12 x 6 | 2.1 | 14 | 82 |
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Final Thoughts
While there’s not a backpack on this list that will pass Geology 101 for you, each bag here will make your day a bit easier in their own ways. Me and The Broke Backpacker team have logged serious miles using these backpacks, and they’ve sat underneath our desks while we’ve passed and failed countless tests.
My dog might have eaten my homework a couple of times, but these backpacks never let me down. You should also consider some sort of tag team situation for kitting up for university. While there are some incredibly flexible bags on our list, no one bag can do it all on its own.
I like to keep three bags around me at all times; the largest one can magically transform into a laundry bin while my everyday carry keeps my electronics safe, and a sling pack holds onto my loose change and power bank.
However you decide to pack your bags, don’t think too much about what anyone else is doing and just choose whichever option gives you more freedom.
And for transparency’s sake, please know that some of the links in our content are affiliate links. That means that if you book your accommodation, buy your gear, or sort your insurance through our link, we earn a small commission (at no extra cost to you). That said, we only link to the gear we trust and never recommend services we don’t believe are up to scratch. Again, thank you!
