Originally Posted by
diewhenever
I went to REI and checked it out, as well as a few of the Osprey bags that everyone has been talking about. The Ortlieb is pretty cool--my problem with it is that it's basically just one massive pocket, and I also feel like I'm paying for heavy-duty rainproofing when that's not really that important to me.
With the Ospreys, they're undoubtedly sweet backpacks, but I found that they are a little TOO compartmentalized for my needs. I do need a huge pocket that I could carry boxing gloves, shoes, and a change of clothes in, and then ideally I would have 2 or 3 smaller pockets for phone, wallet, headphones, a book, etc. Even when the volume on the Osprey is ostensibly pretty big, I feel like I'd have trouble fitting my big items into the main compartment because the total volume is split up into so many different pockets.
Wish I could just design a bag myself. lol
That was also my problem with Osprey. Big backpacks, with lots of compartments, but very little room for big stuff. The Escapist and Talon series were the best of the Ospreys that I tried.
Ultimately, I went with an Ortlieb Packman Pro2. It's a giant cavern, but I use soft sided lunch boxes for organizational storage. The lunch boxes stack and organize quite well.
