Wandrd Duo backpack – Dual purpose bag for travel and client work

The best products are always the ones that try to solve a problem. Wandrd is founded by a band of brothers who couldn’t find the “perfect camera bag” for their travels and decided to make one themselves. Wandrd started with wanting to make the best travel camera bag in the world. Now they have expanded beyond the camera bag into a variety of related products. Their simple and bold mission is to create products that inspire people to get out to explore, create and live in the moment. It’s a mission that I can definitely resonate with and feel that come through in their products.

While I wish there was the “perfect” camera bag that would meet all my needs, I know the reality is you may need more than one camera bag to ensure you have the right bag for the right purpose/job. I have been following Wandrd for the last few of years and always had my eye on their PRVKE bag. I know so many people who rave about the PRVKE and they do seem like fantastic bags. There was just something about it that didn’t fit the bill for me. When Wandrd launched the DUO kickstarter campaign last year, that was the bag that caught my eye. I eagerly waited for the bag to go into production, be shipped and be reviewed.

Disclaimer: I was fortunate to try out the Wandrd DUO backpack from our friends over at Radbitz, however this isn’t a sponsored post and all opinions are my own. This is also not intended to be a comprehensive technical review. There are plenty of websites and youtube videos out there that have done that. This is simply my experience of using the bag over a short period of time. All product images taken in this blog post were shot by me.

I was impressed by everything I read and watched. When an opportunity came up for me to test run the bag, I jumped at it. I had a 10 day trip to Malaysia at the end of January and was eager to use it as my travel camera bag in place of my usual Lowepro Photo hatchback camera backpack. It was my one and only carry on bag for my camera gear and everyday items. While the rest of my clothes and items were packed in my check-in luggage. I also used it to carry my gear and daily essentials as a second shooter for a wedding.

Lets get the specs and key features out of the way before I jump into my experience with the bag

WANDRD Duo Daypack Specs & Key Features

• Quick side camera access
• Padded laptop and tablet sleeve
• Infinite Zip™ access system
• Pop Camera Cube
• 2 padded expansion pockets
• Seatbelt webbing handle
• Weather resistant YKK zippers
• Expandable water bottle/tripod pocket
• Hidden passport/cash pocket
• Cord organizers
• Mesh and zipper organization pockets
• Materials: 840D Jr. Ballistic Nylon with 5pm coating and 1680D Ballistic Nylon. Weather Resistant YKK Zippers.
• Dimensions: 19.5″H X 11.5″W X 6.5″D
• Volume: 20 L
• Weight: 1.2 kg (2.6 lbs)
• Laptop Sleeve: Dimensions: 15.5″H X 10.5″W X 1″D
• Tablet Sleeve: Dimensions: 11″H X 9.5″W X .5″D

First Impression

When I received the bag, I was pretty impressed. It felt tough, sturdy and high quality. The design looks sleek, modern and minimalist. Biggest draw card: it doesn’t look like a camera bag! I really liked the design concept of this bag. The Wandrd DUO is touted as a dual purpose multi-functional bag. Transitioning you from photographer to traveller to daily commuter depending what your plans are for the day.

You can load it up with a large number of camera gear (cameras, lenses, accessories) or you can use it as every day carry for your travel adventures or commute. The target audience for the bag is the photographer who wants to use the same bag for their next travel adventure and their daily work.

Exterior of the bag

The bag looks great. Not all functional bags look the best, but Wandrd makes a point to design beautiful bags. The matte black look and the rubbery feel makes it’s clean and minimalist. I really like the non-obtrusive nature of the Wandrd log on the front of the bag. If you didn’t know Wandrd was a camera bag making company, you would think it’s a generic backpack which makes you less of a target to thieves I should think.

The shell of the bag is made of very tough high grade weatherproof material. This does however make the bag quite heavy without any items in it. You’ll feel good that your gear is well protected. There are two exterior zippered pockets and a stretchy side pocket for a water bottle.

I found the top zippered pocket came in handy for quick access items such as earphones, mobile phone and pens. It also has a key clip which made sure you can easily find your keys in a pinch. As I had my bag underneath the seat in front of me on the plane, I could easily access and stow away these quick access items sitting down on the plane. I didn’t really have a purpose for the external front zippered pocket, but it was a decent size to pack things like a harddrive, notebook etc. I don’t think it was large enough to fit anything A4 sized.

The infinite zip system is another innovation of this bag. There are four different sliders along the bag that allows you to open the bag fully, just keep the top open like a standard backpack or just keep the sides of the bag open for side access to your camera or gear. The zip system allows you to have dual side access to your gear. I’m not really used to accessing my camera gear from the side so it did take me a while to get used to it.

The zippers are weatherproof YKK zippers that keeps the content of your bag dry. I found the zippers can be a little tight to get around the bottom corners of the bag. You can expect a smooth run on the zipper for the rest of the bag though.

I really like the secret zippered pocket that is hidden at the back of the bag. It’s a great idea. You can put your cash or passport in this pocket and it’s flat against your back. So if someone tries to get to it while you have the bag on you, you’ll know.

The back of the bag also has a inbuilt slot to slide the backpack sideways through your luggage handle. It sits quite well on the luggage as well. (apologies for the poor quality photo taken on my phone – didn’t have time to pull out the camera!)

I thought the general build quality and feel of the straps and the top an side carry handles were very nice. I like the nice touch of adding in a rubber band to hold the “left over” straps in place for a sleeker look to the bag. Something that surprised me was that I didn’t find the shoulder straps had enough padding for me. I found I was getting some soreness carrying the bag for a couple of hours. Looking at the strap itself, it looks to be very well designed and good quality.

Interior of the bag

The interior design of the bag is well thought out. It’s a highly compartmentalised bag so it’s great for those who love being organised or for those who need it to stay organised. There is literally a spot for everything. These spots are also flexible. For example you can use the inner bag stretchy pockets to store extra lenses or use it for daily essentials like your mobile phone or sunglasses.

Inside the bag, there is a giant mesh pocket that you can put anything in. There are a large number of interior pockets for small items so they don’t get lost at the bottom of your bag. There are two well padded and dedicated sleeves for your laptop and tablet. For my overseas trip, I brought along a 15 inch laptop that fit perfectly into the sleeve and I used the other sleeve for some travel documents. There is one interior zippered compartment near the laptop sleeve which is handy for small/flat items. I personally didn’t find it useful for the items that I was carrying, but I thought it was a great use of space.

The biggest feature of the DUO is the pop-up and fold-down camera cube that is fixed to the bottle of the bag. When you want to carry your camera gear in the cube you pop it up. When you want to use the backpack as a every day carry and/or with minimal amount of camera gear you fold-down the cube to increase the internal capacity. I found folding the camera cube up and down to be a little bit fiddly, especially when I was trying to place velcro divider inside the camera cube to create some “compartments”.

Since having the bag, I’ve kept the camera cube popped-up and have mainly used it as a camera backpack rather than a general backpack. I really like the idea of the camera cube though. I don’t mind having to fuss with the camera cube given how versatile and convertible the bag is. The cube is also large enough to fit DSLR or mirrorless camera. if you have a long lens attached to your camera body, then you probably just need to remove the interior camera cube divider. You also have the choice of closing off the camera cube with this “doors” or you can fold down the door so you can have faster side access.

Being female, around 165cm tall and of average build, I thought the size of the bag was just right for me. It didn’t feel heavy when I had all my camera gear and daily essential loaded into it when I travelled overseas. It also didn’t feel too heavy when I loaded up the Wandrd Duo with just camera gear (two camera bodies and multiple lenses) for a wedding shoot. I didn’t however move around the ceremony or reception with the bag on my back the whole time.

Of course being such a well designed and high quality bag, it does come with a price tag. Currently retails around $400+ mark in Australia.

Conclusion

The Wandrd DUO is a thoughtfully designed camera bag that tries to address the need for a fashionable, functional and dual purpose bag that photographers are always dreaming of. The one bag to rule them all. Did they achieve that? I think it comes close to it and will fit the needs of a lot of photographers. I can imagine myself taking this bag out during my travels, to coffee shops to work on my laptop, photowalks or client shoots.

I hope you found this useful, let me know if you have found the perfect camera bag and what that bag is.

Thanks for stopping by today and happy shooting

J