NOMATIC40L Travel Bag- Convertible Duffel/Backpack, Carry-on Size for Airplane Travel, Everyday Use Laptop Bag, TSA Compliant Black Backpack

This bag is well made. The material is sturdy and doesn't flop around like other bags I purchased. In particular I purchased a 50 Liter Gieury Travel Bag prior to this one but it isn't anywhere near the quality of the Nomatic. Of course the Gieury Bag is 1/10th the cost of the Nomatic so I would expect the Nomatic to be head and shoulders above the Gieury in terms of quality, design, and features. Then I purchased a Matein Bag, but it was totally unsatisfactory. It didn't have a full perimeter opening like the Nomatic. To continue my review of the Nomatic bag, someone did a very thoughtful job designing the features of the Nomatic bag because it has everything you could think of for pockets and compartments on top of and along each side of the bag. The 40L capacity is perfect to hold a weeks worth of stuff for a trip., The straps are well made and very comfortable not to mention the compartments built into the straps. And then on top of everything else it comes with a laundry bag for your used laundry. It's pricey but worth it given the design, quality of materials, features, and capacity of the bag. It also comes with a Lifetime Warranty. What more could you want? I am hoping I can take onto the plane as a personal item. Depends if it fits under the seat in front of me I guess. Haven't taken it on a trip yet so I am guessing as to whether it can be taken as a personal item. I have a trip coming up so I will update the review after the trip letting you know if it was considered a personal item or a carry on.UPDATEThe bag is a little too big to be considered a personal item. It is a carry-on since it doesn't fit under the seat when fully packed and must be stowed in the overhead bin. Having said that, I haven't tried to take it along with a small rolling carry-on suitcase. I bet the airlines would allow it. You would just stow both the Nomatic Bag and the small rolling carry-on suitcase in the overhead bin.

I love to travel for pleasure and often travel for work. After much deliberation, I decided to try a travel backpack. I wish I’d done it years ago.Nomatic did this right. It’s insanely comfortable to carry this bag. I say this as someone who has had major back issues. I’m 5’6” and 145lbs. It’s not overbearing on me at all. It’s easy to get on and off. The top grip handle is shockingly useful and really sturdy.The pockets are highly functional. Though I will say that it’s a bit of a drag how much interior space they take up. But that’s the nature of any bag in this style, not a reflection of Nomatic’s design.I recently did six 4-5 day trips in about 8 weeks. I traveled with this bag and a small purse. I was able to fit a breast pump (spectra S1) and four flange/bottle sets along with scrub brush and travel soap, toiletries, 5 outfits (trips started in Feb with winter wardrobe - pants and shirts- and went through May spring/summer wardrobe- skirts and shirts or dresses), a spare pair of heels, swell bottle, 12” iPad Pro with keyboard, iPad mini, chargers, two medium paperback books, 2 moleskin notebooks, and a curling iron. No problems. Without the pump I imagine I could pack for 10-14 days easily. And it leaves me hands free when traveling with baby.Bottom Line: I love this bag. It’s comforable, functional, and holds a surprsing amount. Highly recommended.Update: 2 years in and this bag still looks new! I was able to pack for 12 days (summer wardrobe) and 8 days (winter wardrobe plus two pairs of boots) using this backpack and a small messenger bag. This thing has gone all around the world with me and I still think it’s the most functional travel bag I’ve ever had.

This is the best travel backpack by far. Used it for my overseas trip recently and it worked out great. I don’t know why it has lots of returns? No problems with the buttons or zippers. Plenty of room and compartments for storage. Love the way it keeps its shape too. Very well made too.

One Sentence Verdict: One of the best travel bags you can buy, especially if you haul a lot of gadgets around with you.I'm going to start off by stating the obvious: this is a BIG bag. All 40L bags are large, but the Nomatic's square design makes it feel particularly bulky compared to other options. There won't be a huge difference between 40L options when fully packed, but the rectangular shape combined with the somewhat rigid sides means that you can't expect this bag ever to feel anything other than bulky, even when you pack light.Is that a problem? Eh, it depends. It's hard to imagine wanting to haul something like this around as a commuter bag, which means the Nomatic 40L isn't really suitable for dual use. You aren't going to want to come home from a trip and carry this bag with you to work every day. It just doesn't really suit that purpose and, unlike some other large travel bags, doesn't have any features that will allow you to compress it down into something more manageable.That said, nothing I've typed so far should matter to you if you're primarily looking for a travel bag. As a travel bag, this backpack is great. The rectangular shape that makes it feel so bulky also means that the primary storage volume is incredibly easy to use. The top and bottom pockets obviously intrude on this area, but it's a mistake to think of these as separate storage spaces. Instead, they work best as a way to separate and organize the main storage or to provide quick access to certain items. We use the shoe pocket for storing underwear/socks and the water bottle pocket as a toiletry storage area. Works great.Overall, organization is this bag's true strong suit, especially if you like to travel with gadgets. Most travel bags assume that you're mostly going to be packing the main area with clothes, and you might get room for a laptop and some pockets to organize small items. The Nomatic 40L integrates electronic space into the main bag compartment, with pockets that will comfortably fit both a 15" laptop and a 12" tablet without breaking a sweat. Using these pockets doesn't meaningfully intrude on the main storage area.You also get an organizational pocket that spans the entire side of the bag, with tons of internal organization for cables, chargers, etc. The space in this pocket is fairly generous and you can jam it full of stuff without intruding on the main compartment, although the bag will certainly bulge out on the side. This pocket is probably one of the bigger "make or break" features on the bag. If you carry a lot of small gadget bits and bobs, you're going to like this pocket a lot. If not, you might want a bag with a more traditional storage area. The opposite side also features two storage pockets, but there's not much to say about them. They're extra space that won't meaningfully intrude on the main area, but they don't offer any interesting features or extra organization possibilities.The overall quality of the bag is good to great. Materials differ across sections, but it's genuinely water resistant and feels like a premium product, although possibly a little shy of the quality you might expect at this MSRP. I would rate the quality as "okay" at full price and "great" at the sale prices that typically come along. The zippers are unbranded, but feel smooth and strong, plus there's a lifetime warranty. I like my YKK zippers, but I feel fine about the unbranded ones on this bag. Design is obviously subjective, but nothing about the bag looks or feels cheap. Comfort is also "okay," but it's good enough for getting through airports or walking through a city to a hotel. I wouldn't want to wear this bag all day long, but I don't want to wear any stuffed 40L bag all day long. That's just the nature of the beast.So all of this is a long-winded way of saying that I like this bag. A lot. It'll take a week's worth of vacation supplies without a problem if you're a minimal packer, and it'll handle 4-5 days worth of stuff if you're a weird packrat like me. My primary usage is 3-4 day business trips where I pack more clothes than I need, a 15" laptop, an 11" tablet, a Steam Deck, a bunch of dumb charging nonsense, and even some small board games when I'm not traveling alone. This bag swallows all that stuff without complaint, usually with a sizable amount of extra room to spare. The best part is that it does all that while staying relatively organized and neat, and looking good to boot.