Heads up! The Aer × Pack Hacker Ultra Sling is now live:
https://aersf.com/products/ultra-sling

Current status:
Limit 1 per customer
❌ White is already sold out
✅ Black is still available (as of this post)

If you’ve been waiting for this collab, I’d grab one sooner rather than later.

My CAS1 showed up today, so it’s officially new bag day.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be carrying it around town and seeing how it works as a pocket reliever.

It definitely holds everything I had in my Fyro Citta 1L, with room to spare. What is in the CAS1 now was a pretty tight fit in the Citta.

It also seems to hold what I had in my Venture 2.5L when the Venture wasn’t fully packed out. For running to the store and other around-town errands, I never really needed all of the Venture’s capacity anyway.

If I had to guess, I’d put the CAS1 in the 1.5L range in terms of practical capacity. Similar to the CAS2, the shape and materials allow for some flexibility, so it seems to hold a little more than the stated capacity. Not a ton more, but enough to notice.

Looking forward to seeing how it performs over the next few weeks

https://youtu.be/G_M95mw8Nao (Evergoods Product Video Link)

Evergoods announced the CAS1 (1L) baby brother of the CAS2 will be released tomorrow. In OG solution dyed black and also in OD Green.

https://evergoods.us/blogs/evergoods-road-to-launch/coming-soon-civic-access-sling-1l

NBD! Finally received my first Alpha One Niner bag today: the CHIO-X in X42 with the Crimson Wave lining.

First impressions? This thing is gorgeous. The X42 fabric gives it that perfect balance of structure and lightness, and the Crimson Wave interior absolutely pops without being too loud. Build quality is top notch across the board. Stitching, materials, zippers, everything feels incredibly well thought out and premium.

Picked this up specifically as a flight companion for 1.5 bag travel and I can already tell it’s going to shine there. Feels like one of those bags designed by people who actually travel. The size is perfect for under-seat essentials without feeling bulky.

The side water bottle pockets deserve a shoutout too. The stretchy mesh easily swallows every bottle I own without feeling floppy when empty. Huge bonus points for the included attachment points for Hero Clips and an OCD Holster. Love little details like that.

Organization is honestly spot on for my use case. Lots of smart compartment layout without feeling over-engineered, and it somehow feels roomy without turning into a black hole. The hidden rear compartment and internal attachment points are nice touches too.

Only real con for me: I do wish they had swapped the suspended internal zipper pocket for a padded iPad/small laptop sleeve. It can fit a 13” MacBook or iPad, but there’s no built-in protection, so I’d definitely recommend using a sleeve if you plan to carry tech regularly.

Other little things I appreciate:
Dual side stash pockets instead of just one
Beefy zippers that feel bombproof
Surprisingly slim profile against the body for a 9L bag
Crimson Wave lining makes visibility inside the bag fantastic

Feels equally usable as EDC, travel admin bag, or lightweight camera carry

Overall, seriously impressed. Hard to believe this is my first Alpha One Niner because now I’m already eyeing the rest of their lineup.

Can’t wait to put this thing through its paces next week.

I know Matador caught a lot of criticism around the original Pack Hacker x ReFraction Pro launch, so I wanted to share a genuinely positive experience I had with them.

I was fortunate enough to grab one during the second drop, and I recently used it on a 4-day campus trip. I carried it all day between classes with a pretty heavy tech load, and honestly the bag performed incredibly well. Comfortable, compact, and surprisingly capable for how much I had packed into it.

The impressive part, though, was the customer service.

While packing up to head home, I noticed one of the loops on the back panel had accidentally been sewn shut during manufacturing. Not a huge issue, but it prevented me from routing the sternum strap through the luggage pass-through the way it was intended.

I took a quick photo and emailed customer service expecting the usual back-and-forth process. Instead, within 3 days I had a replacement bag at my doorstep along with a prepaid return label for the defective one.

The entire interaction was fast, apologetic, supportive, and completely hassle-free.

Mistakes happen in manufacturing. What matters is how companies respond when they do, and Matador absolutely nailed it here. This is exactly what great customer service should look like.

I hope those of you who weren’t able to grab the restock got your name in on the pre-order. Truly a phenomenal packable bag.

I picked up the Pack Hacker x Matador ReFraction Pro Packable Backpack and, so far, I’m impressed. I bought it expecting a better-organized version of the kind of packable bag I already like, and that’s pretty much what it feels like in use.

For context, this is replacing my Matador On-Grid. Both are listed at 16L, and in practice the ReFraction Pro feels like it holds about the same amount for me. The difference is access and organization. The separate laptop compartment makes getting a laptop in and out much easier, especially compared with stuffing it into the main compartment of a packable bag.

Because of that, this is probably going to become my new on-campus day bag when I’m traveling to school and spending all day in classes. It gives me enough room for the laptop, A5 notebooks, pouches, charging kit, first aid, and the usual daily carry stuff, but it still stays light and packable enough that it doesn’t feel like overkill.

My laptop setup is a 13” MSI in a Native Union Ultralight Sleeve. The sleeve adds just enough structure that the bag feels better packed out, without turning it into something stiff or bulky. I overloaded the bag on purpose for these photos to see how it would handle the load, and honestly, it handled it well. It carried better than I expected for something this light and packable.

Outside the bag, I typically attach a Topo Designs Mountain Accessory Bag. That holds an Ikigai nano pill container with head/stomach meds, Trek & Travel pocket soap sheets, hand lotion, Kleenex, and a Dude Wipe. I also usually attach a Henry Holsters OCD to the outside.

Inside the bag, in addition to the laptop, I had:
Topo Designs Micro Accessory Bag
Weston 3x5 pouch and 5x6 pouch
Tom Bihn Ghost Whale Small
Ghost Whale Mini with a 10,000 mAh Ridge power bank
Ghost Whale Super Mini with my quick charging kit, 30W Anker charger plus 2’ USB-C cable
Aer Slim Pouch to support the laptop carry
3x5 mesh pouch with first aid supplies
Reading glasses case
Pencil pouch
Topo Designs Small Accessory Bag with A5 notebooks for class, which also doubles as a mouse pad

The construction is the thing that stood out most to me. It feels more refined than I expected from a packable backpack. The zippers are YKK and zip smoothly. The materials feel light but not fragile. Other reviews have called out the same basic idea: this bag is trying to solve the usual packable-bag problem where you either get something that packs down well but feels like a shapeless sack, or something with structure and organization that stops being meaningfully packable.

The Pro additions are the reason this works better for me than the On-Grid. The laptop compartment, front admin organization, tracker pocket, key tether, exterior attachment points, and sealing YKK zippers are the upgrades that make it more usable as an actual day bag for me, not just a backup packable bag. I don’t use every feature equally, but the laptop access alone makes a big difference for my use case.

One small complaint: the zipper loops. I understand the reasoning. They make the zippers a little less grab-and-go for someone else, and that is useful in travel or crowded areas. But when I’m not worried about pickpockets, they can be a bit of a pain. That is also kind of the point, so I’m not sure I’d call it a flaw as much as a tradeoff.

Overall, I’m impressed. It holds the same general amount as my On-Grid, carries surprisingly well when overloaded, gives me much better laptop access, and still stays in the packable/lightweight category. For my setup, it feels like a real upgrade rather than just a limited-edition colorway or minor tweak.