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KeySmart Urban21 Commuter Backpack

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KeySmart Urban21 Commuter Backpack

Name: KeySmart Urban21 Commuter Backpack
Brand: KeySmart
SKU: urban21-commuter-backpack
Price: 130 USD
Availability: OutOfStock
Rating: 3 (4 reviews)

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Product Description

KeySmart made a name for itself in the EDC community with its compact key holder. Now the company sets its sights on the backpack industry with the Urban21: a sleek commuter backpack with space for your tech, gear, and accessories Read More

Customer Reviews

3.0

(4 reviews)

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that_other_guy

May 30, 2019

Verified Buyer

I had really high hopes for this backpack. I thought it checked all the boxes for me, but it's a disappointment. High quality materials, looks great, but has some surprising functional problems. My biggest complaint is with the hard upper compartment. It's too big to toss fragile things like sunglasses in, because I have other stuff floating around in there that will damage them. It also seriously obstructs access to the main pocket. The zipper is also really stiff, making it inconvenient to reach in to grab a pen or any of the other small what-have-yous that you'd keep in there. The outside pocket is small but okay - I've kept my ID badge or articles I've printed in there. This is the pocket with easy access. The open-topped compartment is quite useful - I'll toss a jacket in there or even a sandwich or burrito when I stop to pick up lunch while I'm on the go. As another reviewer pointed out, the pocket organizer is just barely too small for 8.5x11 paper. That would have been really helpful for me. I use the tablet pocket for this purpose, which is okay. The water bottle is fine in my opinion - not large, but keeps water nice and cold for a long time. I was under the impression that the bottle pockets on the sides wouldn't compete with contents of the main compartment, but that's just not the case. A more minor issue: one of the zipper pulls keeps popping off - I'll just need to get some pliers to tighten it down.

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League544

535

Nov 2, 2020

that_other_guyStick to reputable brands like Osprey. You don’t need all these dividers taking up room in your pack. Dividers/compartments should be EXTERNAL. Osprey Talon 22 is the goat of all backpacks. Never going back to overly stiff/large/inefficiently designed backpacks. My Talon 22 does everything you can think of and it only weighs like a pound or 2. Amazing backpack.

QPaysTaxes

May 28, 2019

Verified Buyer

The KeySmart Urban21 Commuter Backpack is a great backpack in theory which whiffs the execution. Fundamentally, it's a great design, as long as you don't need a lot of room. I don't -- I specifically wanted a smaller pack with side and chest straps, so I could keep it compact and in place for my daily commute by bike, and those work perfectly. The water bottle it came with insulates its contents well and fits snugly in the side pocket. There's a big, open front pocket which I can fit my bike helmet in. The hardshell pocket is great for my smaller, fragile stuff, like my spare glasses or my Raspberry Pi. The pocket organizer has just enough pockets for all my various cables, with one bigger pocket that acts as a folder for the random papers I occasionally need to carry around. The big pocket has a laptop slot perfect for my laptop, with a second, slightly smaller one I can fit my portable external monitor in. There's an open front pocket inside this rear pocket which I can fit my portable battery and phone cable in while leaving them easy to access. The pocket on the front of the outside of the pack is small, but just enough to fit an emergency poncho and the bag's waterproof cover. That waterproof cover is, in fact, waterproof, and it's easy to put on the pack quickly. Except, uh, I lied a little. That's what this backpack could be, with no asterisks, with only a few minor changes. Instead, every good thing is plagued with bad little things, which add up to a mediocre experience in the end. Keep in mind, too, that I've only been using this pack for a few days. I'm sure more issues will crop up over time, and I can't say anything about the durability of the pack. The side straps block access to the main pocket and the buckles open in opposite directions -- though it's the exact same buckle, because they're facing in opposite directions, you end up having to do a different motion with each hand, which feels awkward and is hard to get used to. The water bottle is absolutely tiny, with a tiny opening; I can just about get a medium coffee into it if I'm careful while pouring and drink some of the coffee before trying, and the mark on the inside which indicates the maximum fill before it'll spill when you put on the cap is almost impossible to see without shining a light straight down the opening. That front opening is not only too small for my actual bike helmet, but even if it was big enough, the way it's shaped -- as a large wedge, with no strap at the top -- means the helmet would probably fall out rather quickly, so as it is it's unusable for that. The hardshell pocket, though it's as sturdy as I'd want, is hard to open, partly because of the stiff zipper and partly because there's an odd overhang of fabric over it, both of which make it impossible to quickly open or close. The pocket organizer, though good in concept, attaches in a way which guarantees it'll open if you leave it inside, despite the magnets trying to hold it close, and it's actually just slightly too small to fit standard 8.5in by 11in papers inside, which I checked for quite a while before giving up on; one of the zippers also broke off literally as I tried to open it for the first time, though it thankfully came completely off so I could open the pocket manually and just leave it as an open pocket. That big pocket's laptop slot is also a little too small to easily fit my beefy workstation, and that's only if I don't try to fit my portable screen in with it. That frontmost small pocket is really thin, not so much small, and I can only fit my rain gear in it because it happens to be designed to fold flat -- you're not fitting a jacket of any kind in there. The rain cover is easy to put on, but it falls off easily too, and it's impossible to comfortably wear, coming down oddly on the shoulder straps and leaving a line of pressure across the back of my neck. Now, none of these issues are hard for KeySmart to fix. They'd all just require minor tweaks -- widening some pockets by half an inch, attaching the pocket organizer by the back of the top instead of the front, more securely sewing in the zippers so the handle can't come entirely off one side, etc. The pack is fairly solid, too, and But the fact that they haven't been done tells me that KeySmart either doesn't really care, or has absolutely no idea how to make a backpack, so unless they release a version 2 which fixes all of these issues, stay away.

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fort_wendy

Aug 31, 2020

QPaysTaxesCan I just say, you had me in the first half.

stephenwberry

May 6, 2019

Verified Buyer

Pretty unhappy with this purchase. The backpack is difficult to get into - nothing comes out easy and it is almost impossible to get to the bottom of the bag because of the hard shell waterproof case built into the top. The magnetic straps that hold the front pocket tight are interesting, but make it difficult to open the main compartment because the zippers won't go past the straps - so I'm constantly undoing them... The worst is that the backpack will never stand up no matter how you balance it. In short, this thing is a pain in the but.

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