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Tortuga Outbreaker 35L Review
Cost: $269
Capacity: 35 liters
Dimensions: 20.3” x 12.9” x 8.2” (52 x 33 x 21 cm)
Style: Clamshell Travel Backpack
Weight: 4.6 lbs. (2.1 kg)
Laptop: 17” laptop plus 9.7″ tablet
Materials: VX21 waterproof sailcloth, YKK locking zippers, Duraflex buckles
Origin: Manufactured in China
With waterproof fabric, great organization, and the best backpack straps I’ve ever seen on a travel backpack. Let’s have a look at the Tortuga Outbreaker 35L!
Materials, Colors, and Size
Material and Aesthetics
The Outbreaker uses an X-PAC, VX21 Sailcloth fabric, which was originally designed by a Germany for sailboat sails.
The X-Pac is an awesome fabric for a travel backpack. It’s strong, lightweight, and abrasion resistant, and probably the best thing: it’s waterproof, so you don’t need a rain cover with this pack.
It’s also a really stiff fabric, which is good because this bag will hold its shape over time. But the fabric doesn’t stretch, so it’s not very expandable.
Hardware, Zippers
Every other aspect of construction on the Outbreaker is exceptional. They use large #8 YKK locking zippers on the 3 main compartments, and #5 YKK zippers for the rest of the exterior and interior pockets.
All the hardware, buckles, and adjustors, are all high quality Duraflex brand. And every single exterior zipper on this backpack, even the hip belts, are water sealed.
Size, Dimensions
Both sizes of the Outbreaker are designed to be carry on friendly, for a majority of airlines. The 45 liter version is a max carry at 22x14x9, while this one, the 35 liter bag, is 20.3” x 12.9” x 8.2”.
It’s probably not quite small enough to fit under the seat, but this bag will easily fit in the overhead.
Weight
It’s hard to overlook the fact that this bag weighs in at 4.6lbs for this 35L, and over 5lbs for the larger 45L version. This is definitely on the higher side for travel backpacks.
For me, the weight of a bag isn’t necessarily a good or a bad thing. Instead I look at it as a trade-off between materials, comfort, and quality. A minimalist bag is going to be much lighter, but it’s going to have minimal organization and minimal comfort.
And while the Outbreaker is heavy, a large portion of the weight of this bag, goes into the organization, and the comfort of the backpack straps.
External Components
The main external features on the Tortuga Outbreaker 35L are two large front facing slash pockets, two mesh water bottle pockets, hip belt pockets, and side compression straps.
The front slash pockets both go about half the height of the bag. This top pocket is pretty skinny, but the bottom one is a little fatter. It’s big enough to hold larger items, like full-size headphones or toiletries.
Compression Straps / Buckles
The compression straps are located on each side of the bag, toward the top. They work well to keep the contents of your bag secure, but they don’t offer as much compression as some other bags, because they only cinch down the top half of the backpack.
I do like the placement of these straps though. Because they’re out of the way of any of the zippers, and you can use them to secure other items on the side of your bag.
Water Bottle Pocket
I’m actually a little bit disappointed with the size of the water bottle pockets on the Torguga Outbreaker 35L. They’re made out of mesh, with a slightly expandable top. But they’re both pretty small, and will barely fit my smaller 27oz water bottle.
There’s no chance of getting the larger 1L bottle in here. And for some reason one of the pockets is actually smaller. I couldn’t fit either water bottle in this one. So I guess it’s only really good for something smaller, like a travel umbrella.
Carry Options
Backpack straps
They don’t mess around with multiple carry options, on the Tortuga Outbreaker. There is no shoulder strap, and just one padded top carry handle. But instead, they put all their effort into having, hands-down the best backpack straps of any travel backpack on the market.
The shoulder straps are fully adjustable. With top load adjusters, sternum strap, and a Velcro tab that allows you to move them up and down to adjust the to fit a wide range of torso lengths.
The padding on this backpack is insane. The shoulder straps, and hip belt are 1” thick padded breathable foam, and the back foam is even thicker. It sits on your back really nicely, and has amazing air ventilation.
In addition to all the padding, they include a firm back panel between the laptop compartment and the backpack. This helps the backpack keep it’s shape, but also does a really good job preventing objects in the pack from poking into your back.
The hip belt is also crazy comfortable. It’s a full 6 ½ inches wide, thick padded foam. Each side with a waterproof zippered pocket. AND, they’re removable, if you don’t need them, or want to save weight.
For me, the backpack straps, are by far one of the biggest selling points of this pack. If you’ve had problems finding a comfortable travel backpack, then you definitely want to give the Outbreaker a try,
Interior Components and Design
Packing Style
The organization and packing style of the Tortuga Outbreaker, is based around 3 main compartments: The smaller front facing organizational compartment; a Big clamshell style main compartment to hold the majority of your clothes; and a laptop compartment that folds flat, with further organizational pockets.
Interior Organization
The front compartment is where you will store the small items, you want to have easy access to. Inside, there are two large zippered pockets, and sleeve with a fuzzy lining for a tablet or phone. As well as a ton of small organizational sleeves.
The Main compartment opens like a clamshell to the side. Revealing a large suitcase style opening on one side, and two large mesh pockets on the other. There are a ton of ways to pack this bag, and it holds a lot more than you would think,
Laptop Compartment
The laptop compartment on the Outbreaker has it’s own internal organizational pockets. It opens lengthwise, and lays completely flat, giving you easy access to your electronics.
The laptop sleeve has a luxurious fuzzy interior padding, and will hold up to a 17” laptop, as well as a 9.7” tablet.
It’s very well protected with a locking zipper, and a stiff plastic back panel. The other side of the laptop compartment, has 3 large mesh pockets for your electronics.
Packing The Bag
Because the Outbreaker is so organized, you have a lot of options for packing this bag. Packing cubes work really well for storing clothes in the main compartment.
For example, I have one large cube with 3 pairs of pants, and 2 button up shirts. Two medium sized cubes contain 7 t-shirts in one, and 6 pairs of socks and underwear in the other. You could also use the small side pockets for socks and underwear, or they work great for toiletries.
You can put anything in these mesh pockets, but I like using them to separate my dirty laundry while on the road.
In the laptop compartment, I’ll put my giant 15” Toshiba, a 1 terabite hard drive, external battery, and an assortment of cables and chargers.
The front organizational pouch is great for easy access items, like boarding documents, notebook, etcetera. And because it’s so large and waterproof, i’ll put my toiletry kit in this front bottom slash pocket.
And there we have it! Easily enough gear for a multi-week or multi-month trip around the world, there’s still plenty of room, but if you tend to pack a little heavier than this, they also make this bag in a 45 liter version.
Summary
Best Features
- Amazing backpack straps. They offer padding and adjustability similar to what you expect to see in larger 60-70 liter hiking backpacks. But they offer it on this smaller 35 liter bag,
- Exceptional organization. If you’re someone who likes to have a lot of packing options, a ton of pockets, as well as protected laptop compartment, then you’ll love this backpack.
Worst Features
- The weight. The first thing I noticed about this bag when I pick it up is how heavy it is. Out of the box, it weighs in at 4.6 lbs. Think they did a really good job with selecting high quality materials and hardware for this backpack, but you definitely pay for it with the added weight,
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