It was love at first carry with Aer’s Travel Pack on a trip to Miami last year, and now they’re back with offerings to cover your office commutes, gym trips, and weekends, and maybe even carry your dog.
All of Aer’s Active bags are made of water-resistant Cordura and feature ventilated, separated shoe compartments and padded laptop pockets.
If you’re a regular reader of our luggage and bag coverage, you know I hate having more bag than I need. The Sling Bag 2 is one of the best ratios of minimalism to functionality I’ve come across in a commuter bag- small enough to not be ridiculous for bringing mostly a laptop to the office, but easily able to handle a full set of gym accoutrement, and able to compress basically flat.
The orientation of the shoulder strap can easily be switched as well.
The Fit Pack 2 is the definition of a minimalist backpack, with an organizational area separated from a spacious main compartment, and great straps coupled with air mesh padding to keep your back dry.
The Duffel Pack 2 is essentially a significantly larger version of the Fit Pack 2, and well into weekender territory in my mind. Given that weekender bags are not ergonomic or really user-friendly in any way, the Duffel Pack 2 is a great way to get weekender volume with backpack comforts.
Fully expanded, the Gym Duffel 2 is massive, and given what it would weigh fully packed, I’d take a roller bag or something with backpack straps without question.
But here we have a lightweight, deep, wide, water-resistant, ventilated bag that can be carried as a briefcase or by shoulder strap- that sounds like a dog carrier to me. I absolutely would not zip a dog closed in here- the coverage of the ventilated mesh is limited, but as a leave-open dog carrier for commuting, this is a actually a pretty great option in a very poorly supported space.