Waterproof Backpacks

Waterproof Backpacks: For the Rain That Catches You at the Lights

The sky was dry when you unlocked the bike. Two kilometres later the first drops hit the handlebars, the laptop is on your back, and the question is not whether the pack looks waterproof but whether the fabric sheds water and whether the closure lets it in. This collection is our answer, and it starts with a plain caveat: none of the packs here is a dry bag.

There is no welded roll-top from a kayak brand on this page, because we do not stock one. What we stock is the waterproof backpack most people are actually looking for: coated fabrics, a water column rating where the brand publishes one, sealed zips, roll-tops and, on two models, a rain cover. Each pack is rated in its own brand's words, which is the rule on every product cited below.

Waterproof or water-repellent? Which one you need

Strictly, a waterproof backpack keeps water out when it is held under water: welded seams and a roll-top folded down three times. That is kayak and packraft territory. If you are going to dunk the pack, drop it in a river or strap it to a deck, this collection is not for you, and we would rather say so now than after a wet weekend.

Everything else is a question of degree, and degree is what the brands publish. Sandqvist is the one brand here that uses the word waterproof, for its whole STREAM series: PU-coated recycled polyester closed with AquaGuard zips. It publishes no water column and makes no claim about immersion, so read it as the top of the rain scale. Klättermusen gives a water column instead, above 10,000 mm on its best fabrics.

Below that, the words get softer and more precise. "Water-repellent", the word Kapten & Son uses, means the fabric sheds rain; it says nothing about the seams. Ucon Acrobatics says water-resistant, Patagonia weather-resistant, Millet TPU-coated for light rain. For a shower on the way to the office or a trail under a passing front, that is enough. For immersion, buy a dry bag somewhere else.

Match the pack to the rain you actually get

Commute and bike: ten minutes of heavy rain, every other day

On a bike the rain comes at the back panel and the top of the pack, and the laptop sits against your spine. A roll-top keeps the opening above the weather, which is why we point cyclists first to Sandqvist's STREAM roll-tops.

The STREAM Rolltop 14" carries 20 litres for 560 grams, the STREAM Slim Rolltop L takes a 16-inch laptop in 26 litres, and the STREAM Rolltop Backpack L goes to 34 litres for the days with gym kit.

If you would rather work a zip than roll a top, the STREAM Zipper Backpack 16" keeps the same coated fabric and AquaGuard zips, with a laptop compartment that opens on its own from the top. The STREAM Lid Backpack 16" closes under a buckled lid, and the STREAM 2-Way Tote Backpack 16" carries as a tote into the office and as a backpack on the ride home.

Sandqvist's GRID line sits one step down, in the brand's own words: the GRID Rolltop 16" is water-resistant recycled nylon ripstop, and the GRID Rolltop 14" borrows its rolltop closure from classic dry bags, which is a design cue rather than a rating. Millet's Chamonix 15+5 and Chamonix 25+5 pair TPU-coated recycled nylon with a magnetic roll-top that unrolls for five extra litres.

Kapten & Son's Helsinki Pro Bike is the one pack here built for the rack and the rain together: water-repellent fabric and zip, a Click & Go mount for the pannier rail, and an integrated rain cover you pull out when the shower turns into a downpour. The plain Helsinki Pro keeps the water-repellent zip and the back-panel opening without the rack mount.

Ucon Acrobatics builds its Lotus Infinity packs in PU-coated recycled textile and is unusually frank about it: the brand classes the Hajo Mini and the Jannik Mini as water-resistant and says water may get through the seams. Read that as fine for the ride and for nothing heavier.

Hiking: a front that passes, a day that does not

Klättermusen is where the numbers get serious. The brand rates the Gyme 25L and Gyme 35L fabric above 10,000 mm and tapes the seams of the top lid, which is the closest thing to a mountain-grade waterproof backpack on this page. The Ull 30L carries the same rating under a drawcord opening, and the Ull 20L keeps that cinch opening at a daypack size.

The Bure 2.0 20L brings the same fabric down to 20 litres with a zipped top. Below them, the Gilling 20L and Skrymner 20L are rated 1,500 mm: enough for a shower, short of a day of it.

Travel: a platform, a drizzle, a taxi rank

Travel packs get rained on in short bursts between doors. Patagonia's Black Hole Pack 25L and Black Hole Pack 32L bond a recycled TPU film to recycled ripstop, a weather-resistant shell that also takes the scuffs of luggage racks, and both slide over a suitcase handle. Topo Designs' Rover Pack Tech puts its weather argument in the coated YKK zips, around 24 litres and two 15-inch laptop sleeves.

Kapten & Son's Lisbon Duffle Backpack Medium and Lisbon Duffle Backpack Small are water-repellent in the brand's words, cut like a duffle you carry on your back. The Lisbon Pro expands from 26 to 34 litres in a water-repellent fabric with a water-based PU, and the Lisbon Small rolls from 18 to 24 litres around a 14-inch sleeve.

For more than a weekend, Millet's Chamonix Duffle 35+10 and Chamonix Duffle 60+15 are TPU-coated travel bags that open like a suitcase and carry on stowable shoulder straps. Millet says the larger one is made for high resistance to moisture.

How the brands rate their fabrics

Four terms do all the work. A water column, in millimetres, is the height of water the fabric holds before it leaks: 1,000 mm is rain, 10,000 mm is a storm.

A coating, PU or TPU, is the layer that does the holding, on the inside of the weave or laminated to it. A water-repellent finish makes drops bead on the outside; it wears with use and can be refreshed. And a sealed zip or a rain cover is the admission that openings are where water gets in.

Sandqvist and Klättermusen sit at the top, by different routes. Sandqvist calls every STREAM pack waterproof and backs the word with a PU coating and AquaGuard zips. Klättermusen publishes a figure instead: above 10,000 mm on the Gyme, Ull and Bure, with a taped top lid on the Gyme, and 300 mm on the Tjalve 2.0 10L, a 320-gram trail-running pack that will take a shower.

Kapten & Son uses one word, water-repellent, across the range, on PU-blend recycled fabrics, and backs it with hardware on two models: the integrated cover on the Helsinki Pro Bike and the rain cover supplied with the Åre Daypack Lite. On the Bergen Pro the brand adds waterproof zips, and it calls the ripstop of the Bergen Ultra weather-resistant.

Ucon Acrobatics coats recycled textile with PU and calls the result water-resistant, with the honest line about seams quoted above; the Kumo Medium adds a splash-proof magnetic flap and the Jannik Medium a roll-top with an aluminium buckle. Patagonia's word for the Black Hole is weather-resistant, Millet's TPU coating is rated for light rain on the Chamonix 25+5, and Topo Designs puts its weather claim on the zips.

Capacity and laptop

The collection runs from 10 litres to a 75-litre travel duffle. At the small end, Kapten & Son's Tromso gives you 12 litres and a 13-inch sleeve, the Bergen Pro 15 litres around a 16-inch MacBook, and the Bergen Ultra 17 litres with two separate laptop compartments, one of them for a 16-inch machine.

The 18 to 26 litre band is the everyday one: the Helsinki Pro, Oslo, Lund Sleek and Bali Pro all take a 16-inch MacBook, the Ucon Hajo Mini and Jannik take 16.4 inches, and the STREAM Slim Rolltop L and Zipper Backpack carry a 16-inch laptop. The Black Hole packs and the Rover Pack Tech hold most 15-inch machines.

Above 30 litres you are into the STREAM Rolltop Backpack L at 34, the Lisbon Pro at 26 to 34 and, for the mountain, the Gyme 35L. The Lisbon Duffle Medium is the exception among the big ones, 50 litres with a 16-inch sleeve, and the Chamonix Duffle 60+15 is the outer limit.

Bought here, backed here

Returns run 30 days, so a pack that turns out too big for the bike or too small for the laptop goes back without a discussion. Every order ships from France, and the shipping cost shows in the cart before you pay. Eiken adds a 2-year warranty on top of the manufacturer's, so a seam or a buckle that fails inside that window is our problem before it is yours.