Quad Lock Traverse Review: A Backpack Built for Modern Travellers

Aussie company Quad Lock is renowned for its smartphone cases. They are rugged, built for people who love activities like cycling, motorbike riding, and today really anyone thanks to the strength of the “locking” system in all parts of your day.

But in a bid to expand their range and provide more to existing customers, Quad Lock has released the Traverse, a backpack designed in partnership with Thule.

And it’s a cracker.

It’s a 26-litre backpack, built for commuters and cyclists, made from rugged materials, and its slick outside provides for weather resistance too.

I’ve been testing it out for a couple of weeks now, as a daily driver for lugging my gear to the office, and this week on an international trip.

What I love most are all the compartments.

A huge main compartment that’s deep and allows for packing away some clothes and gear, and also a sleeve for your laptop.

But on the side of the bag is a full-length zip for easy side access to the laptop you’ve stowed away. On that same side is a handle so you can carry the whole backpack on its side if it feels better.

Around the back is a strap to allow the Quad Lock Traverse to be slid over your luggage handle. It’s loose enough to make this easy to do on most bags.

In addition to that main compartment, which – frankly – is the least used area of the backpack in my time, there’s a side pocket that might fit a bottle or drink, plus two top access compartments too.

The first compartment has a short zipper – perhaps 15cm across, which gives access to a small pocket, enough for your easy-access items like phone, headphones, cards, passport, and wallet.

Behind it, between the main compartment zipper and that smaller one, is a zip that goes half the distance of the main compartment, but allows full deep access to the bag with a whole range of smaller pockets for things like pens, phones, batteries, and mesh zipped pockets.

I found all this utterly handy and really easy to use.

When I get a product like this, I often use it and then wonder – what would I pay for this? Without actually checking the price. For the Quad Lock Traverse, I assumed this would be a high 0 product, maybe 9 or 9.

In fact, it’s 9 – I reckon that’s a bargain.

Web: Quad Lock