Mainstream apparel designers have adapted to post-pandemic consumer demands. Whether with an emphasis on comfort or the durability to withstand day-long adventures, they’re releasing garments suited to the lifestyles folks are leading nowadays: outside more often, more mobile and more interested in multi-functional designs. As such, accessory, bag and luggage makers are adapting too — like Bellroy, for example.
“When the world turned ‘remote,’ we started shifting our designs away from the office and towards styles that could take on a life outside,” James Jeffrey, Bellroy’s Lead Product Designer, says. “Being lightweight was not the only objective. We wanted them to be soft with stability, resistant without weight, technical and human.”
None of the brand’s bags have ever been “heavy,” but Bellroy‘s considered shift resulted in a new line of lighter bags with an appropriate name: Lite. It features several leather-free items in two different colors, Chalk and Shadow: the Lite Daypack, Lite Duffel, Lite Sling and Lite Tote. None of the items are all that big — the Lite Duffel, for example, has a capacity of 30 L; our go-to backpack, The North Face Recon, has the same amount of space — but they’re plenty practical for everyday use.
Each style uses ripstop, an ultra-thin yet durable fabric created from recycled plastic, for its exterior, the design choice that shed the most weight. Ripstop is three times lighter than the materials most manufacturers use, which makes the Lite Daypack 0.77 lbs versus the aforementioned North Face Recon Backpack (which is 2.56 lbs). But it isn’t only the backpack that’s impressively light; even the Lite Duffel weighs less: 1.32 lbs versus that same 2.56 lbs. It still stores plenty, plus it can, like the other bags in this collection, be folded down to fit inside another. The ripstop makes the shells puncture-proof but super flexible.
BellroyLite Daypack (Chalk)
Bellroy
