Chicagoan Takes a Hike [with the Addax 31]
I had three thousand words already written on this bag and I trashed all of them.
Most folks reviewing this bag are going to talk about using it for everyday carry or travel.
That's not what I used it for.
And it isn't what excites me most about a roll-top backpack with an exterior water bottle pocket.
The first second I saw the bag (it was sent as a surprise) I saw both those features and thought "Holy ****, they finally made a hiking backpack."
So I'm going to skip straight past all the EDC and travel talk, and tell you how well this works as a hiking daypack, because that's how I use it.
Size
It's a big bag! Why? It's tall, and wide. But it's shallow.
Normally I can't stand big backpacks. I won't buy much less wear a S25 or SN30.
But this bag reminds me most of the Luminary - it uses height for storage more than depth.
This means the load stays close to your back, making it a more stable and comfortable carry.
It also means it's easier to pack the bag more evenly, because the items stack atop each other within a narrow circumference - you don't feel like a turtle carrying his shell wearing this bag, even when it's packed full.
Weight
Like a few others have said, it's heavy right out of the box.
How heavy? The ballistic version I got is 3 pounds, empty.
For perspective: when I go backpacking, my tent, sleeping bag, and backpack COMBINED weigh a little over 3 pounds, and those are the three biggest, heaviest items I carry.
A lot of that weight comes from incorporating a suspended, padded, laptop compartment with both interior and exterior access.
If it doesn't go without saying, when I go hiking, I don't exactly carry the tablet along with me on the trail, and it left me wanting a version of this bag that could remove that feature and reduce the weight.
I did not get an internal frame or hip belt (only the stock 1.5" unpadded webbing waist strap) so I can't speak to any difference made to carrying comfort by the accessories.
Choosing Xpac instead of Ballistic will save you 4 ounces, and, had I the choice, I'd probably have swung for that as an easy way to cut weight without removing any functionality from the bag.
Price
I don't mind the price, and as someone who buys ultralight hiking gear, I've accepted that certain materials just cost more money, and beyond that, you pay for the quality you get.
Tom Bihn just uses quality materials (their zippers especially are top-notch!) and at this point in my life, I don't think I could buy a bag from any less a brand, even if it means paying more (or a lot more) than an average cost, and I'm completely OK with that.
First Impressions
This bag was a gift. Literal gift. I wrote a blog post, and Maia thanked me by putting a free bag in the mail.
Closer to shipment, I learned it was going to be a new product, and there would be a few accessories, too.
But that's it. A "bag." So I had no idea what I was going to get.
The box that came in the mail was the biggest branded one they use, and when it arrived, I cracked it right open, took one look, shouted "YES!" as I noticed the roll top and external water bottle pocket, and thought, "Holy s***, Jose finally designed a hiking backpack."
I'm a methodical person, almost to a fault, and there's little I do (or eat) that isn't premeditated.
So I didn't know what bag I was getting until I actually saw it for the first time. I mean, hell, we can go on Yelp and look at pictures of the menu items we order for dinner months before we sit down for our reservations, so to be completely surprised was a total freakin' delight, and probably the most fun I've ever had opening a Tom Bihn box.
Jose made some smart design moves with his debut bag design - the Addax is filled with homage to traditional, familiar Tom Bihn design features, and he incorporates these without losing any of his own originality.
It reminds me a lot of how Hans Zimmer wrote the musical score for the most recent James Bond movie - instead of relying solely on an original theme, he borrowed melodies from previous films, and wasn't subtle about it. Loud, brassy horns, blaring out "Gold-fing-er!" Yep. They're in there unabashedly. It wasn't lazy. It was clever, and most importantly, nostalgic. It ties the new together with the old in a meaningful way, and in the end, makes you love the whole more than the sum of its parts.
The overall design is familiar: it's a riff on a style popular with ultralight hikers, which essentially takes a roll-top dry bag, and adds shoulder straps and a few outside pockets.
But what I appreciate most is that Jose improved upon the design, making it all at once recognizable, original, and timeless.
It's not fad-driven or trend-setting, and that's great, because steering around those things is how you get from today to staying power.
Field Testing
For me, the best way to test how comfortable a bag is to wear for long periods of time is to take it hiking.
So far, I've carried the Addax around for 10 miles of hiking across 2 different weekend day hikes at Volo Bog State Natural Area and the Paul Douglas Forest Preserve here in Illinois.
For me, two things matter: how easily it packs/unpacks, and how comfortably it carries.
Packing
The Addax, like the Luminary and Cambiata, is self-supporting and stands on its own. The main compartment tends to keep the heaviest items at the bottom, and beyond the weight, the structure built into the bag keeps the sides rigid enough that once you set the bag down and unroll the top, it stays upright, and it stays open.
A lot of folks will b**** about a roll-top consolidating everything toward the bottom because, well, gravity. If you throw everything into the one same main compartment, sure, it's going to become a clusterf***, and the same would happen in a Synapse. Or Shadow Guide. Or Paragon.
But guess what? Jose is a smart dude and thought about that.
So he gave you five pockets on the outside, five(?) pockets on the inside, and 9 O-Rings for you to keep your stuff straight.
Roll-tops without organization, do, in fact, suck. Most ultralight hiking backpacks are nothing more than dry bags with shoulder straps and three outside pockets, meaning whatever you want to keep dry gets all mixed together in the one and only main compartment.
The outside pockets keep your small stuff within quick and easy reach, and if the weather turns, you can unfurl the top and stash the small stuff in a couple small mesh pockets near the top. If you've got bigger stuff to keep separate, there's a stretch mesh pocket at the bottom of the bag, in front of the laptop compartment.
(FYI, I only count 4 interior pockets, but the website listing mentions 5 - am I missing one?)
So what all fits inside an Addax 31?
A hell of a lot, turns out. Most, if not all, your EDC and 10 Essentials items will fit inside the smaller compartments, and spill a little into the bottom of the main compartment. Which is great. You can toss all the big, bulky stuff on top, like a packed lunch, extra or unneeded layers, etc.
---
The Exterior Upper Compartment is shallow and more organized, with 2 O-Rings and 2 mesh pockets.
What fits: pocket comb, lip balm, Nik's Minimalist No. 3 Wallet, headlamp.
---
The Exterior Lower Compartment is deep and less organized, with 2 o-rings. It is an open compartment without dividers or pockets.
What fits: camera w/ spare battery, spare memory card, and case, 2 breakfast bars, Mini GWOP with First Aid items (wet wipes, moleskin, finger bandages, blister bandages, leukotape, roll gauze, hand sanitizer, non-aspirin, antacid, antibiotic ointment, hydrocortisone cream, loperamide, diphenhydramine, medi-lyte, tick removal key, safety pins, dropper bottle of soap, dropped bottle of contact lens solution).
---
The Exterior Side Compartment is tall (almost the full height of the bag) AND deep, and easily will fit a second bottle of water (hikers drink in twos) but also has 1 O-Ring that's great for stashing your keys, because no one wants to hear you jangle like a school janitor down the trail.
What fits: key strap, house, office and car keys, 2nd bottle of water, rehydration tablets.
---
The Exterior Water Bottle Pocket is made from stretch mesh, which can snugly hold a variety of water bottle sizes and will drain any condensation coming off the bottle.
What fits: x1 16.9-ounce recyclable bottle of drinking water, but it also fits the super-obligatory, one-liter-size bottle of Smart Water hikers love to lug around with them.
---
The Main Interior Compartment has 4 o-rings, the built-in suspended and padded laptop compartment, two small mesh pockets toward the front of the top, and one large mesh pocket at the back of the bottom.
What fits: pocketknife, lighter, matchbook, compass, medium power bank, cord, vertical packing organizer cube (with small and large backup power banks, charging cord, and wall plug charger), cookset (pot, lid, stove, fuel), small grab bag (spoon, collapsible cup, microfiber towel, instant coffee, pour over coffee), Aeronaut 30 Mesh Laundry Stuff Sack (spare tee, spare underwear, spare socks, rain jacket, rain pants, rain mitts, ankle gaiters, sun hat, bug head net, warm hat, warm gloves).
Carrying
This is where this bag excels.
The exterior features are pretty much the same as my "Why doesn't Tom Bihn making a damn hiking backpack?" wishlist.
What makes the bag so comfortable to carry?
The profile is tall, wide, and shallow, so it keeps all your gear close to your back and doesn't hang off you or pull you backwards.
Shoulder straps are thick, have smooth edges (great for tank top weather when this thing might go next-to-skin), and have a sternum strap (which can be outfitted with a whistle sternum strap if you really want to take this out hiking!). There's also a set of sewn-in strap keepers, which I appreciate, because if you're going to use this bag for an active hobby, there's a good chance the regular strap keepers might pop off.
The stock waist strap is 1.5" and wider than the typical Gatekeeper Waist Strap. Now, if your torso length is about the same as the height of this bag, and that belt can wrap around the tops of your hips, you *might* be able to redistribute some of the pack weight from your shoulders to your hips. If those two measurements don't line up, all this thing does is keep the pack stable and close (probably most appreciated by bike commuters more than hikers). Like the sternum strap, it's totally removable if you don't want to use it.
I'm six feet tall with an 18.5 inch torso, and when I tighten the shoulder straps enough to make the pack sit correctly flush with the tops of my shoulders, the waist belt cuts across my literal waist, and I can't use the belt for weight redistribution. This also means that the a la carte frame sheet wouldn't help with weight, and would only serve to make the back panel smoother and flatter than it would be stock.
What I appreciate MOST about the design of the outside of the bag is the fact Jose gave this thing the same skeleton-style, molded foam and mesh back panel that's on the Shadow Guide packs. Why? It actually creates gaps between your back and the bag, so air can pass through, keeping you cooler and preventing heat rash (which will happen if you wear a solid fabric pack like the DLBP on a hot day!).
The single biggest hiker-friendly design feature?
AN EXTERNAL. WATER. BOTTLE. POCKET. Read that one more time.
The centered internal water bottle pocket was a great way to keep the bag balanced, but it wasn't great at keeping the wearer hydrated.
Jose's side water bottle pocket can be reached by removing a shoulder strap, swinging the bag in front of your body, and grabbing it that way. It also keeps the condensation outside of the pack, where it's better able to ventilate and keep dry.
I've found the external side pocket is awesome for storing keys on a long key strap, with more than enough room left over for a second bottle of water, snacks, and some rehydration tablets. That pocket doesn't nearly get enough credit, because it's one of the easiest to reach while you're still wearing the bag.
The external front side pockets are great for the small stuff, like a wallet, lip balm, camera, etc., and they're very easy to access when the bag keeps itself upright and the compartments all open with curved zippers.
Loose Ends
But what about the laptop compartment? Luggage pass-through? Internal frame? Front attachment point? O-Rings?
Didn't use 'em. O-Rings to me feel like trying to walk around the house with a corded telephone (showing my age, here) and I prefer to just find accessories (like the Vertical Packing Cubelet) that slide into the built-in pockets like a cordless phone into its dock.
I'd like to try the internal frame out when it becomes available - my only hesitancy in overpacking the bag, or packing it more closely to its maximum capacity, is that the body tends to take on a bowed, barrel shape the more you fill it.
If I could, I'd trade the pack in for a 26L - I don't at all find it awkward when packs don't cover the full length of my back and honestly prefer smaller packs when I go hiking (my "sweet spot" is typically between 15 and 25 liters of capacity). This is entirely personal preference, and some folks - especially the taller kings and queens amongst us - will probably prefer the larger size.
(Side note - any tall folks test out the Addax 26 and can speak for how it might fit on a 6' tall frame?)
My biggest wish list item has always been a hiking backpack - the only bags I own that aren't made by Tom Bihn are the ones I use for backpacking.
And, while they might not make one right now, or ever, maybe, they have made a backpack I would feel comfortable using on day hikes.
Jose, like Tom himself said - this is a Tom Bihn bag, and congratulations. It's a hell of a debut. If ever I make it out to company headquarters one day, I'm giving you a high-five in person.
I had three thousand words already written on this bag and I trashed all of them.
Most folks reviewing this bag are going to talk about using it for everyday carry or travel.
That's not what I used it for.
And it isn't what excites me most about a roll-top backpack with an exterior water bottle pocket.
The first second I saw the bag (it was sent as a surprise) I saw both those features and thought "Holy ****, they finally made a hiking backpack."
So I'm going to skip straight past all the EDC and travel talk, and tell you how well this works as a hiking daypack, because that's how I use it.
Size
It's a big bag! Why? It's tall, and wide. But it's shallow.
Normally I can't stand big backpacks. I won't buy much less wear a S25 or SN30.
But this bag reminds me most of the Luminary - it uses height for storage more than depth.
This means the load stays close to your back, making it a more stable and comfortable carry.
It also means it's easier to pack the bag more evenly, because the items stack atop each other within a narrow circumference - you don't feel like a turtle carrying his shell wearing this bag, even when it's packed full.
Weight
Like a few others have said, it's heavy right out of the box.
How heavy? The ballistic version I got is 3 pounds, empty.
For perspective: when I go backpacking, my tent, sleeping bag, and backpack COMBINED weigh a little over 3 pounds, and those are the three biggest, heaviest items I carry.
A lot of that weight comes from incorporating a suspended, padded, laptop compartment with both interior and exterior access.
If it doesn't go without saying, when I go hiking, I don't exactly carry the tablet along with me on the trail, and it left me wanting a version of this bag that could remove that feature and reduce the weight.
I did not get an internal frame or hip belt (only the stock 1.5" unpadded webbing waist strap) so I can't speak to any difference made to carrying comfort by the accessories.
Choosing Xpac instead of Ballistic will save you 4 ounces, and, had I the choice, I'd probably have swung for that as an easy way to cut weight without removing any functionality from the bag.
Price
I don't mind the price, and as someone who buys ultralight hiking gear, I've accepted that certain materials just cost more money, and beyond that, you pay for the quality you get.
Tom Bihn just uses quality materials (their zippers especially are top-notch!) and at this point in my life, I don't think I could buy a bag from any less a brand, even if it means paying more (or a lot more) than an average cost, and I'm completely OK with that.
First Impressions
This bag was a gift. Literal gift. I wrote a blog post, and Maia thanked me by putting a free bag in the mail.
Closer to shipment, I learned it was going to be a new product, and there would be a few accessories, too.
But that's it. A "bag." So I had no idea what I was going to get.
The box that came in the mail was the biggest branded one they use, and when it arrived, I cracked it right open, took one look, shouted "YES!" as I noticed the roll top and external water bottle pocket, and thought, "Holy s***, Jose finally designed a hiking backpack."
I'm a methodical person, almost to a fault, and there's little I do (or eat) that isn't premeditated.
So I didn't know what bag I was getting until I actually saw it for the first time. I mean, hell, we can go on Yelp and look at pictures of the menu items we order for dinner months before we sit down for our reservations, so to be completely surprised was a total freakin' delight, and probably the most fun I've ever had opening a Tom Bihn box.
Jose made some smart design moves with his debut bag design - the Addax is filled with homage to traditional, familiar Tom Bihn design features, and he incorporates these without losing any of his own originality.
It reminds me a lot of how Hans Zimmer wrote the musical score for the most recent James Bond movie - instead of relying solely on an original theme, he borrowed melodies from previous films, and wasn't subtle about it. Loud, brassy horns, blaring out "Gold-fing-er!" Yep. They're in there unabashedly. It wasn't lazy. It was clever, and most importantly, nostalgic. It ties the new together with the old in a meaningful way, and in the end, makes you love the whole more than the sum of its parts.
The overall design is familiar: it's a riff on a style popular with ultralight hikers, which essentially takes a roll-top dry bag, and adds shoulder straps and a few outside pockets.
But what I appreciate most is that Jose improved upon the design, making it all at once recognizable, original, and timeless.
It's not fad-driven or trend-setting, and that's great, because steering around those things is how you get from today to staying power.
Field Testing
For me, the best way to test how comfortable a bag is to wear for long periods of time is to take it hiking.
So far, I've carried the Addax around for 10 miles of hiking across 2 different weekend day hikes at Volo Bog State Natural Area and the Paul Douglas Forest Preserve here in Illinois.
For me, two things matter: how easily it packs/unpacks, and how comfortably it carries.
Packing
The Addax, like the Luminary and Cambiata, is self-supporting and stands on its own. The main compartment tends to keep the heaviest items at the bottom, and beyond the weight, the structure built into the bag keeps the sides rigid enough that once you set the bag down and unroll the top, it stays upright, and it stays open.
A lot of folks will b**** about a roll-top consolidating everything toward the bottom because, well, gravity. If you throw everything into the one same main compartment, sure, it's going to become a clusterf***, and the same would happen in a Synapse. Or Shadow Guide. Or Paragon.
But guess what? Jose is a smart dude and thought about that.
So he gave you five pockets on the outside, five(?) pockets on the inside, and 9 O-Rings for you to keep your stuff straight.
Roll-tops without organization, do, in fact, suck. Most ultralight hiking backpacks are nothing more than dry bags with shoulder straps and three outside pockets, meaning whatever you want to keep dry gets all mixed together in the one and only main compartment.
The outside pockets keep your small stuff within quick and easy reach, and if the weather turns, you can unfurl the top and stash the small stuff in a couple small mesh pockets near the top. If you've got bigger stuff to keep separate, there's a stretch mesh pocket at the bottom of the bag, in front of the laptop compartment.
(FYI, I only count 4 interior pockets, but the website listing mentions 5 - am I missing one?)
So what all fits inside an Addax 31?
A hell of a lot, turns out. Most, if not all, your EDC and 10 Essentials items will fit inside the smaller compartments, and spill a little into the bottom of the main compartment. Which is great. You can toss all the big, bulky stuff on top, like a packed lunch, extra or unneeded layers, etc.
---
The Exterior Upper Compartment is shallow and more organized, with 2 O-Rings and 2 mesh pockets.
What fits: pocket comb, lip balm, Nik's Minimalist No. 3 Wallet, headlamp.
---
The Exterior Lower Compartment is deep and less organized, with 2 o-rings. It is an open compartment without dividers or pockets.
What fits: camera w/ spare battery, spare memory card, and case, 2 breakfast bars, Mini GWOP with First Aid items (wet wipes, moleskin, finger bandages, blister bandages, leukotape, roll gauze, hand sanitizer, non-aspirin, antacid, antibiotic ointment, hydrocortisone cream, loperamide, diphenhydramine, medi-lyte, tick removal key, safety pins, dropper bottle of soap, dropped bottle of contact lens solution).
---
The Exterior Side Compartment is tall (almost the full height of the bag) AND deep, and easily will fit a second bottle of water (hikers drink in twos) but also has 1 O-Ring that's great for stashing your keys, because no one wants to hear you jangle like a school janitor down the trail.
What fits: key strap, house, office and car keys, 2nd bottle of water, rehydration tablets.
---
The Exterior Water Bottle Pocket is made from stretch mesh, which can snugly hold a variety of water bottle sizes and will drain any condensation coming off the bottle.
What fits: x1 16.9-ounce recyclable bottle of drinking water, but it also fits the super-obligatory, one-liter-size bottle of Smart Water hikers love to lug around with them.
---
The Main Interior Compartment has 4 o-rings, the built-in suspended and padded laptop compartment, two small mesh pockets toward the front of the top, and one large mesh pocket at the back of the bottom.
What fits: pocketknife, lighter, matchbook, compass, medium power bank, cord, vertical packing organizer cube (with small and large backup power banks, charging cord, and wall plug charger), cookset (pot, lid, stove, fuel), small grab bag (spoon, collapsible cup, microfiber towel, instant coffee, pour over coffee), Aeronaut 30 Mesh Laundry Stuff Sack (spare tee, spare underwear, spare socks, rain jacket, rain pants, rain mitts, ankle gaiters, sun hat, bug head net, warm hat, warm gloves).
Carrying
This is where this bag excels.
The exterior features are pretty much the same as my "Why doesn't Tom Bihn making a damn hiking backpack?" wishlist.
What makes the bag so comfortable to carry?
The profile is tall, wide, and shallow, so it keeps all your gear close to your back and doesn't hang off you or pull you backwards.
Shoulder straps are thick, have smooth edges (great for tank top weather when this thing might go next-to-skin), and have a sternum strap (which can be outfitted with a whistle sternum strap if you really want to take this out hiking!). There's also a set of sewn-in strap keepers, which I appreciate, because if you're going to use this bag for an active hobby, there's a good chance the regular strap keepers might pop off.
The stock waist strap is 1.5" and wider than the typical Gatekeeper Waist Strap. Now, if your torso length is about the same as the height of this bag, and that belt can wrap around the tops of your hips, you *might* be able to redistribute some of the pack weight from your shoulders to your hips. If those two measurements don't line up, all this thing does is keep the pack stable and close (probably most appreciated by bike commuters more than hikers). Like the sternum strap, it's totally removable if you don't want to use it.
I'm six feet tall with an 18.5 inch torso, and when I tighten the shoulder straps enough to make the pack sit correctly flush with the tops of my shoulders, the waist belt cuts across my literal waist, and I can't use the belt for weight redistribution. This also means that the a la carte frame sheet wouldn't help with weight, and would only serve to make the back panel smoother and flatter than it would be stock.
What I appreciate MOST about the design of the outside of the bag is the fact Jose gave this thing the same skeleton-style, molded foam and mesh back panel that's on the Shadow Guide packs. Why? It actually creates gaps between your back and the bag, so air can pass through, keeping you cooler and preventing heat rash (which will happen if you wear a solid fabric pack like the DLBP on a hot day!).
The single biggest hiker-friendly design feature?
AN EXTERNAL. WATER. BOTTLE. POCKET. Read that one more time.
The centered internal water bottle pocket was a great way to keep the bag balanced, but it wasn't great at keeping the wearer hydrated.
Jose's side water bottle pocket can be reached by removing a shoulder strap, swinging the bag in front of your body, and grabbing it that way. It also keeps the condensation outside of the pack, where it's better able to ventilate and keep dry.
I've found the external side pocket is awesome for storing keys on a long key strap, with more than enough room left over for a second bottle of water, snacks, and some rehydration tablets. That pocket doesn't nearly get enough credit, because it's one of the easiest to reach while you're still wearing the bag.
The external front side pockets are great for the small stuff, like a wallet, lip balm, camera, etc., and they're very easy to access when the bag keeps itself upright and the compartments all open with curved zippers.
Loose Ends
But what about the laptop compartment? Luggage pass-through? Internal frame? Front attachment point? O-Rings?
Didn't use 'em. O-Rings to me feel like trying to walk around the house with a corded telephone (showing my age, here) and I prefer to just find accessories (like the Vertical Packing Cubelet) that slide into the built-in pockets like a cordless phone into its dock.
I'd like to try the internal frame out when it becomes available - my only hesitancy in overpacking the bag, or packing it more closely to its maximum capacity, is that the body tends to take on a bowed, barrel shape the more you fill it.
If I could, I'd trade the pack in for a 26L - I don't at all find it awkward when packs don't cover the full length of my back and honestly prefer smaller packs when I go hiking (my "sweet spot" is typically between 15 and 25 liters of capacity). This is entirely personal preference, and some folks - especially the taller kings and queens amongst us - will probably prefer the larger size.
(Side note - any tall folks test out the Addax 26 and can speak for how it might fit on a 6' tall frame?)
My biggest wish list item has always been a hiking backpack - the only bags I own that aren't made by Tom Bihn are the ones I use for backpacking.
And, while they might not make one right now, or ever, maybe, they have made a backpack I would feel comfortable using on day hikes.
Jose, like Tom himself said - this is a Tom Bihn bag, and congratulations. It's a hell of a debut. If ever I make it out to company headquarters one day, I'm giving you a high-five in person.
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