Cotopaxi Allpa 35L Del Día Dark Travel Set: Sustainable and elegant

As we got Outside the home, gear freak Wired Our reviews team writes about our favorite bags and EDCs. Today’s review is Buthaina Shukran She exclaims her love for her Lululemon gym bag. You can also check out other Bag Check stories where Wired Writers share their right to choose.

There is a certain The kind of traveler who spent years quietly angry at the luggage industry. The person who stood on the baggage carousels watches identical cases rotating endlessly; who injured his shoulder dragging an unbalanced suitcase through the airport; Who desperately dug through a seemingly bottomless chamber, searching for a specific charging cord tangled like spaghetti. Fortunately, Cotopaxi’s Allpa Travel Pack Del Día Dark can help solve most of these problems while storing a surprising amount. (You’ll have to untangle your own cords.) It might even take the crown from my previous pick for best bag in the world.

Now, it’s been eight long years since WIRED has reviewed this bag. We loved it at the time, but over time, the bags have gotten better. Fortunately, so does the popular Allpa Travel Pack.

The new Allpa features better weight distribution (thanks to air mesh shoulder and hip belts), which promises more comfortable carrying. And it’s really comfortable, even fully loaded. There’s also an additional external expandable water bottle pocket that can hold up to 32 ounces, as well as a luggage pass-through strap that easily slides over the handle of the spinner.

It also now comes with a stunning Del Día Dark look befitting Kylo Ren, made from 100 percent black leftover fabric, but with zippers and bright, shiny accents. The aesthetic gives you the best of both fashion and function: a black bag that won’t show the inevitable dirt and grime that any travel bag will collect, but with enough flashes of color that it’s interesting to the eye. He’s a looker, which is no small feat in this space.

The interior panels and pockets of Allpa will be a unique design for your bag, since each Del Día bag uses only leftover scraps of material in all colors, hand-selected by sewers. It can be aquamarine blue, dark purple, cherry red, or bright yellow. My color, as you can see below, is sparkling with multiple colors. It’s a neat reversal of typical consumer logic, where you obsess over coordinated colors and receive exactly what you ordered. Here, the physical constraints of responsible manufacturing become the key design feature.

Cotopaxi has long been ahead of its time in terms of ethical and sustainable manufacturing. It was certified as a Benefit Corporation (B Corp) shortly after its founding, solidifying its commitment to working for the public good. One percent of annual revenue goes to a foundation that provides grants to nonprofit organizations. As this applies to Allpa’s design, no two bags are identical, and both could have ended up in a landfill.