I miss travel. I think everyone who travelled before misses it too. Everyone expresses it differently. For me, it’s diving into another gear obsession, and planning out the best way to make my travel as easy as possible. If you’re not familiar with the one bag philosophy, it’s the idea of packing fewer, higher quality items into a single bag to make transit smoother and your trip easier. The less you need to think about while you’re at your destination, the better!
Of course if you’re going to be one bagging, you need a bag. Being a Peak Design fan, my first thought was the Peak Design Travel Backpack, but I quickly decided it was a bit too big, too expensive, and too heavy for what I needed. Also, dropping my kit down from Sony to Fuji really decreased my camera footprint, so I decided on selling my everyday backpack. Taking it’s place as my main bag will be the Bellroy Transit 28L! It’s a fairly subdued look which I like, the weight is good, and the price point was much more affordable than the Peak Design Travel Backpack. It fits my Peak Design Sling in the top, which in transit can double as a tech bag, and should be able to fit a decent size packing cube as well. The laptop sleeve is spacious, so if necessary I can pack my iPad Pro and my work laptop. There’s some nice organization features, and hidden water bottle pockets. Overall, great pickup, even if I’ve only used it a couple times for groceries so far.
I’m also evaluating fabrics. One bag clothing at peak should be either fast to dry, or odor resistant, or ideally both. It’d be nice if the fabric regulated body temperature in either hot or cold, and also resists wrinkles. That puts cotton out of the running unfortunately. Since you’re packing less, you’re either looking to get multiple wears out of something, or you’re looking for something you can wash in the evening quickly that will dry while you sleep.
I started with a few synthetics from Uniqlo, but I’ll also be trying out some merino as well in a few weeks. The synthetics are two of the three from Uniqlo I want to try, Airism, and Heattech. Airism is poly/spandex, and super light, generally coined as an undershirt material, but can in a pinch work great as a fast drying, super compact travel shirt. It’s a bit technical looking with some sheen to it, but in my initial testing it dries after a hand wash in about 2 hours. Heattech is a blend of more materials, dries a little slower (About 3 hours, still extremely quick!), but ultimately feels more like one of my H&M cotton shirts. I think between the two I’d choose Heattech as my packed shirt.
I plan on trying an Icebreaker Anatomica short sleeve in a few weeks, which is a merino/nylon/elastane blend. They’re definitely a little pricey, but if the fit is good and they’re as smell resistant as they claim, I could possibly get away with 2-3 of them for a full trip. From my understanding they’re also fairly fast drying, lighter weight, and they have great heat regulation properties.
I’m testing socks and underwear too. I’ve been on the same Hanes crew cotton poly blend forever, and they generally stink after one wear. They also take up a bunch of space. My first stop for socks is Darn Tough. Vermont based, merino blend socks with an unconditional lifetime warranty. I went with 1/4 ultralights, and thanks to a distributor error, ended up getting 3 extra pairs of no shows for free as well. I stress tested these at home and got about 5 days out of them before I decided to put them in the wash, and really, I didn’t notice any funk on them then. I still want to grab a more cushioned crew version which I think would be better for colder climates, but so far the ultralights have been great even down to -10c here.
For underwear, I’m currently on synthetics from Calvin Klein. Again, poly/spandex blend, they fit like my normal cotton calvins, but dry a lot faster. Overall, I’m happy, but I’m going to grab a pair of Icebreaker Anatomicas just to try. I can’t see myself being comfortable wearing underwear for more than a day, but hey, it’s science time!
I still haven’t found a tech hoodie that’s 100% attractive for me. There’s a few options from the likes of (surprise) Icebreaker and Lululemon that I’ll try thanks to generous return policies, but nothing has stuck 100% yet. More on hoodies later.
For pants, I’m going to start with some technical pants from Lululemon, the ABC skinnies in warpsteme fabric. Quick drying, lots of stretch, etc. Should pack light, and if I like them 2 pairs of those and a pair of the joggers should last me a good long while.
Anyway, quick detour into me missing travel. More to come as it comes. Cheers!