25 Best Backpacks For Everyday Use In 2023

From the college student to the busy professional, the North Face Jester Backpack was designed for those who value organization, simplicity, and above all, comfort.

It features two main compartments, two mesh water bottle pockets that can double as multi-use pockets, and a front elastic bungee system for external storage.

The large compartment has a 15” padded laptop sleeve and enough room for your books. The second compartment comes with a zip, as well as mesh pockets for small items – depending on the color of your Jester, there’s also an iPad sleeve. 

The FlexVent suspension system, which The North Face is known for, features flexible shoulder straps, a padded mesh back panel, and a breathable lumbar panel ensuring comfortable and ventilated support.

Patagonia’s Refugio brings the best of their outdoor and day-to-day products together into a single bag that you can use for work, travel, or your time off. Though it lacks some of the technical amenities you see in more dedicated products, the Refugio makes up for this by splitting its attention at least partially in the direction of more practical matters.

For example, the Refugio lacks a hipbelt, and features only minimal padding and ventilation along the backplate. But it makes up for this with features built for days in the city or while traveling with things like a laptop sleeve that doubles as a hydration bladder holder, a place to clip your bike light, and an internal organizer that feels more suited for the classroom and office than down trail. We’d recommend the Refugio to people looking for something with utility that they can take out for the occasional hike if needed. 

The Herschel Classic Backpack XL is one of Herschel’s best-selling daily backpacks today. It is known for its signature style— simple but can meet your needs for your everyday commute.

This bag is good enough for a 15” laptop and a few productivity essentials, so it appeals to students and young professionals. What are its pros and cons? Can it make your daily life easy? Let’s dive in to discover the answers!

Whether you’re a fitness center rat, a high-school student, or a young professional, the Under Armour Hustle 4.0 Backpack will suit all your basic needs. 

The UA Storm technology keeps all your stuff dry in any wet weather situation while the adjustable HeatGear shoulder straps offer both breathability and comfort.

The Hustle 4.0 has enough room for all your daily essentials, including a laptop sleeve that can house a 15” laptop, two side water bottle pockets, a spacious bottom compartment for your gym or PE shoes as well as a D-Ring for additional attachment points.

The traditional look and solid build of Fjallraven bags are some of the reasons why people love the brand. Their unmistakable square, Kanken (or Kånken) rucksack is no exception to this. Though it’s unisex, this is a very popular backpack for women.

But if you like an everyday backpack with a timeless look that also has a laptop sleeve, you might want to get yourself a Kanken. It might also be appealing for anyone searching for “the one” with the best value for its price.

We’ve had a Fjallraven Kanken in daily use for a few weeks, testing it the best way possible–as an everyday bag for the commute or as a daypack. The included seat pad is a boon for sitting on a bench or on a rock in the forest.

Read on, and we’ll walk you through every point you need to know.

With the Heimplanet Travel Pack 34, you’re truly paying for quality and style. The clamshell design makes storing and organizing your items simple, quick and intuitive. There’s enough space for a weekend trip while the pack itself is compact enough to use commuting to work.

This premium backpack is made of high quality and sustainable materials and has a sleek and stylish appearance. The thickness of the padding and the quality of the material will definitely protect your belongings in most situations. This makes it the perfect backpack for business trips or a work backpack where it’s exterior matches your professional environment.

The ultimate backpack for athletes features a zippered bottom ball pocket that can hold a size 5 soccer ball, dual water bottle pockets, a tricot-lined soft pocket to store your valuables, and enough room to fit all your gear.

The Stadium II Backpack has a clean look and you can take it to the gym or the field without any worries as the bottom of the bag is made with water-resistant material, which will keep your stuff safe and dry.

Fit for both outdoor adventures and everyday use, the Venture Pal Backpack is roomy, lightweight, and best of all, it only costs 20 bucks.

Aside from being one of the most lightweight backpacks on the market, weighing just 0.7lbs, it’s one of the most compact packs as well. You can easily fold it into the included zipped pouch for storage, which makes it ideal for traveling.

It features one large compartment, two zipped front pockets for small items, and two side pockets for your water bottle. 

Also, a double-layer bottom for extra strength, adjustable and breathable mesh shoulder straps with sponge padding for comfort, and a chest strap with a whistle buckle to lock it in place securely.

If you’re a bike commuter who needs a bag for your high-tech gear as well as your EDC essentials, then the Timbuk2 Spire Backpack was made for you. Think urban office warfare in a top-loading design and this is what you get.

It features a front zip pocket with an organization panel, a large main compartment with an internal slip pocket for a 15” laptop, a side stretch pocket for a water bottle or an umbrella, as well as a Napoleon pocket under the front flap. 

Some cool features worth mentioning are the side zipper that allows easy access to your laptop, a bottle opener on one of the shoulder straps, and of course the daisy chain for attaching a bike lock, carabiners, or lights.

Oakley is best known for outfitting world-class athletes who like to innovate and push the envelope and its Men’s Kitchen Sink Backpack is on-brand. They’ve thrown the kitchen sink of features at the backpack segment here.

Pockets abound in this versatile, sturdy, and water-resistant backpack that comes with enough room to fit just about everything – from your 17” laptop in the padded side-access sleeve to your sneakers in the bottom shoe compartment.

Comfort is ensured by the compression-molded back panel, padded shoulder straps, and waist and chest straps.

Functionality combined with a casual design makes this the perfect everyday backpack for school, work, as well as leisure. Similar to JanSport, this backpack shines as in its simplicity–even though it does have a laptop compartment.

It’s spacious without being too big or bulky. It comes with a padded section for your laptop, a netted compartment great for storing your valuables, and a front pocket for easy-to-access items.

Perfect for traveling and commuting, the Swissgear 1900 Backpack is just like a Swiss army knife, it offers superior quality and comes with lots of compartments. This was chosen because it just feels solidly built. 

Despite the pockets galore, everything is well divided. It even features quick-access padded compartments for both your laptop and iPad ensuring a hassle-free airport security experience. 

Besides, an organization front pocket for all of your writing utensils and small items, a U-zip pocket for easy-to-access essentials, as well as two breathable side compartments great for holding water bottles and umbrellas.

The adjustable shoulder straps are contoured with mesh fabric and the back is a padded panel with Airflow ventilation technology for added support and comfort.

Not the most versatile or feature-packed backpack in the market, but if all you require is a sturdy and affordable pack to load it with your everyday necessities, then the JanSport SuperBreak is the one for you. 

This classic backpack comes with one large main compartment, a side water bottle pocket, and a front pocket with an organizer for accessories and small items.

Despite its basic look, there are a few cool prints to choose from.

The Carhartt Legacy Classic Work Backpack is another functionally-minded pack designed to keep all your everyday carry essentials organized. Both comfortable and rugged, it is designed for tools and office goods alike

The main compartment comes with a padded laptop pocket, a tablet sleeve, and enough room for a few books. The front pocket is great for storing small items.

Its design is as basic as it gets but if there’s one thing Carhartt is known for is its durability.

From the city to the trails and anywhere in between, the Osprey Daylite Travel Daypack is versatile, comfortable, and full of features. Not the classic boxey bag, this backpack has a more rounded profile you’ll be happy to have when treading through dense forests.

The large main compartment has different sections to help you keep things organized. It features a mesh organization panel, a laptop sleeve, a zipper pocket for important items, as well as plenty of room for your daily essentials. 

There are also dual stretch mesh side pockets and side compression straps, a scratch-free pocket for your sunglasses or your phone, and one of the cool features of this daypack is that it can expand from 18L to a total volume of 24L.

A good quality carry-on backpack is a must-have for most travelers, but this can cost you a pretty penny. That’s where the AmazonBasics line comes to the rescue! They offer a good quality range that gets the job done at a low price point. While some travel carry-on backpacks are stylish and sleek they lack functionality or space.

While other bags with a lot of internal space lack comfort and end up damaging your posture and your back due to the heavyweight being carried wrong. In our quest to review the AmazonBasics Carry-on Travel Backpack, we focused on Construction, External Specs, and Features, and Capacity.

The Able Carry Daily Backpack is an interesting bag that has an urban tactical feel to it.

This sleek 20-liter work backpack is a compact storage ideal for your everyday use. You might see it as plain, simple, and boring, but that’ll change as soon as you open it up.

Figuring out the right bag for your style, purpose and needs is beset by too many options. After testing this bag for a couple of weeks it seems this one is intended for commuting, for students, for bikers, for low-profile activities and for speed.

We’ll get to how well it functioned for us, but it was refreshing to see such a streamlined product in a crowded field.

Looks like a good gambit for your daily shenanigans, right?

But does it live up to its promises? Let’s dive into it.

Roll top backpacks are trendy these days, especially among commuters and cyclists. They are an ideal alternative to conventional backpacks with zippers.

With their minimalist yet functional design, most roll top backpacks have many compartments. These compartments allow you to organize your valuables easily.

One of our favorite roll top backpacks today is Stubble & Co The Roll Top. It is intuitively designed for the modern-day commuter. We used it for biking, hiking and traveling too.

Let’s dive in and find out where it excels and what its drawbacks are.

The Bellroy Classic is a 20L all-purpose backpack with quality construction, simple styling, and practical features that you can take from the office to the coffee shop and the gym without looking out of place in either environment.

This is a premium backpack with good design and construction.

It features a spacious main compartment with specific places for both a 15-inch laptop and a tablet, a pen slip, as well as an internal mesh zip pocket for your valuables. 

At the top, you’ll find a water-resistant soft-lined pouch ideal for your sunglasses. And the updated version now comes with a hidden vertical front pocket for quick-to-access items.

This sleek streamlined pack is the perfect combination of sport and elegance. It brings you the best of both worlds whether you need a professional mini backpack during the week at work or a day trip hiking backpack over the weekend this bag has got you covered.

The Motion Arc 20L will appeal to hikers that demand quality and expect comfort to be foremost on the offing. Trail runners, including orienteering athletes will be satisfied too. Though it’s marketed as a daypack, it works very well as a backpack for work too.

When looking for a low-profile backpack that could be used for office as much as for outdoor activities, the one by Mountaintop hits the sweet spot just right. It looks like your typical college/office-friendly backpack but with the features of a hiking pack that make it so versatile. You might think it won’t hold a lot of things, but let us prove you wrong.

This model is able to fit your water bottle, 2 outfits, sunscreen and similar hygiene products, electronic gadgets and a few snacks. Not bad for a 28-liter backpack, right? If you choose the 40-liter one, then you’re in for even more space – the zippered pockets are literally everywhere.

The straps of the backpack have a breathable mesh fabric incorporated into them, which means that your back won’t be hurting after a long day of hiking trails in the woods. The YKK metal zippers across the entire backpack are easy to unzip regardless of which compartment you need to dive into. Besides, they are water-resistant.

Inspired by military assault rucksacks, the Mystery Ranch Urban Assault Backpack is ideal for both the outdoors and the urban jungle. It’s comfortable and functional.

It features a unique three-zipper system so you can conveniently access all contents of your backpack, a plethora of pockets to help you stay organized, along padded sleeves for both an iPad and a laptop.

The Borealis 28 is an affordable and well-rounded daypack somewhere on the spectrum between commuter and hiking bag. Its standout qualities from other favorites in this category are its stoutly constructed laptop sleeve, high-capacity central compartment, and modest price tag.

The Borealis caters more towards a student or urban commuter crowd- though it’s proven more than capable of holding its own on the occasional hike. With all the bells and whistles expected of a capable urban backpack- it’s a great option for people looking to stretch a little extra value out of their day-to-day bag. 

Its timeless design is what draws most people to the Herschel Little America Backpack, but its modern functionality and quality are what turn them into loyal fans. The Herschel backpack is one of the most recognizable brands, pretty impressive given they’ve only been around since 2009.

Inspired by a classic mountaineering style, this backpack offers enough room to fit all your necessities whether you’re a student, a professional, or a traveler. 

While the iconic Moleskine notebooks carry all your ideas, their line of bags will carry all the things you need to move through the day.

With a clean and refined look resembling a Moleskine notebook, this backpack was designed with the everyday commuter in mind, but perhaps one that is more at home in more posh surroundings.

Starting outside, it features two external side pockets for easy-to-access essentials as well as adjustable, padded backpack straps with sliding buckles.

The main compartment has enough room for a 15” laptop and a couple of books. There’s also an organizer for cards and pens, and of course, a My Moleskine notes pocket so you can easily access your notebook.

Designed with your busy life in mind, the Barrage Cargo Backpack from Chrome Industries checks all the boxes in terms of functionality, ruggedness, and versatility. This rucksack is equally for camping as for the concrete jungle.

The main compartment is basically a large watertight roll-top sack with a laptop pocket. On the front of the backpack, there’s an expandable cargo net that works well for carrying things like shoes, groceries, and even a bicycle helmet.

Also, a side, vertical pocket for easy-to-access items as well as two side pockets with a drainage channel for your water bottle and U-lock. 

Lastly, shoulder straps with EVA foam back panel for breathability, a sternum strap with quick release for weight distribution, and daisy chain loops and D-rings on the shoulder straps for extra accessories.

With the ideal of “make it simple” (MIS) in mind, this Californian-based company that specializes in manufacturing military goods has designed a bag to help you tackle the demands of the daily grind. Albeit in a fairly tone-down, simple design.

It features a dual-pocket format, a padded laptop pouch, a small inner mesh zipper pocket for valuables and quick-to-access items, as well as PALS webbing for expandable options.

The MIS backpack has a simple but appealing design, it’s coated with water-resistant urethane, and last but certainly not least its YKK zipper is also self-repairing.

Melding beautiful form and function, the Nomatic Everyday Backpack listened to their customers’ needs and created one of the most functional backpacks in the market. Streamlined to look like the business executive’s backpack, this bag is quite nice.

All the compartments are very well thought-out and it contains numerous smaller pockets, nooks, and crannies for keeping all your work and travel necessities well organized. So, both nice looking and functionally impressive.

It features a full perimeter zipper which gives you a full view for easy packing, magnetic water bottle pockets that snap back into place when not in use, a removable sunglass hard shell, cord pass-through holes, and a versatile strap design that allows you to switch between backpack and briefcase in just a few seconds.  

On top of that, its exterior is strong, water-resistant, and it’s made with reflective ink to keep you visible in the dark. And when you need to pack a bit more, the bag will expand from 20 liters to 24 liters by using the expansion zipper on the bottom.

If you’re style-conscious and appreciate a minimalistic design then the Brooks England Pickwick Day Pack will be your ideal daily companion. It will stick out on the street for its European flavor.

Handmade in Italy and designed with a water-resistant canvas exterior, a roll-top closure, and vegetable-tanned leather details, this bag is both visually striking and functional. There aren’t many compartments, but it’s big enough to fit everything you need to get through your day.

Its main compartment is deep and comes with an inner pocket for your valuables as well as a dedicated place for your laptop. Also, a rear side pocket for easy-to-access items and a bottom pocket for your bike lock. 

Sophistication meets functionality in this timeless piece from the Swedish brand Sandqvist. Like Brooks’ offering, this has a distinctly European feel to it.

Made from sustainable organic cotton canvas and detailed with high-quality leather trims, the Hege Backpack can carry up to 18 liters. Inside the main compartment, you’ll find an iPad and 15” laptop sleeve, two inner slip pockets, and one inner zipper pocket for small items.

The adjustable shoulder straps along with the double roller buckle closure ensure the refined look.

The Harbor London Classic Rucksack has a premium feel to it, one that compliments the elegant aesthetic. It’s a sustainable backpack for the urban commute. One that brings an outback or cowboy design into a modern setting.

It’s a bag that projects a professional style, and it’s size and top handle means that it can also be used as a valise.

But beyond the appearance of this higher-end backpack for everyday use, does it also provide a functional quality that the price tag demands?

Read our review to find out for yourself.

If you’re familiar with the Filson brand, you know they’re dedicated to crafting apparel and bags that last for many generations. That’s exactly the case with the Journeyman Backpack.

Made of oil finish Tin Cloth and Rugged Twill, the Journeyman offers the perfect combination of beauty, functionality, and durability. Plus, its rugged look gets even better as it ages!

The main compartment is roomy and it’s divided into three sections including a padded laptop sleeve. You’ll also find an inner zipper pocket to store your valuables as well as a front pocket that is great for small things you want to keep close at hand.