I'm a big fan of minimalistic living. I have been travelling the world whilst living out of a rucksack for the past eleven years now, and I can't stress how nice it is for my brain - leaving a place, knowing I have everything I need on my back. For me, personally, it's priceless. It almost goes without saying that when it comes to a rucksack, I'm going to need something really decent. Recently Db Backpacks wrote to us and asked if we'd like to work with them, so let's see if they're backpacks are up to the challenge. This is my Db Journey.
Db Rucksacks: Who They Are
Db make award-winning travel gear. From backpacks to duffels, from wheeled luggage to sports equipment, Db has got you covered. Originally called 'Douchebags' (thanks to a suggestion from the community) they are now known just as 'Db' - and it can mean anything you want it to mean: 'DreamBigger' and 'DeepBreathing' are a couple of their suggestions and they encourage you to think of your own. I tried hard and came up with 'DanceBold'. (I'm not renowned for my naming abilities.)
What my husband, Tamás, and I like about Db is that they want to create bags out of the 'materials of tomorrow' meaning that the bags are made responsibly. Something I personally believe we should all be conscious of nowadays. In fact, this is the number one thing Tam and I look for when working with companies. Everything else is secondary - we don't care if it looks good, or even feels good, so long as it is responsible. It's my top priority and that's why I've written about it first. It's an added bonus that Db rucksacks do also look and feel good, and I will now elaborate on these:
Db Rucksacks: A Review
Tam and I tried out two different Db Rucksacks and this is our review:
Db Rucksack 30L Sage Green Hugger Review
The reason I chose the 30L Db Hugger is because I really liked the colour. Apparently it was inspired by the Norwegian landscapes. Having Interrailed through Norway I can confirm that it is giving Norwegian. It's also giving toothpaste, but in the best way. In the top it says "I think my dog is vegan" I don't know if that's because they know I'm vegan or if it's a coincidence, (but just for the record dogs can be vegan - you have to make sure they're getting the right nutrients, like with any animal (including humans).
And although people who have vegan dogs get a bad rep, I think that's unfair when most dogs are fed e-numbers out of a can... but that's a rant for my other website www.VeganVsTravel.com... I haven't written it yet, but I did write a post over there about being a vegan and a douchebag.)
Back to the rucksack! It also has an extra pocket on the back for your laptop. As a digital nomad this is a must for me, hello easy access! And inside there are an extra two pockets inside for underwear or whatever you like. I'm personally going for underwear and cables (the two things I like to grab easily). I really like that it opens from the front, I used to have a rucksack that opened from the top and it was annoying trying to get stuff out from the bottom, of course the stuff at the bottom was always what I was looking for, no matter what. There's also a convenient pocket on the top which I'm keeping my 'long journey musts' in aka my e-reader and my headphones. It's called the hugger. Does it feel like a hug? It actually does, I wish you could feel it, there's definitely some kind of love magic in there.
Last but not least, after I trialled the bag a few times moving back and forth across Budapest something miraculous happened. I say miraculous because I really mean it here. I've been struggling with back pain for months, and after wearing this rucksack with my stuff in it, the back pain went? It was like it pushed my spine back into place or something, lol. I'm not a doctor (if that wasn't already obvious from my last sentence) so please don't think this rucksack will cure your back pain too (I mean, I doubt you were thinking that, but I have to cover my bases), no, I'm just saying, somehow it seems to have cured me and I'm really really grateful, thanks Db!
With the aesthetically pleasing colour, the useful pockets (particularly the fact that they'd thought to have a laptop pocket), and the way it 'hugged' my back, I was very pleased with my 30L Db Rucksack. Was there anything I didn't like about it? Of course! (I'm a Virgo and renowned for my ability to fault anything). But before we get into that, let's check in on the 50L Db Rucksack:
With the aesthetically pleasing colour, the useful pockets (particularly the fact that they'd thought to have a laptop pocket), and the way it 'hugged' my back, I was very pleased with my 30L Db Rucksack. Was there anything I didn't like about it? Of course! (I'm a Virgo and renowned for my ability to fault anything). But before we get into that, let's check in on the 50L Db Rucksack:
Db Rucksack 50L Deep Sea Blue Review
Tamás decided to go for the 50L Hugger in blue. This is because he carries more than me (partly because I am bad and give him stuff to carry) but also because he is Sam Wisegamgy (how tf you spell that, Tolkien?) in that he is the cook over here at Travelling Weasels and Vegan Vs Travel so he carries the useful kitchen stuff that goes into making delicious meals (I'm eternally grateful for this). The 50L is pretty similar to the 30L, albeit, of course, bigger. Like the 30 it usefully opens from the front not the top and it has a nifty top pocket. Additionally though, the 50L also has three inside pockets. One of the things I like about Db is the bags can hook onto each other with the metal things on the back of the rucksack. It's giving lego or a jigsaw and I am so into that.
There's not much more I can say about the 50L that I didn't already say about the 30L - all the good parts of the 30 were incorporated into the 50 too. In retrospect, it might have made for a more interesting review if we'd got two much more different products. After all, they do make sports equipment and wheely bags too. We're not that sporty though (well we are, but not the kind of sports you need equipment for), and we already had wheely bags, so two huggers was what we ended up with.
Anything We Didn't Like?
One of the things I didn't like was when I first opened the box the rucksacks were inside a plastic bag. But to be fair, when they arrived the cardboard box they were in wasn't exactly watertight and although I don't think the rucksacks need protecting from the outside world, I do understand that something might have got spilled or got in on the way here. Hence plastic bag. I know they're useful and necessary even for some things... But please refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle when it comes to plastic.
Neither the 30L nor the 50L comply to any of the airlines hand luggage rules, making these backpacks only suitable for under the carriage luggage. As I generally only carry hand luggage this doesn't really work for me. I generally travel only by trains and buses, so it does actually work for me, but because I still take the cheaper flights here and there when the trains and buses cost 100s of pounds, or if there's an emergency wedding / funeral, there's not much point me carrying these around. Still, if you have a hand luggage for your laptop and like to travel with under the carriage bags, these would work. I carried them often under buses before I switched back to hand-luggage only, and they never had an issue.
Although I was really pleased that they had a laptop pocket, it turned out that it didn't really serve. Firstly, the pocket wasn't padded and I worried about the safety of my electric baby (commonly known as a laptop). Secondly, the laptop was kind of squished between my stuff in the bag, and my back. Whilst the hugger really was hugging without the laptop, once the laptop was in it no longer felt like a hug and more like 'there's and expensive, hard, rectangle pushing against my back'. All in all, it neither felt good for the laptop or me, which was disappointing. I temporarily fixed this by encasing my laptop lovingly between multiple layers of soft clothing and carried it in the main part of the rucksack. It wasn't ideal though, partly because it still rolled around and partly because I felt it was more likely to be robbed like that. In the end I switched back to hand-luggage, with a smaller rucksack that had a well padded back pocket for my little metal friend. Of course none of this will mean anything to you if you don't travel with a laptop or if your have a separate bag for your laptop, I'm just telling you my experiences.
Last and definitely not least of the things we definitely want to add on the downside is this: there is the issue of the Db's lack of transparency of sourcing materials and labour. How are workers treated and paid? Where do all the materials come from? In our video we made the case that it would be nice if Db - like all employer-employee based companies - could transfer to an employee owned and run company (a worker cooperative, also called workers' self-management). This, of course is not just something we'd like Db to do but would be nice to see as a general change in the world of work - a peaceful progress towards workplace democracy.
Although I was really pleased that they had a laptop pocket, it turned out that it didn't really serve. Firstly, the pocket wasn't padded and I worried about the safety of my electric baby (commonly known as a laptop). Secondly, the laptop was kind of squished between my stuff in the bag, and my back. Whilst the hugger really was hugging without the laptop, once the laptop was in it no longer felt like a hug and more like 'there's and expensive, hard, rectangle pushing against my back'. All in all, it neither felt good for the laptop or me, which was disappointing. I temporarily fixed this by encasing my laptop lovingly between multiple layers of soft clothing and carried it in the main part of the rucksack. It wasn't ideal though, partly because it still rolled around and partly because I felt it was more likely to be robbed like that. In the end I switched back to hand-luggage, with a smaller rucksack that had a well padded back pocket for my little metal friend. Of course none of this will mean anything to you if you don't travel with a laptop or if your have a separate bag for your laptop, I'm just telling you my experiences.
Last and definitely not least of the things we definitely want to add on the downside is this: there is the issue of the Db's lack of transparency of sourcing materials and labour. How are workers treated and paid? Where do all the materials come from? In our video we made the case that it would be nice if Db - like all employer-employee based companies - could transfer to an employee owned and run company (a worker cooperative, also called workers' self-management). This, of course is not just something we'd like Db to do but would be nice to see as a general change in the world of work - a peaceful progress towards workplace democracy.
Wrap Up: Our Db Rucksack Review
All in all, I was happy with our rucksacks, they are cool colours, they're comfortable (and for me, apparently, back saving). They have great pockets and they're just so stylish! If you're interested, plz check out their website. If they made them in hand luggage size I would still be carrying mine around to this day, because I have no doubt of their longevity - we actually ended up giving the 50L to a friend of ours who still uses it to this day, hence why we can't fault the quality.
I hope in the future Db will be more transparent about their labour and materials, unfortunately this can be said for almost all companies. Unlike many other companies though, who are transparently bad, there's just no info on Db, which makes me hope that no info is because there's nothing bad to know. Until the time that we do know though, I have to make a note of it here. It's still better to opt for companies you're not sure about than companies you know for sure are bad, in my opinion. What we do know is that they are making the materials out of 'the materials of tomorrow', aka responsible materials, and that's really good. If you'd like to see more of the rucksacks, we also reviewed these two Db rucksacks briefly in this YouTube video (you can see my Sage Green in the thumbnail image):
I hope in the future Db will be more transparent about their labour and materials, unfortunately this can be said for almost all companies. Unlike many other companies though, who are transparently bad, there's just no info on Db, which makes me hope that no info is because there's nothing bad to know. Until the time that we do know though, I have to make a note of it here. It's still better to opt for companies you're not sure about than companies you know for sure are bad, in my opinion. What we do know is that they are making the materials out of 'the materials of tomorrow', aka responsible materials, and that's really good. If you'd like to see more of the rucksacks, we also reviewed these two Db rucksacks briefly in this YouTube video (you can see my Sage Green in the thumbnail image):
Disclaimer: we agreed to work with Db Backpack, they sent us two rucksacks and we wrote this blog post and made a couple of YouTube videos. As you can see from the 'anything we didn't like' section, I am not the kind of person who is afraid to be honest in my reviews. I like to work with companies and I like to tell you the truth about what I thought about them - the good and the bad. I hope you found it useful in your decision making process. And I thank Db for wanting to work with me. Unrelated: If you're interested in a way of travelling and getting accommodation cheaply, you might wanna check out house sitting. Trustedhousesitters.com was kind enough to provide us and our readers with a 10% discount, feel free to click on the link to use it :)
ABOUTME
We overland. We eat plants and fungi. We live outside as much as possible. We are all connected. A female travel blogger overlanding and writing about ecotourism, ethical and sustainable travel, socially conscious travel and housesitting. An online travel magazine since 2015.
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