Cotopaxi Cubo Pouch Organizers (Del Dia) Review

Some backpacks come with tons of built-in organization where you can lock down dongles, chargers, toiletries, and other travel essentials. On the other hand, some of our favorite bags lean more toward the DIY side, with open spaces that are great for filling with cubes and pouches. Of course, that option only works if you have pouches to put your gear in, which is why you might want to consider the three Cotopaxi Cubo Pouch Organizers (Del Dia).

As with the rest of Cotopaxi’s Del Dia collection, they’re made from leftover materials, so you don’t know what you’re going to get until you open the box. But the set includes a small, medium, and large to hold nearly anything you’d want, all wrapped up in a fun, durable package. Are the expandable pouches the stuff of organizational dreams? We’ve been using them in our everyday carry for the past couple of weeks to find out.

External Components

While many Cotopaxi products come in Del Dia versions, the Cubo Pouch Organizers only come in that version. To the uninitiated, that means you don’t have the option to choose your colorway; you only get whatever colors and color combinations Cotopaxi happens to come up with and send you.

Since Cotopaxi uses deadstock fabric for these pouches, that means you can have three bags with different materials. They’ll be either nylon or polyester, and the set we received has a mix: our medium is a ripstop nylon with a polyester lining, the small is solely polyester, and the large has a polyester exterior with a ripstop nylon interior. Ours are also three different colors that don’t necessarily coordinate, which is fun, but something to keep in mind if you like things matchy-matchy.

Each has the Cotopaxi llama logo patch prominently on the front. They’re all different colors, as well, though the patch on the small is at least smaller than the ones on the medium and large, so it doesn’t overwhelm the front of the bag the way it could if the same patch were on all three.

YKK makes the zippers, and the No. 8 reverse coil zippers have cords woven through the pulls for easier use. There are reinforced seams on the top and bottom of the zippers in different materials for durability. That makes for a rather chunky top of each pouch, but it all works well.

There’s also a chunky Woojin D-ring at the end of each zipper (on the right side of the pouch), giving you a way to connect it to attachment points inside or outside of your bag. They’re large enough to fit a finger through, so you can use them as de facto handles to pull them out of a bag or carry them around, too.

Inside The Organizers

There’s no organization inside the organizers, though the liners provide some structure. The gusseted bottoms also help them stand on your desk, depending on what you’ve put inside.

What did we use them for? We’re glad you asked.

The small is a very good size for tiny travel accessories, whether you want to carry tech, toiletries, or something else. We’ve been using it for small toiletries like lip balm and gloss, hand lotion, and a nail file, but it would also be good for holding your earbuds, dongles, and memory cards. Thanks to the wider base, it’s easy to grab what you need while it’s sitting on the table, and even taller gear can’t topple it over.

The medium is roughly the size of a sling or waist pack, so you can use it for gear you’d put there if you’re traveling personal-item-only or truly want to one-bag it, not one-and-a-half as we often do. It also works well as a makeup pouch or toiletry bag if you’re into the dump-style Dopp kit instead of something more organized. Bottles of sunscreen, travel-sized containers and canisters, and even travel brushes and razors fit easily inside, and it only takes up as much space as the gear inside, so you can squish it into a tight travel backpack as long as you’re not concerned about anything inside getting compressed by your other gear.

Then there’s the large. We’ve been using it for a travel journal and pen, and we like keeping that gear together. If you like to sketch on the go or do crosswords or Sudoku while traveling, you can keep your sketch pad and pencils or puzzle books and pens together in one spot. Traveling with children? It works great for an in-flight entertainment kit if you pack it full of coloring books, crayons, small toys, and even a snack bar or two.

They’re really flexible to use how you please, and we like choosing our own adventure. The only considerations we have are the lack of choice. The Del Dia is a fun option, but we like it better when it’s an option, not the only choice. You could end up with a color you really don’t like in the size pouch you were most looking forward to using, and then, well, you’re stuck. We could also make the case for the opportunity to buy one size or one of the others instead of having to get the whole set, as we find the small super useful, the medium pretty helpful, and the large less so. We could use several of the smalls, but wouldn’t want to buy multiple sets to get all the small pouches we’d like. However, Cotopaxi is quite clear about what you’re getting when you order the Cubo Pouch Organizers (Del Dia), so if you like the mystery and variety of sizes, you’ll be happy with this set.