Gossamer Gear Bumster Jet Review

Small slings can be useful little travel companions, especially when you don’t want to overload your pockets or don’t have them. They come in so many shapes and sizes that it can be difficult to know which type is best for a given situation. In our opinion, waist packs are best for certain activities, whether it’s trying to avoid odd suntan lines while exploring an art fair or music festival in the summer while wearing a tank top, biking, or doing something else active when you need your hands free and don’t want to deal with a crossbody bag swinging around from back to front or vice versa.

That’s the style of sling we have here with the Gossamer Gear Bumster Jet. We’ve worn it around town for a few weeks, taking it on walks to the library and back, and to and from work. How does it stack up to the plethora of other options out there? Let’s find out.

External Components

The Gossamer Gear Bumster Jet is made with 210D recycled Robic nylon. It has a quilted pattern that beefs up the ripstop design and feels durable, though the material is extremely lightweight. The Gossamer Gear patch logo, with its motto of “take less. do more.” is stitched to the front of the bag, but it’s a black label on a black bag, so it doesn’t really scream at you, though the branding is noticeable.

There are YKK zippers with heat-shrink wrapped cords for pulls. That makes them easier to grab when you need to get something inside. The one on the back panel is hidden under a fabric welt, but both work well.

The hardware, in the form of the bag’s lone buckle, is made by Woojin. It also works well, and we like that it’s attached to the side of the bag so it doesn’t press into your body when paired with a backpack or when you sit down while wearing it around your waist.

There’s not much to the harness system—it’s a simple, adjustable webbing strap. We like the elastic keeper on the strap, as it prevents dangling when it’s cinched up. There’s no back panel padding or anything else to speak of, though, just a strap extending from either side of the top of the bag.

Fit Notes

If you’re considering getting a bag with “bumster” in the name, hopefully you know what you’re getting into, but we’ll spell it out bluntly: this is a fanny-pack style bag in the most traditional sense of the word. With straps that extend straight out from either side and a half-moon shape, it works best as a waist pack and doesn’t transition well to crossbody carry like other waist packs do. Part of that may be due to the placement of the main compartment zipper. The pack seems to fall forward when worn crossbody, and this is exacerbated when you open it to get something out or load it up. While nothing actually fell out when we did this, it felt like it might. It isn’t uncomfortable to wear that way, it’s just not as user-friendly.

On the other hand, wearing it as a waist pack—while not our tester’s favorite way to carry it around—it performed much better. It sits nicely at your waist and doesn’t dig in, even when fully loaded. However, if you prefer to avoid accentuating or creating a “muffin top,” you’ll want to skip this bag, as it protrudes from your middle when packed.

Inside The Sling

This is a 1.5L bag, and while there’s not a ton of organization baked in, there is some.

We’ll start at the back, where there’s a rear zippered pocket tucked under a fabric welt. It’s large enough for a phone, but it’s not comfortable to wear tightly if you put something that large and hard there. On the other hand, we didn’t love putting our phone in the main compartment as it felt like it might fall forward (and out), so you’ll have to decide which you prefer. A flat wallet, cash, or your passport works better here for security, convenience, and comfort.

Flipping around to the front, you’ll find the zipper for the main compartment. It runs across the front of the bag, creating a lid for the space, but it feels like you’re opening the sling in the center.

It’s got a simple layout, with two equal-size mesh pockets along the back panel and a key leash on the right side (when you’re wearing the bag). It’s at the end of the zipper track, so you don’t have to completely open it to reach your keys, which we appreciate. However, it’s not super long, so you’ll likely have to take your keys off the leash or the bag off your body to reach a lock. That’s OK, though, as we don’t like it when tiny bags have such long leashes that they get tangled with the rest of your gear on the bottom. The way this one is positioned, you can feed it into the mesh pocket on the same side and use it to keep your keys separate from the rest of your gear.

All the rest of the space is open, but since the material is thin and lacks structure, the back of the bag doesn’t really support the front, so the weight of your gear drags everything forward. Whereas other similarly sized and shaped slings avoid this with a bit of back panel padding, the Gossamer Gear Bumster Jet is so flexible that the front easily becomes the bottom and twists the entire thing forward. This happens much less when it’s worn around your waist, which is why we recommend getting it if you want a waist pack, but not if you prefer to wear your slings crossbody.