Lo & Sons Melrose Rucksack Review

Do you ever wish your daypack came with a matching sling or had more space? While some brands offer lines that complement one another so you get a similar vibe from your bags, Lo & Sons has gone a step further with its Melrose Rucksack. What looks like a slouchy top pocket zips off to become a crossbody bag.

So what do we think of that, and what else does this bag have to offer? We’ve been carrying it on our daily commute, shopping, and on vacation for weeks so we can fill you in on all it has to offer and whether it’s worth the hefty price point.

External Components

That’s something we want to get out of the way right off the bat. Lo & Sons is a premium brand with bags that feature gorgeous leather and other deluxe materials, and their bags come at a commensurate cost. However, the Melrose Rucksack is made with nylon, so you might think that it’s cheaper than some of their other offerings. It’s not, and at $498 at the time of this review, it’s actually on the pricier side of the brand’s bags. Do what you will with that, and we’ll do our best to help you figure out what you’re paying for.

The nylon has a smooth texture and is water-resistant yet easy to wipe clean, so it has a nicer aesthetic than cheaper nylon bags. There are also Nappa leather accents on the carry handle and where the shoulder straps attach to the top of the bag for a more premium feel when you’re holding it. Having the leather wrap around a folded webbing handle makes it easy to hang it on a hook, as well.

The hardware isn’t from brands we can identify, yet we’ve had no issues with functionality. Depending on your chosen colorway, the zippers on the front of the bag are gold or gunmetal, with the Lo & Sons name and logo on round pulls. That’s the only branding on the bag. The remaining zippers blend with the rest of the bag (i.e., dark green on the dark green bag, black on the black bags, etc.). We like this color coding, especially on the bottom front of the bag, where a gold zipper opens a small compartment and the colored zipper gives you entrance to the shoe compartment. More on that below.

The zippers to the laptop compartment, to unzip the sling, and to open the bottle pockets feature a water-resistant coating, while the remaining fasteners have some water-resistant features, like reverse-coil designs or fabric welts. We got caught in the rain several times throughout the testing period and had no issue with water getting inside the bag. It beads up on the exterior and doesn’t seem to sneak in through the zippers. We’re not recommending that you take it out in a monsoon, but you’re unlikely to have issues in quick dashes from the parking lot to the hotel lobby.

The strap adjusters work well and stay in place as you put the bag on and take it off, which is our marker of good hardware. Slim leather loops function as built-in strap keepers to contain the excess, but they don’t always stay where you put them, so you may still be dealing with dangling if you don’t set them every time you wear the bag.

The harness system is simple, with two padded shoulder straps and a padded back panel. The undersides of the straps are quilted, but there’s no breathable mesh anywhere on the bag, so things will get warm if you’re carrying it through the sauna that is New York City in summertime. However, a luggage pass-through on the back deploys with zippers on the top and bottom. Both sets include double pulls, though, and we mention this because if you accidentally leave the bottom ones centered instead of off to one side, they dig uncomfortably into your back. Ask us how we know … Our notes about bag comfort were very different before we realized what was causing the issue and scooted the zippers over to one side.

Before we move on, let’s chat about the strap on the detachable crossbody sling. It’s a wide piece of Lo & Sons-branded webbing with leather at each end that connects with metallic swivel clips to rings on the back of that bag. A built-in metallic adjustment slider helps you lengthen or shorten the strap to carry it crossbody or over one shoulder. It’s simple but functions like a purse strap and is comfortable.

Fit Notes

When it comes to looks, the Lo & Sons Melrose Rucksack has a polished style. Depending on how much you’ve stuffed in the sling, it can look a little bulky when attached to the top of the bag, but a center pleat helps with aesthetics. The backpack looks fine without the crossbody, and the sling looks good on its own, too; you can see the zipper teeth at its top if you look closely, but since it matches the fabric’s color so well, it’s not too obvious.

As we just mentioned, the sling is comfortable to carry through the store, to explore a museum, or anywhere you’d want to carry a small bag. While the strap lacks padding, its width does a good job of distributing the weight, and we don’t think padding would look great on this type of bag.

The backpack is also pretty comfortable, though it’s impacted more by what’s inside than the sling is. The laptop compartment is against the back panel, and its rigidity definitely comes through the padding. However, a 13-inch device takes up most of the space, so at least it’s a uniform firmness. It’s not uncomfortable, per se, just rigid, which may or may not be your cup of tea. It’s more noticeable when the bag is full and the sling attached, but there’s just not enough padding to blunt the feeling of your laptop, no matter what is in the main compartment.

Inside The Pack

The Lo & Sons Melrose Rucksack is a very well-organized bag with many different places to stow gear and features that you can use or remove, depending on your needs.

We’ll start at the top with the removable sling. When it’s zipped onto the backpack, it functions as a quick-access pocket, and we use it for our wallet, keys, and phone. There’s no built-in organization here, so it’s basically a large dump pocket, but there is a D-ring on the side where you can connect the long key leash that comes with the bag. It has clips on either side, giving you a way to attach it elsewhere in the bag, too. Stay tuned.

We’re happy to tell you that it’s actually quite easy to detach and attach the sling using the zipper at the top of the bag, even though you must do so sideways. The zipper on the backpack grips tightly to its partner on the sling for easy connection, so we tend to take it off to run into the store on the way home from work and reconnect it when it’s time to head home so that we only have one thing to carry. A circular magnet centered at the bottom of the rear of the sling matches up with a magnet centered in the bottom of the backpack’s top pocket; it does a good job of holding the sling in place while you move around.

We’ll chat about that top pocket next. If you aren’t connecting the crossbody to the backpack, it serves the same purpose, though it doesn’t have as much depth. However, we used it as a pocket for the crossbody strap instead. Since the strap connects to the back of the sling, you can slide it into the pocket when you’ve connected the crossbody to the backpack to keep it in check and to save yourself from detaching and attaching the strap every time you want to use the sling. The top pocket works really well for this purpose, although it also has space for your phone, wallet, and keys if you prefer, instead (but nowhere to connect the key leash).

Both sides of the backpack have slip pockets that unzip on the back to reveal a stretchy mesh panel. The pockets lie flat when not in use for better aesthetics, but they are good places to put a water bottle or travel umbrella if you need them.

The laptop compartment opens via a vertical zipper on the right side of the back panel. It’s a simple sleeve that can accommodate a 13-inch MacBook Pro, and that’s it. There’s no elevated bottom, and it’s easiest to angle your computer into and out of the space, but it gets the job done. Plus, four metallic knobs on the bottom of the backpack act like feet to hold your bag when you set it on the floor, which serves a bit of the same function as an elevated bottom would.

On the bottom of the bag’s front is yet another compartment. You open it using the round metallic zipper pulls to access organization for tech, toiletries, or whatever else you want to carry throughout the day. There’s a zippered pocket against the back with three stretchy mesh pockets in front of it. The edge mesh pockets fit earbuds or a slim battery bank, and the center one is thinner. On another bag, we’d assume it was for a pencil or stylus, but these pockets and this compartment aren’t that tall. Instead, we find it fits a tube of lip balm or something similarly sized. Atop the rightmost pocket is another D-ring, giving you another option for connecting that key leash we mentioned earlier. We like having choices, and none of these rings get in your way if you don’t want to use them.

Behind this section, you also have a way to get inside the backpack. There’s a colored zipper that opens a rectangular portion of the bag’s front so that you can slide a pair of shoes or something else into the bottom of the bag without unpacking the top. We’re getting a little ahead of ourselves, but trust us, you can do this without having to push gear out of the way.

Let’s get into the heart of the main compartment, though. It opens through a colored zipper (not metallic) that outlines the top compartment of the backpack, creating a lid opening that flaps open. You can open it while the crossbody is attached, although that creates a much heavier lid to flop over the back of the bag.

Inside are some pretty unique features. The Melrose Rucksack includes organization that you can use or remove if you don’t want it. Near the top of the bag is a large, tote-style organizer that connects with straps and loops to the bag. It’s padded to provide structure and includes a large, padded slip pocket against its back for a tablet or e-reader, two elastic-topped mesh pockets on the side that fit our glasses case, and two slightly shorter elastic-topped mesh pockets on the front. Those are good for wall chargers or cables. Depending on how much you use the pockets, you’ll have more or less space remaining in the center for an extra layer or even a small packing cube. The organizer ends right below those pockets, with a padded bottom that holds everything above the shoe compartment.

However, there is a zipper running around the bottom of the organizer that you’ll find when you remove the padded bottom. Unzip it to find straps with snaps at the bottom; then, you can roll it up like a yoga mat and use those straps to hold it in place. That allows you to use the organizer while giving you access to the bottom of the bag if you don’t need to use the shoe compartment. However, you can also remove the organizer entirely if you don’t want to use it.

If you do, you’ll find a zippered pocket on the back panel. You can use it for small gear you don’t want to fall to the bottom. Or, with the organizer still in place, you can securely stash your passport and extra cash to make it more difficult for someone else to find.

Whether or not you use the organizer, there’s also a removable pad that connects to the bottom of the backpack with hook-and-loop fastener to provide more structure and help the bag stand on its own. You can take it out if you don’t want it, but we never found a reason not to use it. Plus, cleaning something removable is easier than washing the bottom of the bag if you get it dirty from your shoes.

On the whole, we find the Melrose Rucksack quite useful if you enjoy its features. The removable organizer works best as a way to keep the rest of your gear above the space designed for your shoes (although we also found it helpful to hold our small cooler for lunch), but if you don’t need to use it regularly, it takes up a lot of space. If you sometimes want organization but not others, it’s great, but if you always want built-in pockets, you might want a bag with those attached to the backpack itself instead.

The removable sling is also a vibe, and you’ll have to decide if it matches your style or not. We find it convenient, but you might not need a detachable crossbody if you already have a sling or purse you love. All of this is to say that, especially at this price point, you’ll want to consider whether or not you’ll use every feature before buying it. On the other hand, our tester, at least, ended up liking it more than she initially thought she would.