Troubadour Goods Matrix Backpack Review

If you’ve seen Troubadour Goods gear before, you know the brand often pairs sleek aesthetics with useful organization and features. Whether that aesthetic is for you depends on your taste, of course, but if you’re here, there’s a good chance that you like it. We’ve been testing the daypack daily while commuting to and from Pack Hacker HQ in Detroit to see how easily it goes in and out of vehicles, how comfortable it is, and how much of our everyday carry it holds.

So, how does the 20L Matrix Backpack fit into the family? That’s what we’re here to find out.

External Components

Like several other Troubadour Goods bags we’ve tested, the Matrix Backpack is made from recycled polyester, with vegan leather for the trim. That trim encompasses the entire front compartment, and while it has the same texture as full-grain leather, it didn’t come from a cow, which the sustainable travelers among our readers will be happy to hear.

The recycled polyester has the same matte finish as the leather, and the materials pair together nicely. There is minimal branding on the bag, with Troubadour printed vertically up the left side of the front pocket in raised letters.

Troubadour is also printed on the side of the metal zipper pulls of the YKK AquaGuard zippers that fasten nearly every compartment except the one to hold your laptop. That area still has a YKK zipper, but it’s protected from the elements by fabric welt — which Troubadour Goods calls a storm cover — instead of a coated zipper. All of the zippers work well, though the storm cover slows access to the laptop one, especially around the corners. The metal zipper pulls also have vegan leather tabs at the end, making them easier to grasp and grip.

At the top of the bag is a flexible carry handle with a non-slip grip underneath. It’s comfortable to hold, even for longer periods, so it’s definitely good enough to pull it out of the trunk or from beneath the seat in front of you.

You can also slip it over the handle of rolling carry on luggage as you make your way through the airport. The bottom portion of back panel padding is actually a pass-through for the handle to slide through, though it lies flat when it’s up against your back.

Along with that horizontal piece of padding, the back panel has two other vertical cushions that run along an air channel for breathability. The entire back panel is lined with breathable mesh, but the black material still gets warm quite quickly, so we don’t recommend taking this bag on a long hike if you can avoid it.

The shoulder straps are lined with the same padding and mesh, and Duraflex adjusters shorten and lengthen smooth webbing straps at the bottom. Each also has a built-in hook-style keeper to prevent any dangling. The left-side strap also includes a magnetic pocket that you can pop open to slide in your phone, which is convenient while commuting on foot or exploring a new place.

Fit Notes

The Troubadour Goods Matrix Backpack has a very sleek and professional aesthetic, with the Black colorway and minimal branding creating a bag that you can take on the subway, on the plane, or in the boardroom. If you’re commuting by car and don’t have to carry it far, it’s a good option. However, whether you find it comfortable to wear long-term will depend on your body type.

No sternum straps or other means of support are included, which you wouldn’t think you’d need in a 20L backpack. You can buy a chest strap separately, but we’re not sure how much that would improve the bag’s comfort. Smaller testers find the back panel uncomfortable when the straps are tight, and it hits uncomfortably low on the back when they’re loose. The laptop compartment creates a board-like effect that forces you to use good posture but is uncomfortable as it does so. However, our longer-torsoed, broader-chested testers didn’t have the same issue, so this may be the case where it’s a bag that just fits larger users better than smaller ones.

Inside The Backpack

If it fits you, though, the Matrix Backpack has many different places to put your stuff.

There are two pockets on the front of the backpack. The top one is a smaller pocket for items you need to access quickly, like your phone, wallet, and keys. To that end, a key clip on a leash is attached at the top right. There is also an AirTag holder on the left to help you keep track of your bag as you travel. The pocket has independent capacity from the bag’s interior, so you have plenty of space inside for whatever you need.

Below that is a much larger compartment that opens horseshoe-style, allowing you to open it widely. Fabric gussets on each side keep it from falling completely open, but it opens enough that you can access all of the organization.

A zipper pocket along the back panel is a good spot for stashing extra cash, your passport after you’ve made your way through security, or for tiny gear if you don’t have it in a small pouch. In front of it is a divider that includes two pockets for fatter gear. It flattens out if you don’t put anything inside, yet it gives you a way to stay organized if you need it.

On the other side of that is a thicker divider that connects to the front panel with a magnet to hold it shut. It’s large enough for a Kindle or similarly-sized flat gear. However, the center magnet also allows you to use it as two slip pockets instead of one larger one. For example, our primary tester found that her hard glasses case fit perfectly inside. There are also three elastic loops on the front of it to hold bulkier gear in place, so there is a lot of organization in this area.

The left side of the bag contains a pocket to hold a standard-width water bottle. There isn’t a matching pocket on the right side of the bag. Instead, you’ll find a small zippered compartment lined with soft microfiber where you can fit a travel umbrella, your phone, or another small travel accessory.

Along the back panel is the laptop compartment. It has a built-in padded sleeve for up to a 16-inch device against the back panel, which is lined with microfiber and slightly raised off the bottom of the bag. A sleeve in front of it is large enough for a tablet or paperwork, and there’s also more room to fill in front of those sleeves, although this area shares space with the main compartment. That means that the more you fill the main area, the tighter it becomes to slide in your laptop.

There’s quite a bit of organization in the main compartment, too, so you’ll want to pack it. There is a large zippered pocket against the back panel for anything you want to lock down. Our pre-production sample has a tear where the stitching didn’t come together on the liner back here, but we hope that Troubadour Goods fixes this for consumer models. We’ve not had issues like this from the brand before, so we’re pretty confident they have.

In front of that are two large slip pockets for small notebooks, your passport, glasses, or whatever else you want to stash inside, and there are yet two more elastic pockets on the face of these to hold a phone and a pen or stylus. There isn’t a ton of space remaining if you fill all the pockets, but it all lies flat if you don’t, so you have room for packing cubes, an extra layer, books, over-ear headphones, or whatever else you want to carry.

So, if you’re looking for a way to organize your life in a daypack and like the sleek style Troubadour Goods offers, you might be happy with the Matrix Backpack. It transitions nicely from an everyday carry to a personal item bag, giving you the flexibility to use the same pack for daily use and travel, as long as it fits your frame or you don’t plan to carry it fully loaded for very long.