Best Everyday Bag Champion | Carry Awards IX

One bag for all your day-to-day needs? Challenge accepted with our Best Everyday Bag 2021, which offers a refined, multifunctional design for work, play, and beyond…

1st Place

EVERGOODS CPL24 V2 & CPL28 V2

Our Best Everyday Bag award is our most competitive category. It’s a bag that needs to perform across multiple uses and environments, keeping up with changing day-to-day needs. It just so happens that the folks at EVERGOODS are crossover carry experts and their updated CPL24 and new big brother CPL28 deliver an award-winning performance for everyday use.

The bags offer the perfect combination of ruggedness, access, and utility. And when you add the supremely comfortable harness and understated style to the mix, you’ve got a winning combination for multifunctional daily use. Work bag, gym bag, weekend away bag? Yes, yes, and yes. On foot and on bike? No problem. Add in hydration bladder compatibility and you can even knock out a hike when the outdoors is calling.

The pack’s thoughtful organization ensures gear is close at hand throughout the day. Quick exterior access to tech and EDC essentials is complemented by a convenient clamshell main compartment. So you can wave goodbye to frustrating rummaging for gear.

Since you never know where your day might lead, EVERGOODS have built this pack to embrace life’s scuffs and scrapes with a smile. A tough, water-resistant 500D HT nylon exterior and 420D HT nylon lining keep you carrying in confidence, knowing this pack will put in the miles for years to come.

Wonderfully versatile, stylish enough for work or play, and tough enough to roam urban streets and outdoor trails, these packs really are do-it-all workhorses and perfection in backpack design. Congratulations, EVERGOODS!

Highly Commended

These are the pieces that just missed out, and in most cases, by the smallest of margins. To them, we award a High Commendation. The below were of outstanding quality, displaying fine craftsmanship and design flair. With honor, we bow our heads in the utmost respect and kudos. If this were a dais, they’d be biting their teeth into silver medals, while their flags were hoisted into the horizon – a feat not to be overlooked. And we’re sure they’ll be back, to take it one notch higher, next year.

Alpha One Niner Pathfinder

Ruggedly suave, Alpha One Niner’s Pathfinder brings all the durability and clever organization we’ve come to expect from AON, but in a more understated aesthetic than their traditional tactical look. The bag is brimming with well-considered organization, from the pass-through pocket on the front that provides useful carry for a jacket, to quick-access top and side pockets and an exterior-access laptop compartment with its own interior organization. Peek inside the pack and you’ll find zippered mesh pockets, D-rings, as well as hook-and-loop strips for attaching compatible accessories.

The hard-wearing X-Pac exterior is weatherproof and tough enough to handle long-term use day in and day out. The ventilated back panel, padded shoulder straps, and magnetic sternum strap also keep your daily loads comfy on the move, with included excess webbing management. Super-tough, with exceptional organization and stealthy aesthetics for a range of urban missions, this pack will definitely keep your daily carry on the right track. Superb effort, Alpha One Niner!

Black Ember SHADOW 22 & SHADOW 26

Black Ember’s SHADOW 22 and SHADOW 26 represent this award’s most technical and innovative offering. A combination of Black Ember’s proprietary waterproof HTX, YKK AquaGuard zippers, and BOND-STITCH construction serves up an impressive IPX6 waterproof rating in one radical everyday pack. But this pack doesn’t stop at mind-bending construction technique. A killer assortment of pockets, access, and comfortable carry makes this a hard-working pack for your daily hauling needs. And with its clean, minimalist exterior it’s a great option for both work and play.

The full clamshell main compartment makes packing and retrieval of gear a breeze. A choice of interior pockets and suspended sleeves store your tech and smaller items, while a nifty inbuilt tech-kit gives you even more options for organizing your everyday essentials. The SHADOW 22 and SHADOW 26 are sleek, dependable shields against nature’s elements, while offering highly considered organization and a burly build that smoothly adapts to the office, trips about town, and more. Bravo, Black Ember!

–