Kelty Redwing Traveler Review: Why I Returned It

I bought this before I gave up on my search for the best travel backpack. I even pre-ordered it and had to wait several months for it to come. I had high hopes. Kelty has made some great backpacks in the past. Upon receiving it, I was very disappointed. The build quality just isn't there. The whole bag just feels cheap. The straps feel cheap, the back panel feel cheap. The compartments feel cheap.

Hip Belt Too Small

If you're walking a lot as I do on trips, you need a solid hip belt. This one is flimsy, it's small, and it's just not sufficient for the size and weight of the pack. While it's designed to be stowed, I have never done that with any backpack on a plane. I never needed to tuck the hip belt back into the backpack to reduce size or anything. This is a useless features, and it prevents the hip belt from being large enough to be useful. It's going to hurt to wear it.

It has these little pockets on the hip belt, and I wasn't a big fan of them. They just seem like Kelty was trying too hard. I don't need a little pocket there. What am i going to put in there? A box of raisins or a handful of peanuts? It's just not practical.

Color is Off

The phones online of the olive colored pack are not accurate. It's more of a green, and not a nice looking green. I just didn't like it. Usually, I do like military colored packs, but this one I didn't.

Handles Sewed Directly Into Outer Fabric

Looking at this more closely, the handles are just sewed into the outside fabric. They are not attached to anything underneath - no nylon webbing, no strong fabrice. So they will pull off if actually used. But they are not designed to actually be used. They are just there to have handles, but they will tear up with regular use. It's just poor build quality.

Making something without any attention to strength of quality does not give me confidence. This backpack is typical consumer grade gear. It's designed to be used a couple times a year, and it's made to look nice in a website photo. They built this backpack as cheaply and minimally as possible, and they know nobody is doing to even notice.

Strap Sewed Directly Into Fabric

Looking at the top of the straps where they attach to the body of the pack, I realize they were just sewed onto the outer fabric. It's not attached to some underlying structure, as I would expect. Just sewing them onto the rip stop seems like a really cheap way to do this. Using this everyday, I believe they would just pull off just like the handles which are also sewed onto the rip stop. This has happened with other packs I've owned. I just think there's a more structurally optimal way to do this.