Peak Design Everyday Totepack 20L Review

New to Peak Design’s Everyday range of camera bags, the Everyday Totepack 20L is designed to serve both as storage for a small camera kit or as a tote bag for everyday items. We put the bag through its paces in our Peak Design Everyday Totepack review.

What is the Peak Design Everyday Totepack?

New to the Everyday range, Peak Design’s Everyday Totepack is a hybrid backpack and tote bag. The bag offers top and dual side access, with stowable padded straps and carry handles.

Inside you can fit a DSLR or mirrorless camera with a lens attached, as well as another spare lens and small accessories such as spare batteries, cards and cables. The Everyday Totepack also accommodates up to 15-inch laptops.

The Totepack is weatherproof, and it’s interior dividers are customisable.

Peak Design Everyday Totepack Price & Release Date

The Peak Design Everyday Totepack price tag is £140, and was released in early 2020 as an alternative to Peak Design’s Everyday Tote.

You can purchase the Everyday Totepack from retailers such as Adorama, B&H Photo Video, Park Cameras and Wex Photo Video.

Features

Aimed at street, travel and everyday photographers, the Peak Design Everyday Totepack is a sleek bag with a slew of interesting features. Let’s start at the top.

The Everyday Totepack takes a roll-top design and it’s top access features magnets in the clasp to keep it flush. There are also dual side access points, which you can open via zippers that run from the base to about three-quarters up the bag’s length.

These zips are also anti-theft in design. The toggle feeds through a loop and hooks around a metal stud. This prevents pickpockets from quickly opening the Totepack and taking your gear without your knowledge.

Inside the Everyday Totepack is a padded laptop sleeve that can accommodate notebooks up to 15 inches. There’s also a tablet sleeve.

The main compartment offers two of Peak Design’s FlexFold dividers, which you can bend in different direction or fold in half to accommodate the shape of your kit. These FlexFold dividers can mount horizontally or vertically according to your needs.

There’s no shoulder strap like you’ll find on the Everyday Tote, but the Everyday Totepack has padded backpack straps, which you can tuck inside the bag and hide for when you want to carry the bag as a tote.

Other features include padded carry handles and two Cord Hook external carry straps.

It’s also worth noting that though the Everyday Totepack is 20L in capacity, it’s roll-top design allows it to expand to 25L.

The Everyday Totepack has a waterproof exterior, as well as a waterproof bottom liner, and its zippers are sewn with an anti-abrasion thread.

Build Quality

Without sounding like a fanboy, I had certain expectations for the Everyday Totepack based on previous Peak Design bags I’ve tested.

I’m pleased to say that Peak Design has carried on its high standards with this new addition to its Everyday lineup. The Everyday Totepack’s material is durable and waterproof.

The zippers are really rigid and feel like they’re going to hold up for the long haul. I also like the anti-theft design touch, which is always a consideration when you’re in a busy city centre. Even those pulls and toggles are firm and not going anywhere.

I’ve used a number of roll-top style bags over the years, almost all of which employ Velcro to keep it closed. Inevitably over time this Velcro gets clotted with fluff and fuzz and other debris and fails to stick properly. The Everyday Totepack’s magnets are a fantastic design feature, and snap shut very reassuringly.

Inside the Everyday Totepack, the liner is soft and flexible. You needn’t worry about scratches to lenses and other gear.

I must admit, my first impressions when reading that it was effectively a tote bag that you can wear as a backpack… well, I assumed the fit would be awkward. But the straps slip comfortably over your shoulders and are adjustable. They’re padded as well, and over several hours wearing the pack you don’t feel pressure on your shoulders.

Overall, the Everyday Totepack maintains Peak Design’s build standard. Outside of a few other bags on the market, I can think of none other that match Peak Design’s build quality.

What’s more, the Everyday Totepack is a wholly unique design in the camera bag market. There are plenty of bags out there for street photographers, but there are precious few for the commuter who is also a photographer and just wants to keep a small kit on hand for those fleeting moments.

It’s hard to think that there is a gap in the market for camera bags in 2020, but I think Peak Design may have found one.

Performance

I was excited to test the Peak Design Everyday Totepack because I’ve not seen a camera bag like it. As someone who has commuted long distances on public transport to work in the past, I’ve always known personally there is a need out there for a lightweight bag that can store both your basic camera kit and your everyday items such as lunch, work computer, umbrella, etc.

The Everyday Totepack meets these criteria and could accommodate my Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm attached and a 35mm f/1.8 in the other pocket. I could also pack my MacBook Pro (15-inch), a GoPro, 3 Legged Thing Iggy mini tripod, Rode mics, Adata external hard drive and more. That’s not to mention my rain mac, a water bottle, packet of Carolina Reaper jerky and a sandwich.

I’ve been taking the Everyday Totepack on my commutes for a few weeks now, and it’s a great size. It can hold the camera and lenses I use most, as well as the items I need each day outside of my photography.

The magnets on the roll-top access are easy to open. Fishing your fingers through them opens the bag and you can reach your gear quickly. I use this in a crowded city centre such as London. Otherwise, I’ve found the side access points the best way to reach my gear.

The anti-theft pulls are a nice design touch, but when I’m out in a small town centre, for instance, I leave them ‘unlocked’ and can swiftly open the Everyday Totepack blindly with minimal effort.

The Everyday Totepack’s outer shell is also robust and definitely weatherproof. I took the Everyday Totepack on a long walk, which began in sunshine but turned into rain, and when I got to my destination my gear inside was perfectly fine.

My destination happened to be a local waterfall, and as I knelt down in the stream to shoot it from a low angle I slipped and fell sideways. One side of the bag was submerged in the water, but thankfully there was no ingress of water in the bag, not even any moisture.

Overall I wore the bag for about two and a half hours, and it was comfortable to wear, easy to carry and stow when I needed to set it somewhere on the ground. We’ve had endless rains of late, so not wanting to put this review sample in the mud while I climbed some rocks to take a photo, I placed it on a stack of recently felled timber, and the Totepack stood there perfectly.

Really, though, this is a commuter’s bag. My forest adventure was a bit more arduous than the Totepack is probably meant for, but even then it proved superb. As a commuter bag, to have something so slim yet durable is rare to find.

Verdict

The camera bag may seem like a static product, but Peak Design continues to innovate. The company has found a gap in the market with its hybrid tote bag / camera bag.

Aimed at commuters who want to document their day, the sleek, durable Everyday Totepack is the perfect component to your daily travels.

If you are looking for a lightweight bag to pack your essential camera gear, plus your everyday items, and if you want something that can withstand the rain and also looks fashionable and will stand the test of time, well, the Everyday Totepack stands alone as your best choice.