Is This a Buy-It-For-Life backpack?
How does the CPL24 age and can it be a BIFL backpack?
When I close my eyes I see a boy handed a leather backpack by his father. The father tells him that the bag has been in his family for 4 generations and was bought by his great grandfather during WW2. The things this bag must have seen. How far will this bag travel in time?
The question we ask ourselves, or naively dont, is how long will this new bag last. Long term reviews that are actually long are almost none existent. Technically three years, the length I used my CPL24 v1, is not really “long term” but it did let me see something that I hadn’t thought of when I think of the life of a product, the gracefulness of how it ages.
It is only now, almost 5 years since my first EVERGOOD´s bag that I have felt the careful choice of materials that Jack has put into this bag and also how it was designed. Allow me to digress a little to tell you, for those who never had the opportunity to use an EVERGOOD´s bag, that this bag is thoughtfully designed. I will try to elaborate upon that in this article but let me get back to the topic at hand.
It is easy to read a spec sheet, count how many pockets a bag has, or see how well it looks on a model but it is not so easy to see how well an expensive bag such as this holds up after years of everyday abuse.
For reference I have used this bag for work and travel. For EDC I pack all my school and work supplies into the bag but I also use the bag as storage for these supplies. If my laptop isn't on the desk, its in my backpack. I also pack minimally and have learned how to stuff this bag to its fullest capacity for week long travel.
DURABILITY
The last thing I want to talk about is the question we all want to know, could this bag that every reviewer says is “durable” actually stand up to the test of time? As someone who uses his bags on an average of 2-4 years at a time I have seen how well bags have held up and this bag has them all beat.
My other “durable backpack” haven't aged well.
My Wandrd Prvke had a hole in the fabric and the face fabric would scuff easily. This all happened in the first few months of ownership.
On my Prima System the agua guard protection on the zipper and the hypalon zipper garages started to rip. Also the hypalon scuffs easily. I don't understand why bag makers use hypalon especially on zipper pulls where they see probably the most abuse.
My other bags, expensive Jansports or Ogios, all had the material start to fray after a year, the aluminium on the zipper pulls scratch, or the paint on the zippers chip.
My point is, even though a Jansport has a lifetime warranty and may last years (iv had one for 10 years as my gym bag) and years without ripping, these bags do not age well at all. Parts start to show damage or even fail.
Not the CPL24.
No bag I have ever owned looked this new after 2 years of use. After two years this CPL24 v2 has only shown some slight wear on the bottom of the bag. There is some ever so slight fraying of the fabric on the two back corners of the bag.
The bag looks new and I abuse it every day. I think this is because of the quality materials EVERGOOD has used in its construction. Some of the choices are not always so obvious but are talked about in their materials videos they post on their site and YouTube. Let me just point out some components of the bag.
The zippers are metal zippers and I believe are platted. This means there is no paint that will chip off or anodization that will scratch. These metal zippers wont break and will age beautifully.
EVERGOOD´s uses the respected YKK zipper brand zippers but on top of that they use their RC zippers which are their most abrasion resistant zippers. The zippers are reversed so the teeth point inward and the teeth are protected by a nylon padding on the inside so your stuff doesn’t bang into the teeth.
The zipper might be showing some discoloration but I really dont care about that. My v1 had discolored zippers at the 3 year mark but it looks more like a patina than damage.
No aqua guard zippers that rip over time. But the zippers are DWR coated making them water resistant and probably just as resistant as aqua guards without the durability loss.
The foam used in the bag is a Zote foam which is supposed to last longer than normal EVA foam and be even in terms of comfort and softness. The straps have this foam and feel like new, soft and springy.
Anything involving the nylon exterior or interior, except for the bottom as I mentioned before, are in perfect condition including the zipper pulls. No odd fabric is used in this bag besides the nylon.
No hypalon that always breaks at the one or two year mark, no plastic in odd places except for the zippers and duraflex hardware that I dont expect to break ever. All the materials will last and have lasted with little to no damage.
I thought the elastic sleeve would be the weak link in this bag even though I dont abuse it. I thought over time it would sag and get less elastic or even rip. I’m happy to say the sleeve is like new.
The only real wear I noticed on these bags, the v1 and v2, is the fading of the nylon which is typical for non dope dyed nylon fabrics. Nylon does not hold onto dye very well and so sunlight or UV light starts to fade the exterior dye which makes the true color of the fibers, a light grey color, show. This leads to a dull look to the color. I believe their new fabrics, solution black, are dope dyed and this wont be an issue.
IS IT A FOREVER BAG?
Here is the question I never get to fully answer in my reviews, can this be the last bag you buy? Can this be a forever bag?
The fading of the fabric would have made me say “ yes, but…” but now the v3 is using a dope dyed fabric so my answer is now… yes. This could be your forever bag and the best part is it will look very good as it ages.
The longest I had an EVERGOOD´s bag was 3 years of constant use and that showed as much wear as this v2 bag. No bag I ever had aged this well. I can happily say this can be a BIFL bag.
Review of the v2 and wear updates (every 6 months I update on how the bag is aging)
