Chase Reeves knows a thing or two about bags. As the founder of BagWorks and a YouTube channel closing in on 50,000 fans, this eccentric vlogger is the authority when it comes to Carryology. His mix of outlandish delivery and honest critiques have earned him respect from bag buyers across the interwebs.
Although only a year old, his review of the Arcido Akra (at the time of writing) has more than 26,000 views. He covers every imaginable aspect of the bag, down to the minutiae. From the outset, we'll excuse Chase for mistaking the Akra for the Faroe – after all, they're both great carry on bags with similar touches, and both designed for one bag travel.
Kicking off with an explanation of why you might want to purchase the Arcido Akra, Reeves briefly touches on the concept of one bag travel and how the Akra is designed to make you more travel-efficient. “Packing minimally can make for a much better trip,” he mentions – and we couldn’t agree more. He then does a wear test… as only Chase Reeves can do a wear test. The ventilated back padding, curved shoulder straps and waist strap and the “lightweight moveability” all make this a winner as a small travel backpack.
Next up is the fabric breakdown. Not a literal teardown of the Akra, of course, but a detailed look at the stylish heathered grey exterior. As the former freelance designer notes, the Kodra fabric ticks the trifecta of travel bag requirements: It's weather resistant, it's durable and it's lightweight. The signature chunky Arcido handle doesn't get overlooked, either. As one of the Akra's most-loved features, this can be found on many of the bags in the Arcido range. He finishes off the rest of the front of the bag; showcasing the zippers and the side compartments.
Flipping things around, Reeves takes a peek at the waist straps, the hip packs, the sternum strap, the shoulder straps. He covers Every. Single. Detail.
Moving to the internals, Reeves shows us one of the Akra's party pieces – the laptop compartment. The secret that makes the Akra laptop compartment so special is a) It's removable, so you can put it in another bag like the Vaga daypack and b) you can protect your laptop from any potential falls or bumps by suspending it from the bottom of the bag using the velcro strap system.
Not just that but the rear laptop compartment of the Akra features an abundance of storage pockets for computer accessories. Dongles, adaptors, hard drives, cables, you name it – there's a space for it. Right behind the mesh accessory pocket is a sleeve which fits a tablet up to 10 inches.
YKK zippers are the order of the day on the Akra, another plus which Reeves points out. Zippers aren't the only feature that makes Arcido backpacks to last.
Staying with the innards of the Akra, Reeves cracks open the clamshell to reveal the main storage compartment in all its glory, along with the Arcido packing cubes.
It would be remiss of us not to mention the Vaga's fifteen seconds (or in this case, 1 minute) of fame in this review. This daypack is the perfect add-on accessory for the Akra, as Chase alludes to.
Be sure to visit Chase’s channel for more authoritative reviews on all things travel and check out the Akra product page to find out why this innovative backpack is leading the way in one bag travel.
Written by: Stuart Hendricks