2026 test12 productsWorkwear & Safety Gear
Which Backpack Brand Wins?
We compared 12 backpack options head to head. Nomatic came out on top. See the measured results, the runner-up, the budget pick, and a link to the full test video.
Winner
Nomatic
Price shown in test: $350
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Runner-up
LTT
Price shown in test: $170
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Budget pick
Under Armour
Price shown in test: $34
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The measured results
Every number below is read straight from the test. Scroll sideways to see all measurements. Products are listed in the order they finished.
| Product | Weight | Laptop Drop Impact Test | Durability Shock Test | Padding Crater Test | Comfort Capacity | Zipper Smoothness | Water Resistance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1Nomatic$350 | 4.34 lb, heaviest of all 12 backpacks | large air gap inside the backpack meant the aluminum flashing survived the 24 inch drop onto angle iron without any damage; tied with North Face for the best possible rating of one | top grab handle and side handles held up just fine and still looked as good as new after three 25 lb shock loads; shoulder straps also still looked as good as new; rated among the best possible rating of one (tied with Under Armour, Carhartt, LTT) | steel-ball crater approximately 1 mm, tied for first place with North Face | fit 21 shirts (most of any backpack), finished first in comfort with the best possible rating of one, described as by far the most comfortable despite being the heaviest bag | rated best possible rating of one, tied with LTT | small amount of water made it past the zipper on the front compartment, rest of the backpack repelled water well; rated two, tied with Osprey and LTT |
| 2LTT$170 | 2.6 lb | cushioned landing, did a pretty good job protecting the flashing; finished third place with a rating of two | top handle sewn and riveted, still looked as good as new after three impacts; shoulder strap also still looked as good as new; best possible rating of one | crater about 5.83 mm; finished third overall in this test (behind the North Face/Nomatic tie for first) | fit 15 shirts; finished third place in comfort with a rating of two | best possible rating of one, tied with Nomatic | small amount of water made it to the bottom of the front compartment, but the laptop compartment repelled water well; rated two, tied with Osprey and Nomatic |
| 3North Face$100 | 2.52 lb | very stiff reinforced back panel and a large air gap prevented any visible damage to the flashing; best possible rating of one, tied with Nomatic | grab handle held up fairly well with threads beginning to show but no rips or tears; shoulder strap still looked as good as new; rated 1.5 | steel ball bounced instead of creating a crater, about 1 mm; tied for first place with Nomatic | fit 16 shirts; back described as very comfortable but shoulder straps less so than some other brands | very smooth and easy to work with; rated 1.5 | repelled water well from the first two compartments, but plenty of water made its way into the third compartment |
| 4Victorinox$150 | 2.51 lb (also described mid-test as 'just over 2 and a half lbs', consistent with the earlier stated 2.51 lb figure) | landed upright with a substantial dent in the flashing but no hard contact with the Chromebook (no numeric rating given in narration) | top loop failed on the first impact ('one and done'); top handle and shoulder strap were more robust and survived without damage; rated 1.5 | crater measured approximately 7.29 mm (transcript caption repeated the trailing digit pair, discarded as noise), described as good enough for second place behind the North Face at that point in testing | fit 15 shirts; shoulder straps and back both very comfortable, described as the most comfortable backpack up to that point in testing; finished second place in comfort with a rating of 1.5 | rated 1.5, tied with North Face | one of three papers became wet, quite a bit of water made it past the zipper (no numeric rating given) |
| 5Under Armour$34 | described as 'just under a pound' at introduction and 'close to a pound' later; no more precise figure given | impact sounded milder than other brands but damage was pretty extensive, flashing made very hard contact with the Chromebook (no numeric rating given) | loop survived shock loads without damage, shoulder strap handled impacts fine with no visible damage; best possible rating of one, tied with Carhartt, LTT, Nomatic | crater about 14.7 mm, described as not too bad considering the light weight of the backpack | fit 17 shirts; shoulder straps and back not as comfortable as MATEIN or Volher | not explicitly rated in the qualitative zipper section | paper stayed dry, interior dry; best possible rating of one, tied with JanSport |
| 6JanSport$37 | stated as both '1.12 lbs' and, in the same sentence, 'the lightest yet at 0.76 pounds' - two conflicting figures for the same brand in the same breath; both recorded here rather than picking one, likely a caption/number error | Chromebook experienced a very hard impact, similar to Under Armour (no numeric rating given) | thread securing the loop began to fail, shoulder strap also struggling with threads beginning to fail (no numeric rating given, but described among the weaker performers) | crater over 19 mm, the most damage/least padding of any backpack tested | fit 16 shirts; shoulder straps and back described as not comfortable at all | called out as one of the two most difficult zippers to work with, alongside Carhartt | both pieces of paper remained dry; best possible rating of one, tied with Under Armour |
| 7BANGE$50 | 2.21 lb | impact sounded more cushioned than previous brands; some damage to the flashing but no hard contact with the Chromebook (no numeric rating given) | top strap and shoulder strap still looked as good as new after three impacts, though some threads began to stretch (no numeric rating given) | crater about 9.68 mm, moved into the lead over Volher at that point in testing | fit 20 shirts (tied with MATEIN for the most up to that point); shoulder straps a little uncomfortable, back described as the best yet at that point | not explicitly rated in the qualitative zipper section | repelled water well from the small compartment, but water began leaking into the larger compartment |
| 8Carhartt$60 | 1.44 lb | sounded bad and looked even worse; Chromebook made very hard impact with the angle iron (no numeric rating given) | top loop and shoulder strap both still looked as good as new after three impacts; best possible rating of one, tied with Under Armour, LTT, Nomatic | crater about 13.74 mm, described as expected given the backpack's weight and lower padding than BANGE | fit 17 shirts; shoulder straps about the same comfort as BANGE, but very little back padding | called out as one of the two most difficult zippers to work with, alongside JanSport | small amount of water made it into both compartments (no numeric rating given) |
| 9Osprey$65 | described as 'just over one pound' and later '1.08 lb' | laptop compartment too small for the test Chromebook so it was placed in the main compartment; flashing experienced a lot of damage and made hard contact with the Chromebook (no numeric rating given, described as offering pretty much no protection) | small amount of thread stretch on both the top loop area and the shoulder strap, held up well overall (no numeric rating given but described positively) | crater 15.8 mm | fit only 9 shirts (fewest of any backpack, described as a compact commuter pack); shoulder straps not comfortable and very little back padding | not explicitly rated in the qualitative zipper section | repelled most water, but a small amount made it past the zipper; rated two, tied with LTT and Nomatic |
| 10MATEIN$18 | 1.86 lb | quite a bit of damage to the flashing, which compressed and made significant contact with the Chromebook; backpack provided very little protection (no numeric rating given) | top loop showed damage after three impacts and would likely fail with a couple more; shoulder strap also damaged and likely to fail with more shock loads (no numeric rating given, described as one of the weaker performers) | crater just under 18 mm | fit 20 shirts (tied with BANGE for the most at that point); described as surprisingly comfortable for an $18 backpack | not explicitly rated in the qualitative zipper section | one of three paper pieces mostly dry, water beginning to seep through the zipper; the other two papers had a little water or were wet |
| 11Volher$30 | 2.22 lb, described as the heaviest yet at that point in testing (before heavier brands were introduced) | bottom of the bag did not insulate the Chromebook well; more damage than MATEIN and ZORFIN, flashing made a lot of contact with the Chromebook (no numeric rating given) | top loop failed on the first impact ('went from happy to snappy'), but the top handle and shoulder strap were much more durable and still looked as good as new after further shock loads; described as the most durable backpack tested up to that point aside from the loop failure | crater around 13.5 mm, described as the best (lowest) result up to that point in testing | fit 15 shirts (about 5 fewer than MATEIN); described as surprisingly comfortable for its roughly $30 price tag | not explicitly rated in the qualitative zipper section | no result found in the transcript; the water resistance section moves directly from ZORFIN to Under Armour with no Volher result narrated, a probable gap rather than a stated skip |
| 12ZORFIN$23 | 1.29 lb | aluminum flashing compressed and made contact with the Chromebook, damage very close to the same as MATEIN (no numeric rating given) | loop let go on the second impact; shoulder straps also weak, with threading torn away after three impacts and close to failure | crater just over 16 mm, slightly smaller than MATEIN's roughly 18 mm | fit 19 shirts, approximately the same capacity as MATEIN; shoulder straps and back described as uncomfortable | not explicitly rated in the qualitative zipper section | all three pieces of paper became wet, described as less water resistant than MATEIN; water seeped into the back through the first compartment and both other compartments also got wet |
How it was tested
- laptop protection drop-impact test (Chromebook plus doubled aluminum flashing, dropped 24 inches onto angle iron)
- shoulder strap and top handle durability shock-load test (25 lb steel plate, dropped from 6 inches, 3 impacts each on the loop/handle and the shoulder strap)
- padding insulation test (3 inch steel ball dropped 12 inches onto sculpting clay inside the backpack, crater size measured in mm)
- comfort and capacity test (23.5 lb of steel plates plus stuffed clothing items, shoulder strap and back comfort assessed)
- zipper smoothness (qualitative)
- water resistance test (paper placed inside each backpack, sprayed for approximately 5 seconds on shower setting)
“And the Pneumatic came out on top with an average finish of 1.3.”
Data notes and caveats
12-brand backpack showdown across 6 test categories. Final overall scorecard converts raw scores into a 1st-through-12th place ranking; only three brands get an explicit average-finish number spoken (Nomatic 1.3 for 1st, LTT 2.3 for 2nd, Under Armour 5th place as the budget pick); the remaining 9 brands' overall placement is not individually stated in narration, only their per-category ratings and qualitative descriptions, which are captured above. No meta chapters exist for this video (chapters: null) so no chapter-title cross-check was possible for any of the several caption gaps or garbled figures noted per-brand above. JanSport's weight is stated with two conflicting figures (1.12 lbs and 0.76 lbs) in the same sentence; both are preserved rather than guessing which is correct. Volher's water-resistance result appears to be missing entirely from the transcript (the section jumps from ZORFIN directly to Under Armour). The verdict quote retains the transcript's caption mangle 'Pneumatic' for Nomatic verbatim rather than silently correcting it; the brand resolution is explained in Nomatic's own notes field. Heavy brand-name caption mangling throughout: MATEIN also appears as Matine/Matten/Batton/Madden/batten; ZORFIN also as Orphan/Zorphan/Aorphan/Zorphin; Volher also as Ver/Verar/Voler/Vuller/Fuller/bowler; BANGE also as BE/BEG/Bge/the bands; Carhartt also as Garart/Carheart; North Face also as Northace; Victorinox also as Victoriaox/Vtor Knox/Vtoro Nox; Nomatic also as Nomadic/Pneumatic/Numatic. All resolved against the video description's explicit Products Tested list, using price and testing order (consistently price-ascending throughout every test in this video) to disambiguate where multiple mangled names appear close together.