This 1.2-pound laptop backpack is made from racing sailcloth

NEWS – Most laptop backpacks treat weight as an afterthought. The bag protects your gear, handles rain, organizes your cables, and it does all of that somewhere between 2.5 and 3.5 pounds before you’ve packed a single thing inside. WaterField Designs took a different approach with the Trigo Laptop Backpack, a $349 commuter pack handcrafted in San Francisco from Challenge Sailcloth’s EcoPak EPLX450RS. It’s a high-performance textile originally developed for competitive sailing, now structured into a backpack that holds 24 liters of gear and weighs 1.2 pounds.

That number stops you because it shouldn’t work alongside the feature list. Padded laptop and tablet sleeves for two separate devices, water-resistant YKK zippers with dual custom pulls, full-grain leather accents, an Ultrasuede-lined quick-access pocket, a suitcase handle pass-through. Those components add weight in conventional packs. EcoPak’s 450-denier face fabric with a 3mm ripstop grid provides stitch-holding strength and tear resistance without the thick layering that traditional backpack nylons demand. A waterproof film backing laminated directly to the material handles rain protection on its own, while the entire textile is made from 100% recycled polyester components. The environmental argument isn’t bolted on as an afterthought here. It’s woven into the primary material.

At this price, the Trigo sits alongside Peak Design, Bellroy, and Aer. WaterField’s position is that material sourcing matters more than marketing reach, and the sailcloth gives the company a differentiator none of those competitors currently carry. Whether that holds depends on how EcoPak performs under months of daily use, and that makes the construction details worth looking at closely.

From sold-out sling to full-size backpack

WaterField didn’t start here. The Trigo Laptop Backpack evolved from the Trigo Sling, a limited-run project from the company’s Sandbox experimental line that sold out across three separate releases. If you’ve followed WaterField’s catalog (and if you’re into EDC gear, there’s a good chance their bags have crossed your radar at some point), you know the Sandbox series is where the company tests materials and form factors before committing to a full production run.

Both products share the Trigo line’s visual signature: a distinctive triangular front pocket, slim-profile construction, and a layout that favors capacity without added bulk. The jump from sling to backpack is significant, and those three sellouts clearly gave WaterField the demand signal to justify it. That pattern also says something about tactile appeal that product pages can’t fully communicate: buyers who handled the sailcloth kept coming back. The triangular front pocket carried over as a direct result of what the EcoPak fabric made structurally possible, because the material’s rigidity holds the pleated geometry without additional reinforcement.

A 1.2-pound pack full of features sounds like a contradiction

It does, which is why the interior is worth opening up. A padded laptop compartment fits screens up to 16 inches, including the latest MacBook Pro, with soft foam padding and a ballistic nylon bottom that cushions the device on impact. The laptop pocket is sewn several inches above the floor of the bag, so your device isn’t resting on pavement every time you drop the pack at your feet under a desk or on a train. That’s a small engineering decision that prevents a lot of real-world damage, and it’s the kind of thing you don’t see until you look for it.

A separate padded tablet sleeve handles iPads and tablets up to 13 inches, including an iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard attached. Keeping both devices in their own channels eliminates the pressure points that come from stacking a laptop and tablet in the same compartment, a problem that shows up as screen stress marks after a few months of daily carry.

Above the device compartments, an Ultrasuede-lined quick-access pocket sits at the top with three built-in organizers. The Ultrasuede lining keeps phone screens from picking up scratches, which is a small luxury that doesn’t cost weight. An internal zipper pocket and three pen slots handle smaller accessories, and a collapsible water bottle pocket rounds out the secondary storage.

The front pocket warrants its own paragraph because it’s the Trigo’s most recognizable feature. WaterField calls it the “signature triangle,” and the pleated design lets it expand for bulkier items or compress flat when you’re carrying less. Unloaded, it sits flush against the front panel. Loaded, the deep pleats accept a packable jacket, a lunch container, or headphones in their case without the pocket bulging outward. Compared to fixed-volume front pockets on competing bags, this design doesn’t create dead space when it’s empty. At 13 x 6 x 19 inches overall, the Trigo isn’t large, but that expandable front pocket makes those dimensions work harder than the numbers suggest.

For weekend versatility, the 24-liter volume handles a change of clothes alongside your tech. It won’t replace a dedicated travel bag, but it covers the gray zone between daily commute and overnight trip more confidently than most packs built for only one scenario.

Build and carry details

The protective engineering starts at the bottom. A ballistic nylon boot reinforces the base, and firm foam panels in the back create a shell around both device compartments. Water-resistant YKK zippers close every access point with dual custom pulls, and a gold water-resistant liner inside the main compartment makes it easier to spot smaller items when you’re digging around. Those zippers carry a controlled resistance that signals quality without making one-handed access feel like a struggle.

Comfort on the carry side comes from padded shoulder straps with sweat-wicking mesh, sweat-wicking mesh rear panels for airflow, and a full-grain leather handle reinforced at the ends so it doesn’t bow out under load. That handle reinforcement is the kind of detail you don’t think about until you’ve owned a bag where the handle flexed and wobbled every time you picked it up off a shelf. A suitcase handle pass-through slot on the back keeps the Trigo stable on a roller bag for airport handoffs.

Every unit ships from WaterField’s San Francisco workshop, the company’s manufacturing base since founding. Domestic production at $349 is increasingly rare in the backpack market, and it gives WaterField tighter control over stitching, alignment, and material cuts than offshore manufacturing typically allows. The Trigo currently ships in Black, Blue, and Gray, with a Navy option arriving in March.

Who should probably skip this

If you need a bag with rigid modular organization for specific gear like camera equipment, multiple hard drives, or extensive cable management, the Trigo’s layout isn’t built for that. It’s a commuter bag with device protection and general-purpose pockets, not a tech organizer. You’d be better served by something from Peak Design’s tech lineup or a dedicated bag from Aer.

And if the idea of spending $349 on a backpack you haven’t physically touched makes you hesitate, that’s a fair instinct. WaterField’s pitch leans heavily on material quality and domestic craftsmanship, which are properties you can’t evaluate from a product page. The Trigo makes more sense as a purchase after you’ve carried a heavier pack for long enough to understand what 1.2 pounds actually feels like over a full commute, and that’s a genuinely hard thing to appreciate in the abstract.

Specs

The Trigo Laptop Backpack is built for the two-device commuter who’s done choosing between weight savings and weather protection. Remote workers, hybrid commuters, and frequent flyers who want carry-on friendly dimensions and fast access to their gear are the clearest fit. It’s available now at sfbags.com.