The Matador Daylite16 Backpack is marketed as one of the most packable and ultra-light backpack options currently on the market. After nearly a month of pushing the bag to its limits in New York City, and piling enough Trader Joe’s products into it that a normal backpack would likely have torn, it’s safe to say my next backpack purchase will come from Matador.
Here on the Lower East Side of NYC, space is everything. 500 sq/ft apartments go for $4.4M. A parking spot costs more than rent. So effectively using the little space you have is critical, and the Matador Daylite16 embodies this perfectly. It’s puncture resistant construction and dual-train zipper system has never let me down, regardless of how hard I’m pulling on the zippers in an effort to stuff more groceries in.
The backpack is stored in a tiny drawstring container, like a mini sleeping bag that fits in the palm of your hand. Although this shouldn’t have been a surprise, the bag is impossibly tiny when stored, and way easier to get back into the storage sack than a sleeping bag. It’s really is difficult to capture the scale of the bag.
The last backpack we’ve gotten our hands on is an incredibly sturdy piece. It’s my go-to carry-on bag when traveling, But the sturdiness comes at the price of space. So on day trips, the Matador wins, because I can fit it in my pocket. Similarly, the North St. Bags “21 is another excellent waterproof duffle we’ve used for weekend trips to Park City, UT in the past. It just doesn’t get small enough to make it a practical choice in a place where space is the most valuable commodity.
So if you need a super-compact, ultra-light backpack that’s waterproof, small enough to fit into a pocket, and large enough to grab groceries for the week, this is a backpack for you.
Photos by Bradley Cooper