PackHacks: My Favorite Carry On is Soft, Sexy and Black as Night

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To kick off PackHacks, we're starting with the fundamental item to get you packing and on the road - the bag! I'm wildly in love with my sleek little soft-side Lipault roll-aboard purchased before our Southeast Asia trip last year - it's stowed above my head right now as I head to Seattle for a quick one-night stay!

This little pretty is a super-mobile 22" carry-on weighing in at only 6lb. It has four multi-directional wheels, one large zippered compartment, one interior zippered compartment great for packing intimates or separating dirty laundry and an exterior zipper for quick access to flat items like magazines, files or itineraries. 

What I love about it: 

  1. The black nylon-twill feels sleek, is super durable and hides wear and tear well. Lipaults come in a fantastic variety of colors and choosing the black over other colors was a bit of an obstacle, but turned out the perfect selection for my travel style. 
  2. I am personally vehemently anti-label, and toting a pack with discreet and sensible branding is important to me. Enter the Lipault's subtle tone on tone tag quietly nestled over the exterior zipper compartment - the perfect position and proportion of branding. 
  3. I can fit two weeks of work-worthy wardrobe - including a suit-jacket, sweater, shoe changes, hanging makeup case, gym clothes, sneakers and my charging kit - with ease. I know packing for a four-month journey sounds like a bigger feat than two weeks on the road for a job, BUT professional packing comes with the need for heels, costume changes and the ability to always look fresh and completely put together - extended world travel calls for something significantly scaled down than what I tote with me to LA. 
  4. Four multi-directional wheels. Period. If you haven't upgraded your bag to be able to stand on its own or turn on a dime, it's not road-worthy. 
  5. My first romp with soft-sided luggage has been life-changing, and with rare exception, I'm not sure I'll ever again look twice at a hardshell bag. I throw my body across my suitcase to get it closed on a decently regular occasion - and with the soft-sides, it works! I can also squish my chubby buddy into nearly every overhead bin I've ever met - even when stuffed to the gills, the nylon-twill provides enough slide and the contents enough give. 

What would make me love it even more:

  1. Every product can stand a little evolution, and I would love Lipault to grow in the way of security features. We are big fans of the PacSafe brand and would really like to see other companies adopt some of their advancements. 
  2. A rear-exterior hidden pocket for stashing boarding documents would be a gem.
  3. An ingenious solution for keeping smaller carry ons from sliding off the unstructured top of the bag would send me over the moon. 

For more info on Lipault and their full collection, visit their brand site. We found the best purchase price on ours through Amazon's Marketplace.  

Have a favorite bag of your own? Please send them our way.

Happy packing!