Aer City Pack 2 Review

The second iteration of the Aer City Pack introduces a few improvements over the original, though it mostly keeps things familiar. That’s not a bad thing, per se. We had a lot of positive feedback for the original, including many different pockets and compartments for all the gear we like to carry every day, which bear the same level of quality and robustness that Aer’s penchant for 1680D CORDURA® ballistic nylon and thickly padded straps can deliver.

That said, they’ve also made changes that impact comfort—something we didn’t have much of an issue with the original. Is it a big deal? Or are we making a mountain out of a molehill? Let’s find out.

External Components

Aer fans will have no trouble finding familiarity with the City Pack 2’s build quality. In terms of materials, it’s still the same 1680-denier CORDURA® ballistic nylon we’ve come to like on a lot of their products. It’s sleek, very resistant to abrasions, and doesn’t make a lot of noise when you’re pushing it around. The latter isn’t to be taken for granted since there are very crunchy fabrics out there that can turn heads at a public library or a cafe. However, if you’re looking to switch things up, there’s also an X-Pac variant that’s more water resistant and Ultra400X, which is tougher and has a very distinct silverish sheen.

Hypalon accent pieces for the logo tab, zipper pulls, and loops flanking the front compartment top off the design. The zippers themselves are from YKK and seem to be of the AquaGuard variety. Aer doesn’t specify, but we can at least be sure they’re reverse-coil since you can’t see the track’s teeth, which should minimize any chances of liquids seeping through. Lastly, the hardware comes courtesy of Duraflex and Woojin.

It’s quite the star-studded lineup of brand names making up the City Pack 2’s construction. This, unsurprisingly, pays dividends in day-to-day testing as we’ve encountered no issues interacting with the various moving parts of this backpack. Everything works smoothly, and nothing seems too loose, resistant, or brittle for their respective purposes.

The City Pack 2’s grown a pair of handles off to the sides—in addition to the padded grab handle at the top, which the original already had. It’s borderline overkill for a modestly-sized backpack, somewhat cluttering the original’s clean silhouette. Then again, the City Pack was 14 liters, and this is now 16 liters, so we wouldn’t exactly say no to more points to grab. If anything, side handles make taking this backpack out of a trunk or overhead bin a bit more dignified, so that’s a welcome tradeoff.

Off to the left side is a water bottle pocket. As always, Aer keeps it simple but effective with a stretchy gusset to keep the pocket flush when it’s not occupied. With that in mind, bottles up to 30 ounces in size are firmly held thanks to the elastic. We’ve tried insulated bottles that are less than 18 ounces in size and even 20-ounce non-insulated bottles, and they both fit without issues. However, if you want to be extra secure, you can fasten your bottle’s handle to the nearby side handle with a carabiner. We usually do so that we’re not that person whose bottle rolls down ten rows down the aisle of the cabin (we’ve seen it happen).

Next up is the harness system. There are two beefy shoulder straps, as expected of an Aer backpack. Also on point is the sliding sternum strap with a magnetic buckle. We’ve always been apprehensive of magnetic buckles since they seem superfluous compared to tried-and-tested side-release buckles. Nonetheless, they are still functional, even if the occasionally weird angle can disengage them. One of the shoulder straps also has a D-ring, and both have Hypalon loops if you want a few accessories hanging within easy reach.

The back panel is split into four roughly equal padded sections, all covered in breathable mesh. Comfort-wise, there’s more than enough padding to cushion the bag against you when it’s fully packed, while the middle channels should allow air to exhaust from the mesh more freely. Additionally, there’s also a luggage pass-through in case you’re traveling with rolling luggage.

On paper, there’s nothing too drastically different about the City Pack 2’s harness system, but trust us when we say that the changes are there. Firstly, the shoulder straps feel wider and thicker than necessary for a bag of this size. On top of that, Aer omitted the wedge design we liked on the upper back panel of the original City Pack that helped the bag curve to your back.

Fit Notes

The resulting fit feels rather squeezed in around the shoulders and traps. The padding should be soft enough that this wouldn’t be an issue. However, the straps’s width and shape seem to be overriding this. It could also be that the straps no longer have room to spread apart since the back panel doesn’t wedge out like in the original City Pack. We’re not product designers, but we can tell you how the bag feels to wear. And when you’ve tested a lot of Aer backpacks like we have, you can tell something’s different.

All that said, the City Pack 2 is by no means uncomfortable to use. The straps still competently tame the bag’s 16-liter size when loaded. There is some pull-back, but that’s easily solved by utilizing the sternum strap. It’s just hard not to compare it to the original’s more forgiving harness system. Additionally, we also had the City Pack 2 Pro to compare, and that pack’s more spaced-out straps also feel less restrictive. So, if carrying comfort is a priority, we recommend opting for the larger bag.

Inside The Backpack

At the front of the City Pack 2 is a large zippered pocket for your everyday carry accessories. The matte finish horizontal zipper track is an iconic visual of all Aer bags. From their slings to their travel backpacks, they all have this visor-like matte black slit that makes them stand out. But striking aesthetics aside, the front pocket is symptomatic of our previous gripe with the original City Pack.

Namely, the City Pack 2’s various pockets compete for space. In the front compartment’s case, it’s very tricky to pack once pockets in the adjacent compartment are filled. This compounds with the unfortunate placement of the key leash so low that it’s hard to fish out, which kind of defeats the purpose. We wish it were stitched higher, but that could risk the leash catching on the zipper track since, as already mentioned, things can get tight relatively quickly in this pocket.

The front compartment houses the admin panel with pockets made of stretchy material that reminds of Span-like fabric. This is different from what we’ve seen in previous Aer bags that used mesh or simpler fabrics with elasticated rims. This change gives the interior a much cleaner look, which isn’t easy given how clean Aer’s interiors already look in previous bags. As for the layout, there’s a wide pocket on the right, a passport-sized one on the left with adjacent pen pockets, and two more wide pockets down low.

At the back is a document or tablet sleeve and a zippered pocket for loose accessories. Inside that pocket is a hidden AirTag pocket, by the way. They’ve hidden it so well that we had to ask Aer where they put this feature they’ve listed because we were almost convinced our preproduction sample didn’t include it.

We generally like having many options available for organizing our gear. However, we have to be careful in this case because access can be tricky if we’re not. Specifically, reaching deep into this compartment can be difficult if we pack something bulky in the adjacent front pocket. This issue becomes more apparent as you try to utilize all the available space in this compartment.

At the top is a quick-grab pocket that’s an ideal spot for stashing a pair of sunglasses. We don’t use one daily, so in its place goes a set of keys since we’re not fans of the front pocket’s key leash we mentioned earlier.

In general, access to the main compartment is improved due to the zipper covering a much wider area. It starts near the left bottom edge and stops just shy of the water bottle pocket. This two-thirds opening is not quite as easy to pack as a fully clamshell design as we still found the need to lay the bag on its back in order to pack it properly while not getting the full open view we’d otherwise have with a clamshell design. On the plus side, this at least makes taking out gear stuck at the bottom much easier.

Inside, we fit about two days’ worth of clothing in two packing cubes, plus a modestly-sized toiletry bag. As for organization, Aer kept things simpler this time around by having only a padded laptop sleeve at the back with an accompanying document sleeve. So, unlike in the original City Pack, you’re free to pack the space however you want without feeling like you’re losing out by blocking extra pockets you could’ve used.