ALPAKA Metro Crossbody (Left Shoulder) Review

The ALPAKA Metro Crossbody mixes a sling‘s carry style with a daypack‘s size and organization. That’s not new or unique on its own, but the brand’s little touches and quality-of-life features distinguish this bag further. For starters, its strap has Maglockz buckles so you can quickly and easily remove the bag in a pinch. The strap also has a pocket for your smartphone and one for your transit card.

Thanks to its backpack-like form, it even has the space for a tablet and a water bottle. Consequently, it is on the large side despite technically being a sling. So, is it the right fit for your needs? Let’s find out!

External Components

The main material is ALPAKA’s 210-denier Axoflux fabric. From afar, it looks just like any other nylon fabric out there, partly because the black colorway we chose mutes a lot of detail. However, peep a little closer, and you’ll find the unmistakable grid pattern indicative of ripstop. For the uninitiated, ripstop nylon is generally a thin type of fabric reinforced by a grid pattern. This way, you get the lightness desirable for small bags while retaining some sense of toughness.

Furthermore, the Axoflux fabric is also notably slick. We’re not sure if they’ve treated this with some form of DWR coating, but a few light splashes for testing purposes reveal water beading off relatively easily. Additionally, all the exterior zippers are reverse coil, and the main compartment ones are of the AquaGuard variety. Mind you, if you stay soaked under heavy rain, chances are that the water will eventually seep into the fabric and gaps in the zippers, which is understandable given that this isn’t—strictly speaking—a waterproof bag.

On the whole, there are actually not a ton of external features to explore. There is a top handle that, in all honesty, we’ve neglected to use throughout testing, not because we never noticed it was there, but because the bag isn’t so big that we couldn’t clutch it anyway. It’s also at an angle, so immediate intuition dissuades us from using an unbalanced-looking handle. But if you do elect to use it, it’s perfectly fine; it’s padded and decently sized, so it’s well-suited if you want a sling with a handle.

The star of the bag has to be the harness system due to its unique details and different styles. There are two versions of this bag: a left-shoulder and a right-shoulder version. We’re sampling the left shoulder version because we’re more comfortable with a sling hanging off that particular shoulder.

The majority of the strap is thickly padded, more like a backpack strap than the thin one many slings have. Consequently, the strap has a relatively robust structure, which can be a negative if you have narrow shoulders, as the wide section at the top can feel cumbersome after some time. The bottom section is also wide, but that’s mainly because of the built-in pocket (more on that in the last section).

Adjustments are handled by the thin straps anchoring the ends of the main strap to the bag. They’re each attached to the main strap by Maglockz buckles, allowing you to quickly remove the sling in a pinch. We almost never find ourselves in those situations, but it’s easy to think of some. For example, maybe you’re wearing this sling with another bag like a messenger or a backpack. Straps can easily overlap and get caught on each other, and it’s handy to have a quick-release system to get you through it. That said, though the magnets are easy to undo when you’re deliberately trying, rest assured that they’re pretty secure under tension.

The included stabilizer strap is very useful if you want a more secure fit for various activities. For the most part, if you’re simply using this as an everyday commute bag or for strolls, you don’t really need it. If you do, it’s worth taking the time to clip the strap’s Maglockz buckle to the correct mounting point. The technique that we settled with is to wear the sling, determine the loop where we think is best, and then remove the sling to properly attach the buckle since it’s tricky to do while wearing it.

Lastly, the back panel has thick padding for comfort. There’s a subtle air channel in the middle and, surprisingly, a luggage pass-through. Slings don’t usually have these, but the Metro Crossbody is big enough to warrant one, which is handy if you’re flying with it alongside carry on luggage.

Fit Notes

Unsurprisingly, the aptly-named Metro Crossbody sling is meant to be worn across the body. Once you have all the straps adjusted to your liking, it sits really flush against your body. The bag itself looks and feels straight on your back despite the single-strap design. That said, those with smaller torsos may find the length a bit too long as the bottom edge grazes the lower back area more than we thought it would.

Overall, it’s still a comfortable fit. However, the tight fit can be an issue with thick winter jackets. As you can imagine, thick clothing and straps are a recipe for catching onto each other. Thankfully, the Maglockz buckles are always there to save the day.

Inside The Sling

On the strap is the aforementioned zippered pocket. From the size and shape alone, you can deduce it’s for a smartphone (though don’t let that stop you, of course). Indeed, it can fit even Max-sized iPhones, and there’s even a mesh front to see if you’re getting an important notification. It’s not quite transparent, so don’t think you can take decent body cam-style footage off your phone or operate the touchscreen competently. We’re just happy that the pocket’s size matches the strap’s width; it doesn’t bulge out awkwardly as other bags with similar pockets do.

The strap also has a quick-draw pocket for a card (or two, if you’re feeling rad). Pick the card(s) you use the most and slot them in here for quick access. And we really mean quick; a tab that pops them out when you pull on it. It’s a very simple mechanism we typically see on tight-fitting minimalist wallets, and we dig it.

The back panel houses a side-opening security pocket. The interior is pretty wide and deep, but there’s not much horizontal space to work with. In other words, you’re only meant to store important but flat items, such as a passport or a wallet. Otherwise, anything too chunky will affect the back panel’s evenness.

On the left side is a water bottle pocket. It stays flush thanks to a zippered gusset, thus preserving the bag’s streamlined shape if you’re not traveling with a water bottle. But if you are bringing one, you can fit up to a 28-ounce insulated bottle. Thankfully, the pocket is deep enough, and most bottles sit flush and secure inside. If you want to be extra careful, there’s also a cinch tie to further secure your bottle or other skinny items, like a travel umbrella.

At the front is a zippered pocket for everyday carry items. It’s modestly sized, but space is at the mercy of the main compartment and how tightly packed that is. Thankfully, we fit a minimalist wallet, a set of AirPods, and a set of keys attached to the built-in key leash. The key leash is ALPAKA’s MOD Key Tether, so you can detach it magnetically for your convenience. That said, actually getting your keys onto the clip is tricky when opening the MOD Key Tether’s D-ring. To make things easier, we simply fed our own key ring onto it instead.

The main compartment has two zippers guarding the crescent-shaped opening. It faces sideways, which may look unintuitive, but it’s not. See, if you’re wearing the bag on your back, rotating it to your front orients the opening upwards towards you. And in case you’re wondering, all of the pockets inside are correspondingly oriented towards you, too.

Inside is the bulk of the sling’s 10-liter capacity, and that’s a bit of a double-edged sword. At the front is a zippered mesh pocket that’s very roomy. However, putting a pair of gloves inside eats away a lot of usable space from the front pocket on the outside. In other words, there’s definitely a tradeoff in using this pocket, and we’d be mindful of what kind of gear we store here. On top of that, if you leave that pocket empty but overstuff the main compartment with large gear, that can also start to cut into the front pocket’s space. In short: use the capacity wisely.

At the back is a tablet sleeve that’s big enough for a Nintendo Switch with its Joy-Cons attached or a large tablet like an iPad Pro 11. It’s not a full sleeve, as two sides are open, which is intentional to keep accessibility easy. The interior is felt-lined, too, to prevent your device from getting scratched.

As for capacity, we fit a packing cube of clothing and a set of folding on-ear headphones. It’s not the most spacious in terms of sheer space, but that’s because a lot of the volume gets shared across multiple compartments and pockets. Overall, it sits between smaller day slings and daypacks, which is ideal for those who want to carry plenty of everyday items, plus a few productivity tools like a tablet.