lululemon Easy Access Crossbody Bag Review

Sometimes when you’re heading out for a night on the town, you just want a crossbody or sling bag to hold your essentials. Trying to get into a nightclub with a full-blown travel backpack is the easiest way to scream “tourist.” The lululemon Easy Access Crossbody Bag may be a good option for when you only have a few things to carry. It can come in handy for daily use as well if you’re going to the gym, on a quick nature walk, or out running errands.

While it does serve as a convenient vessel for your phone and keys, it doesn’t have space for much else. We also had some issues with fraying and the material getting marked up way too easily. We tested this bad boy for a full month, so let’s dive into the review, starting with the materials.

Materials & Aesthetic

The lululemon Easy Access Crossbody Bag is made of nylon with a polyester liner. It has a smooth finish that’s soft to the touch. Even the nylon shoulder strap has a silky finish that feels great in hand. As we’d expect from lululemon, this crossbody bag also uses other high-quality materials like sturdy YKK zippers and Duraflex snaphooks to attach the shoulder strap.

The material on the bag is maybe too soft, though—it scratched and marked up fairly easily. We aren’t sure if this is just a problem because of the lighter colorway we opted for or not, but it’s an issue nevertheless. By the end of our one-month testing period, the front and back of the bag were covered in marks and dirt. We also noticed some fraying starting to form on one of the inside seams near the zipper. Check the timeline at the bottom of this page to see what we mean. We’re not sure if the zipper itself caused the fraying, but it’s definitely contributing to making it worse. The frayed fabric sticks up and outward so when we zip the bag it gets caught, causing even more fraying.

We get that things wear and tear over time, and we did use this thing pretty much daily for a month straight. However, a month is not really a long shelf life for a crossbody bag, especially one from a brand as notable as lululemon. It wasn’t exactly easy to clean, either, and after a few minutes of vigorous scrubbing with no change, we gave up.

On a more positive note, the bag does have decent weather resistance. We got caught in both a drizzle and a downpour a few times while using it and nothing inside got wet. Now, we aren’t saying the lululemon Easy Access Crossbody Bag will be completely dry if you end up having to wait outside for a bus that’s an hour late in a torrential downpour. But a short walk from the car to the office or train station to a coffee shop in the rain won’t leave you with a soggy bag.

In case you’re into adding splashes of color to your daily routine, the bag comes in a variety of fun color combinations available with equally as fun names. At the time of this review, that includes Sonic Pink and Cacao, Precious Pink and Spiced Chai, Arctic Green and Tidewater Teal, Rhino Grey and White, and Heritage Camo Neo Mint Multi. There’s also just straight-up Black or White (which includes neon green zippers and black accents). We were feeling frisky for this review and went with Precious Pink and Spiced Chai. We love a good spiced chai and will never pass one up, even when it’s in bag form.

Features & Usage

Beyond the lululemon logo, the front of the Easy Access Crossbody Bag features a deep pocket. It’s wide, stretching across the entire front of the bag, and makes a convenient spot for your phone, wallet, or anything else you want quick access to. While we found that it made a convenient spot for an iPhone 12, it doesn’t have a zipper to close it, so your items will be a bit exposed. This could be a potentially bad thing for both rain and pickpocketing, so keep that in mind. It does provide easy access to whatever’s in that pocket, and the name of the bag is Easy Access Crossbody Bag, so it’s only doing its job.

Speaking of easy access, the main compartment also offers a gusseted opening and wide zipper. The zipper goes down nearly to the bottom of the bag and the gusset allows it to open wide so you can easily see everything that’s inside. This also helps you pull items out quickly. The downside to this, however, is that the gusseted opening is deceptive. It makes it seem as though the bag can fit more inside than it actually can. With the bag open wide, you can easily stuff keys, a wallet, cellphone, cash, chapstick, and earbuds inside. Try to close it up, though, and the zipper can get tight, so you may have trouble closing it around everything.

We couldn’t find the capacity of this bag anywhere on lululemon’s website, but in our experience, a cellphone, keys, and cash fit comfortably. If you have a particularly chunky pair of keys, then this might even be a tight squeeze. This bag is literally for your essentials only, so you’re not going to get any snacks or emergency wet wipes in here—especially if you’ve got a phone with a thick case in the front pocket.

Inside the main compartment, there are two pockets—one mesh and one normal. At first were using the mesh pocket, which is on the front opening side, for cash and coins. However, we soon realized how much this pocket leaves your items boldly on display when you open the bag and switched to using the opposite pocket. If you have something in the outside front pocket, it can weigh the front flap down and the gusset leaves everything out in the open. It’s almost too easy to access.

Overall we found the lululemon Easy Access Crossbody Bag to be convenient for bare essentials during our daily routine. If you have more than a phone, cash, and keys to carry, however, you may find this bag lacking space.