Mission Workshop Control EPX Pack Review

The Mission Workshop Control EPX Pack is a buy-it-for-life bag with a price tag to match. That said, just because a bag is highly durable and has a fantastic warranty doesn’t mean it’s worth the price for your use case if you won’t use all the features. Is this bag for you and worth it for the travel and everyday use you’ll put it through? Let’s dive in and find out.

External Components

The bag is made from 100% recycled REPREVE® rPET fiber and Challenge RUV™ film. These are both ECOPAK™ fabrics, and they’re incredibly water-resistant and durable. The look isn’t for everyone—the bag has a very technical vibe, but it performs incredibly well.

In testing, we cycled to and from work in Detroit for two weeks, and the pack was hit with light, moderate, and heavy rain. On one occasion, it was out in the rain for over an hour, and the gear inside the pack, which included expensive camera equipment, was bone dry by the end of the ride. The rider was soaked, even through an expensive The North Face rain jacket, but the backpack stayed dry.

In addition to highly water-resistant materials, the zippers helped keep things dry, too. They’re YKK AquaGuard zippers, some of the best in the business. They have a PU coating to ensure no water sneaks inside, and the zipper tracks are mostly hidden to prevent water from sneaking in through the cracks.

Typically, we see a few entry points for water over time, but between the ECOPAK™ materials and YKK zippers, this thing is very secure against intrusion from water, dirt, mud, and dust.

The buckle on the front of the pack is from FIDLOCK. You don’t have to use this to get into the main compartment, but it blocks a secondary compartment and helps when attaching modular gear to the bag.

Two runners are on the bag’s front, left, and right sides. These are for attaching modular gear from the brand’s Arkiv® system.

You can use the pack without any additions, like we did, but there is a lot of gear that you can add on to make it more versatile. From a water bottle/side pocket to a tech pouch and other goodies, you can add capacity and functionality quickly and easily using this system. That said, it adds more costs to an already expensive bag, so keep that in mind. We appreciate that you can use the bag without the extras without looking strange—the runners look like accents. We found that the Arkiv® system is better than standard PALS/MOLLE webbing and attachments, though it isn’t as versatile overall, as only Mission Workshop gear will fit onto this attachment system.

The lower padding on the back panel is a luggage pass-through, which we dig. It’s easy to use, stable, and keeps the bag vertical so you can access items through the rolltop without them falling out of the bag.

Without the Arkiv® system, there isn’t much going on externally. It’s a near-watertight design, so we aren’t shocked, as more stitching means more places for water to get inside. However, the pack has a unique and technical look that we dig.

Fit Notes

The back panel has mesh, aeration, and padding. It’s one of the most breathable back panels we’ve tested, and it has a solid structure behind it, too, so you feel supported and aerated simultaneously.

The back panel and shoulder straps are one big continuous piece of material. The shoulder straps have the same padding and aeration, and are pretty comfortable.

The back panel and shoulder straps are very adjustable, too. You can shift the entire thing up or down based on your frame size, comfort level, or preference, making it a solid choice for different body types and easy to switch from person to person if traveling with a partner, friend, or family member.

The shoulder straps have load lifters, too, which are handy if you have a lot of weight inside the pack. They allow you to shift weight around and make the pack more comfortable, and we appreciate the inclusion.

The sternum strap is on a ladder, and you can shift its position using a strap with a button. It’s slower than if on a rail, but it stays in position, which we appreciate while cycling or on the trail. When fully packed, it feels necessary, though we could go without with a more standard load.

Overall, the pack feels very large. It’s comfortable, but it has a big, rectangular footprint.

Inside The Pack

Despite such a large footprint, the bag has just three compartments.

A small, flat pocket is at the top of the bag’s front face. It seems like it should be quick-access, but the FIDLOCK strap we mentioned earlier covers it, so you have to undo that to fully get into the pocket. However, you can undo half the zipper and access it without removing the strap. There’s no organization here, and the pocket isn’t massive, but it’s a solid place to stow your phone, wallet, sunglasses, or small tech items. It’s a flat pocket, so you can’t store items with lots of depth here.

The laptop compartment is accessible via the side of the pack near its back. It’s straightforward—there’s no organization inside—but it’s well-padded and easy to use. Plus, it’s raised, so your computer won’t slam against the ground when you set it on the concrete to change a flat tire or grab your drone. All the pockets are highly water resistant, so you don’t have to worry about water sneaking in to soak your laptop in inclement weather.

The main compartment has two access points. First, there’s a rolltop closure on the top of the bag, secured with a hook-and-loop fastener. Though we don’t love using the rolltop design, we appreciate that it offers you a few extra liters of capacity, which is handy in a pinch when traveling or commuting to work. You never know when your managing editor will send you home with new, larger gear to test without warning you first!

Second, there’s a clamshell-style flap on the pack’s front face. It offers excellent access to the main compartment, and you can get into the nitty-gritty of gear organization here. We often use this access point, as it is faster and offers a wholesale look at all your gear. We may not have done so with modular gear attached to the pack’s front face, as that would make the flap heavier and more unruly. Even with modular gear attached, you can still use this opening; it is simply more challenging.

Inside the main compartment, there’s one zippered mesh pocket on the lid. This is a solid place to lock down smaller gear, but that’s the only organization. To stay organized inside this daypack, you’ll have to use devices like packing cubes and a tech pouch, or invest in the Arkiv® system for external storage. Because of the vast open space and the extra capacity the rolltop design offers, this pack is large enough to use as a travel backpack or a commuter bag in certain situations.

We rode to and from work on a bicycle for two weeks of testing with the Mission Workshop Control EPX Pack. Most days, it carried a mirrorless camera, an extra lens, a drone with extra batteries and a controller, a toiletry pouch, a tech pouch, a laptop, and other essentials inside. On a weekend trip for two, it held packing cubes, a tech pouch, toiletry kits, and other travel gear.

Because of its lack of organization, you can fit almost anything, within reason, inside the pack. You’ll need to use organizational tools like packing cubes and pouches to stay organized, or invest in the Arkiv® system. Even without the extras, this pack is made in the United States and is highly durable and versatile. Plus, it features top-rated comfort and is near watertight for most use cases. If those features are important to you, you’ll have to pay a lot to get them, but there might not be another pack on the market that does them as well as the Mission Workshop Control EPX Pack.