Pioneer Global Pouch XL Review

We admire Pioneer’s choice of durable, lightweight, and water-resistant materials on most of the pouches and wallets we’ve encountered. However, we’ve also noted that their organization can sometimes feel clunky, so we were curious how this XL version of the Global Pouch stands up to its younger sibling. Let’s dive in!

External Components

The exterior material on this pack is Baby Ballistic™, which is Pioneer’s high-density nylon fabric. It’s very durable, has high water resistance, and feels dynamic; however, it doesn’t have much padding. This leaves any gear you put inside this pouch at risk of being damaged if you were to drop it or if your daypack was to go through some turbulence. Now that you know it isn’t very padded, you can plan for that, but accidents happen. Otherwise, we dig the material as a whole!

The main compartment zipper is from YKK and has an AquaGuard finish. It adds to the durability and water resistance of the pouch as a whole because it’s tough and won’t let liquids through without a fight. If you’ve read Pack Hacker reviews before, you’ll know how much we like YKK zippers!

The zipper pull is the basic one we’ve seen from YKK before, but it’s no slouch. It’s easy to use and grab onto but can be slippery when you’ve got wet hands. Why would you have wet hands while opening it? Well, we’ll get into that later.

When fully packed out, the pouch measures 25 cm x 16 cm x 7 cm (9.84 in x 6.299 in x 2.7559 in), larger than the Global Pouch we’ve already tested. It’s skinny enough to hang onto but can get heavy when fully packed, which makes it more challenging.

Another aspect that makes the Global Pouch XL hard to carry is that it doesn’t have a handle, loop, or exterior attachment point. If you’re holding it, you’ve got to do just that; you’ll find no assistance from extra materials or hardware. As mentioned above, it’s easy enough to hang onto, but smaller hands might have issues.

At the time of writing, the only colorway the Global Pouch XL is available in is black. This is sleek, but this might leave something to be desired if you’re trying to look like a rainbow in human form while you’re walking through the airport. Although you might have learned that black is the presence of all colors in high school, so it may still be a worthy addition.

If you’ve used Pioneer gear in the past, you might be used to the minimalism employed by this pouch. Nothing stands out on the exterior except the Pioneer logo, which is small and out of the way on the pouch’s facade. If you’re looking for something that isn’t in your face, look no further than the Global Pouch XL!

Inside The Pouch

On the interior, there isn’t a ton going on. There’s a lot of space to utilize, but it isn’t bogged down by organization, which you might like, despise, or feel somewhere in the middle. For geometry lovers, the interior is symmetrical, which is fun.

Both sides of the pouch have two pockets. The liner is durable but not stretchy to accept more oversized items or padded to offer protection. They are large so that big things can fit; however, this dwarfs smaller items, making it difficult to find them inside quickly. There are four pockets, two on each side, which is handy for storing more oversized items you don’t want loaded into the main compartment. The top of the pocket material is two-ply, adding strength to the area your hand comes in contact with most often.

There’s a divider in the middle (between the two sides). It attaches to the bottom so that no items can slide underneath it. There’s a zipper on top so you can put things inside it, creating two large pockets inside the pouch with a smaller zippered area to stow items, which we dig. It’s nice to have a spot inside with a topper to secure gear, as the two on either side of it don’t.

The space on either side of the divider is plentiful enough for most situations. However, if you’ve got the side pockets maxed out and the center divider loaded up, there isn’t as much space, and it can be more challenging to get to any gear on the bottom of the pouch. There’s a lot of room to stow stuff, but it isn’t always accessible, which can be annoying. For the most part, using it is easy.

Overall, the organization feels the same as some of Pioneer’s smaller pouches but supersized. It isn’t very intuitive for some uses, but it works for most things.

Now that we’ve reviewed the organization, what should you use this thing for? Well, there are a few options.

The main two usage options for this pouch are as a toiletry bag or a tech pouch. We’ll start with the former.

When used as a dopp kit, the ample space is helpful for large toiletries and grooming tools. The extensive open areas are suitable for supersized containers; however, there’s no built-in 3-1-1 bag, so you’ll need to add one or not take this through the TSA line at the airport. Wet things can go inside the zippered middle compartment in a pinch, or you can stow items there if you want some protection from spills and goopy things on the outside. The organization isn’t super intuitive to use as a dopp kit, but it works.

When used as a tech kit, it’s handy to stow the cables in the middle zippered compartment and bigger accessories like a mouse or wall charger in the side pockets. The large open areas work well for more oversized items like a battery bank, but it feels like there isn’t a spot for tiny gear like a dongle, SD card, or loose headphones. The organization isn’t super intuitive to use as a tech kit, but it works.

If you didn’t notice, the last two sentences of those last two paragraphs are identical except for the subject. Overall, this pouch feels very versatile, durable, and water resistant, but it leaves the user struggling to figure out what to use it for because it doesn’t feel like it’s designed for one thing over another. It can do many things, but it doesn’t do anything superbly. There’s a place for gear like that in most pack-outs; however, if you know exactly what gear you want, this might not fit the bill.