Topo Designs Global Travel Bag Roller Review

The Topo Designs Global Travel Bag Roller ticks many of the right boxes for a rolling carry on. It’s spacious at 44 liters, has a solid telescoping handle, smooth rolling wheels, and durable build quality that doesn’t compromise Topo Design’s signature colorful styling.

However, what’s puzzling is Topo Design’s inclusion of backpack and crossbody straps. Hybrid carry bags aren’t exactly unique, and we’re certainly no stranger to them. However, hauling a roller of this size with straps is a bit of a reach in most cases—read on to find out why.

External Components

The Global Travel Bag Roller’s composition is very pragmatic, with different materials distributed where they make sense. For example, much of the bag’s colorful sections are made of 1000-denier recycled nylon fabric, while the black base uses 1680-denier recycled ballistic nylon. Meanwhile, the back half is recycled PC (we assume that stands for polycarbonate) plastic, giving the entire bag structural rigidity. In other words, they’re using lighter fabrics where the bag is unlikely to get scuffed, heavier fabric where it’s bound to get scuffed, and a hard shell where it’ll definitely get scuffed.

Practicality aside, we’re glad that Topo Designs has managed to preserve the fun and colorful design we’ve always known them for. There’s just something refreshing about a travel bag with a distinct colorway. Maybe it’s the fact we can spot it among a sea of other luggage, or maybe we’ve just been testing too many black bags in general. Either way, we hope you enjoy the Toy Story vibes we get from this bag as much as we do.

The zippers on this bag are from YKK, a brand we’re quite familiar with, given how popular they are for their reliability. Just so we’re not taking that for granted, we put that to the test over the weeks we’ve used the bag. Lo and behold, none of the zippers have jammed, and none felt particularly resistive, even around corners. The external zippers have loops at the end of their respective tracks where you can thread the paracord pulls for security purposes. They’re not completely secure, and you must position the zippers at the end of their tracks to use them, so we still recommend using a TSA-approved lock if you want better protection.

Like most self-respecting luggage, the Global Travel Bag Roller has handles to help you grab the bag in a pinch. There’s one at the top and one on each side. They’re not afterthoughts either; all three are decently padded for comfort. We still wouldn’t recommend using them to carry the bag for prolonged periods (unless you’re built differently) since the bag can get hefty once it’s fully loaded. However, there are simply times when you just have to use them, like when you have to go up a flight of stairs or place the bag in the overhead bin. And in those times, these handles deliver decent comfort.

At the front are two sets of loops stitched onto the fabric where you can hang various accessories. That said, Topo Designs also offers lots of other gear you can attach via the PackFast attachment clips at the front of the bag, from the modestly-sized like their Accessory Bags, to full-on daypacks like the Rover Pack Classic if you want a separate bag you can daily at your destination.

This bag only has two hind wheels, and they don’t rotate, only spinning backward and forward. That’s fine since this is clearly labeled a roller (you’re thinking of spinners if you’re looking for four wheels that rotate independently). The really surprising thing about these wheels is that they roll quite smoothly despite their rather plastic and hollowed outlooks.

A stabilizer bar at the front supports the wheels to ensure the entire 44-liter bag stays upright. This system works, but you can push it over the limit if you hang enough extra gear from those front loops we mentioned above. As an aside, this stabilizer bar also acts as a bottom handle you can use to slide the bag around when it’s lying on its back, like when you’re packing.

The telescoping handle is just as beefy as it looks, with minimal play between the individual parts. That said, since the handle telescopes, we hoped you could lock it in the middle position, but you can’t. The handle can only be locked in the fully extended position.

Apart from rolling the bag, you also have the option of strapping it to yourself backpack-style. Included are a set of backpack straps and a crossbody strap. The former attaches to two hidden loops at the top and at the front. And, yes, the front of the bag rests against your back if you decide to wear it like a backpack.

Meanwhile, one side of the crossbody strap can be attached to the top PackFast loop and the other to the front-bottom loops. If you think this setup already looks cumbersome, that’s because it kind of is in practice.

Fit Notes

Comfort in backpack mode largely depends on whether you have gear in the front compartment and pocket or not. As you can imagine, the front wasn’t designed to be a back panel from the ground up. To be fair, the backpack straps themselves are well-padded and sit very comfortably on the shoulders. However, they can only distract so much from the fact that you’re hauling a 44-liter bag designed, first and foremost, to be a roller.

It’s a similar case with the crossbody strap. It’s padded, with decent width and thickness to spread out a bag’s heft. However, there’s simply no getting around the Global Travel Bag Roller’s chunkiness. By the end of our testing, we used neither backpack nor crossbody mode as often as we thought we would. It’s nice that the options are there, and the backpack straps can come in clutch if you’re staying at some ancient hotel with no working elevators. Overall, though, both are features we probably won’t use in the long run.

However, the good news is, as we mentioned earlier, rolling the Global Travel Bag Roller is a smooth experience. Even better, the wheels are beefy enough to take on rougher surfaces like cobblestone and run-down sidewalks. The lack of height adjustment options feels like a missed opportunity, especially for those with shorter statures, but full-length comfortably covers most scenarios just fine.

Inside The Carry On Luggage

The Global Travel Bag Roller has a sort of wedding cake layered approach to its compartment. A sideways-facing quick grab pocket is at the frontmost (or topmost if you’re thinking in cake terms) part of the bag. It spans about a third of the front area, giving you plenty of room to store relatively chunky items such as winter gloves or buffs. That said, being layered on top of another compartment means it sort of competes for space, too.

The next compartment doesn’t look like it has much depth, but it expands quite a bit towards the front and tends to eat space that way. This gave us room to fit two pouches side by side, plus a 13-inch MacBook at the back (though you can fit up to 16-inch MacBook Pro, too). There are also two liner pockets at the bottom for accessories, such as charging adaptors, cables, and power banks. On the other hand, you may not want to pack too many oddly shaped items here if, as mentioned previously, you plan to carry this bag backpack-style. To be fair, some padding on the front side of this compartment can blunt rough shapes, but we’d stick to flatter items.

At the top is a quick-grab pocket, albeit a small one. Inside is a built-in key leash, so it’s a prime spot to stash a set and a few other small accessories. Access is a bit tricky, though, since the top PackFast clip is in the way. Since we didn’t use that PackFast clip for most of our testing, we opted to unbuckle and stow it underneath the nearby flap (where the backpack straps’ attachment points are).

The main compartment opens fully clamshell-style, like a lot of rolling carry-ons. While that is great for packing since it gives you a huge opening to insert really bulky items, accessibility still falls short overall due to everything inside having a zipper. This means you’ll not only have to open the main compartment but also undo another layer of pockets when you just need to take something out quickly.

On the front side are two large mesh pockets. We use one to store small clothing items such as socks and underwear and put accessories in the other. Of course, if you’ve already packed every piece of clothing into packing cubes, you can repurpose these pockets for additional tech accessories or toiletries; it’s up to you. If you do need more space, there’s also a zippered pocket on the main bucket’s lid. We occasionally use it to store dirty clothing, but it’s almost too flat for that purpose, so temper your storage expectations.

The main bucket space accommodates the bulk of your packing needs. It’s pretty much an open area where you can stuff as much gear as you want, save for the overhanging top pocket. There are no hold-down straps, but that’s probably because Topo Designs intends for the flap cover to fulfill the same purpose. Mind you, we still use packing cubes to maintain separation between different types of clothing.

You can pack up to a week’s worth of extra clothing, though that will depend largely on the type you’re bringing with you and how often you change. In our case, a significant chunk of the space went to an extra pair of shoes, so we really needed to squeeze as much of our clothing into compression cubes as possible to meet that one-week target.