Troubadour Goods Apex Sling Review

In the world of bags, slings are the perfect option when you have too much to fit into your pockets but not enough to warrant lugging around a larger travel daypack. But what about when you have more gear than fits in a waist pack or a crossbody sling in the 1-2L range? Well, you need an upgrade.

The Troubadour Goods Apex Sling has a 5.5L capacity for just those occasions. With external pockets and internal organization, is it right for your everyday carry, vacation, or both? Let’s find out.

External Components

If you’re familiar with Troubadour Goods, you might be able to guess some of the materials that make up this bag.

It’s primarily FortiWeave fabric, which is Troubadour Goods’ way of saying they used recycled plastic to create a durable material. It has PFC-free waterproofing and AquaGuard coating on the YKK zippers to beef up the water resistance. We appreciate that because it always gives us pause when brands put so much effort into waterproofing their fabric only to leave the zippers coating-free. That’s not the case here. The zipper pulls are made with recycled metal, too, and have pulls that look like leather but are not for easy grabbing.

The Troubadour brand name is printed in raised letters vertically on the left side of the sling, and there’s the same faux leather running across the top of the bag for a luxurious-looking accent. It gives the bag a premium, clean style we’re used to seeing from the brand, and the sling shares another feature with Troubadour Goods daypacks we’ve tested: it has built-in structure to try and prevent the bag from sagging when there’s less inside. Unfortunately, that structure is rather easy to cave in when you don’t have much inside the sling, and it tends to stick in that caved-in style without some effort to load it up.

We’ll get to the strap in a moment, but first, we want to mention the broad and wide carry handle with a non-slip grip underneath. It’s a bit shallow to squeeze your hand underneath, but it does the job when you need to move the bag from place to place. Mostly, we use the shoulder strap, but sometimes that’s just not as convenient, so it’s nice to have another way to hold the Apex Sling and something to hold when opening or closing the main compartment zipper.

Against the back panel, you’ll find a slight amount of padding lined with micromesh for breathability. There’s also “Troubadour” in larger, slightly less raised letters running up the right side of the bag. However, on either bottom corner, you’ll see two small attachment points, which set the Apex Sling apart from other crossbody bags. This is what enables you to carry the bag on whichever shoulder is most comfortable for you; just unclip the swivel hook at the end of the shoulder strap from one side and affix it to the other to help the bag lay over your right or left shoulder, whichever you prefer.

We have to point out a small caveat here, though. While you can swing the bag to your front to grab gear inside without taking it off your shoulder, the main compartment only unzips one way. So, if you’re carrying it on your left shoulder, as our primary tester prefers, the zipper opening is facing the ground when you swing the bag forward, which means everything inside will fall out if you open the bag. If you carry it over your right shoulder, you can grab something inside without this happening. So yes, the bag is technically ambidextrous, but you’re giving up functionality if you don’t wear it a certain way.

The shoulder strap is also wide and lightly padded, with a Duraflex buckle that’s easy to fasten and release if you prefer to take it off without pulling it over your head. It includes a built-in strap keeper that slides along the strap with you, so you don’t have to fight with tight elastic to contain the excess. It occasionally creates an unintended loop as it slides, though it’s easy to smooth flat. There’s one more instance of branding along the strap, this time in a smaller font than along the back panel yet still as flat.

Fit Notes

Since you can carry it over either shoulder and the strap is easy to adjust, this bag is comfortable. Unlike smaller slings, you can’t combine it with a daypack as it sits exactly where the backpack would, and it’s very large to carry on your front. However, if you wanted a personal item bag for the plane, this would get the job done since you can carry just about everything you would need on the plane inside.

You probably won’t have a problem filling it if you’re rolling luggage alongside, and it looks best fully packed. It’s a 5.5L bag, and you need to fill more than 3 of those liters if you don’t want it to look caved in. The materials give it a premium aesthetic, but nothing looks luxurious when dented in front, so keep that in mind when packing. If you don’t have enough gear to fill it on a given day, you’ll probably want to switch to a smaller sling.

Inside The Sling

However, if you do have a good amount of gear you’d like to keep at hand, there are plenty of places to put it.

On the front of the bag is a short horizontal zipper that opens to a quick-access pocket. It has a key leash inside, and we find that to be about all we want to stick in there because it’s a tight fit to slide your hand inside to grab your wallet or phone. However, you only need to tug on the leash to get your keys—no squeezing required. There’s also an AirTag pocket near the top of this pocket to help you track your sling if you become separated. It’s not hidden and is labeled as such, though, so you’ll have to hope a thief doesn’t think to open this pocket as soon as they grab your bag, or you won’t track it too far. Using this feature will mainly come in handy if you tend to forget where you put a bag the moment you leave a room; at least then, you’ll know if it’s in the den, your bedroom, or still in your car.

Flip the sling around, and you’ll find a pocket hidden along the back panel that opens with a vertical zipper to hold your travel wallet and passport. This one is easier to slide your hand inside, though it opens on the same side as the main compartment, so you’ll have the same issues with accessing it without taking off the bag if you’re carrying it on your left shoulder.

The remaining space is in the main compartment of the Apex Sling. It opens with a horseshoe-shaped zipper that extends nearly all the way down each side of the bag for wide access, and it does have gussets to contain your gear, as long as it’s at the bottom of the bag. As mentioned above, we still wouldn’t trust them to hold everything if we opened the bag with the zipper facing downward. The one-sided zipper hampers accessibility, so you can’t just reach into a small opening to grab something if it’s on the opposite side. You have to unzip it at least half, if not all, of the way.

Against the back panel is a padded slip pocket large enough for an e-reader like a Kindle or a small tablet like an iPad Mini. You could also use it for maps or tickets or leave it empty when you don’t need it; it lies flat. In front of that is a smaller slip pocket for a minimalist wallet or your phone.

Then, attached to the side of the tablet pocket is a stabilizer pocket to hold a water bottle in place if you carry it. It’s a thin material, so it stays out of the way if you’re not using it, but since this sling is large enough to hold hydration, it’s nice to have a way to keep it standing upright. Hopefully, this goes without saying, but we use it for bottles we trust not to leak since it’s inside the sling, not tumblers or travel mugs.

Finally, a zipper mesh pocket along the front panel keeps tiny travel accessories from getting lost at the bottom. Tech like a battery bank, a cord, and earbuds work well here, as do small toiletries like lip balm and hand sanitizer.

Depending on whether or not you’re packing a water bottle, there’s still quite a bit of space remaining after you fill the pockets. If you throw in a slim insulated bottle like a Hydro Flask, you’ll still have room for a packable jacket, a rain poncho, an extra layer, or plenty of snacks. This makes it a great everyday carry if you’ll be away from your accommodations all day on a trip, though it’s a bit overkill if you carry a laptop bag to work daily.