WANDRD X1 Crossbody Bag (Small) Review

The WANDRD X1 Crossbody Bag comes in three sizes—small, medium, and large. We’re reviewing the small size here, which is one liter. The medium and large are 1.3 and 1.6 liters, respectively. We’re curious how well such a small bag does for travel or if we’ll wish we had chosen a larger size. Let’s dive in!

External Components

The primary material used here is nylon, which feels durable and looks sleek. While the exterior has a somewhat tactical look, we think it has a place in most repertoires.

The zippers are from YKK, which is an excellent call. These are AquaGuard models, which help keep water out of the main compartment. The nylon exterior does well to keep precipitation out, too, and the combination will keep your gear dry, within reason.

The Woojin buckle on the strap is magnetic. If you haven’t used a magnetic clasp before, it takes some getting used to. It’s smaller than a standard strap closure, and if you have range-of-motion issues, you might struggle with it. That said, for most, it’s quick and easy to get used to.

There’s a handle on the top of the bag, which is handy for picking it up and hitting the road quickly should you need to act fast. It’s larger than we thought it would be, so you can fit your whole hand inside to hold it. This might seem like an odd thing to comment on, but sometimes, with small bags like this, the handle is so small that it can be challenging to use it properly. There’s no issue with that here.

You can stow the strap, which we’ll get to later, which makes the handle all the more helpful as you can use it to move the bag around or attach it to the exterior or interior of your pack.

There are daisy chains down the left and right sides of the pack. There are five loops on either side, which feels like a lot for such a small bag, but they don’t get in your way when you aren’t using them, and they add structure to the pack, so no harm, no foul.

There’s a back slider pocket on the rear of the bag. Mentioning it now might seem like we’re getting ahead of ourselves, but hear us out. This isn’t as much of a pocket as a place to stow the strap when you don’t want to use it. If you don’t get it twisted, you can keep other things here, too, but most often, we used it to stow the strap when we didn’t want it in the way. Even if you’re going to place the bag on the table at dinner, it’s much more manageable without the strap, we think.

If you haven’t noticed yet, this thing is all black. At the time of writing, that’s the only option. This means you can’t get one to match your pink hair, but black goes with everything, right? Rock on, dude!

Fit Notes

The back panel is rigid and has no padding; however, that isn’t a problem here. This isn’t a classic sling or, really, even a standard crossbody bag; it’s more of a pouch with a strap. It isn’t going to be snug against your body, so the lack of ample padding isn’t a huge deal. It doesn’t have any aeration, either, but, as we said, you won’t be hugging this thing all day.

There’s no padding or aeration on the strap, which is more of an issue, but still not very problematic. At a single liter, you can’t fit a ton of gear inside here. That means, within reason, it can’t get that heavy, so an overly padded or aerated strap isn’t necessary. This comes down to personal preference, though, so if that’s what you’re used to, it’s worth considering.

You can wear this pack across your body, on your shoulder, with the handle, or toss it inside your daypack or travel backpack. It’s a versatile size and carryable in multiple ways, which we dig. But how well does it hold your gear?

Inside The Crossbody Bag

The front pocket has an overhanging lid and a magnetic closure to keep things secure. It’s a good size for a phone, glasses, wallet, or other quick-use item you want to be able to grab at a moment’s notice. It isn’t as water resistant as the main compartment because it doesn’t have a proper closure; however, the overhang does well to keep water out in most situations.

The medium and large versions of this pack have a cord pass-through to charge a device, but the small version doesn’t. Perhaps this is because the bag is a bit, well, small, but it would have been nice to see that included here, too.

The main compartment zipper goes around three of the four sides. It has a gusset, which stops it from opening too wide, which is handy here because your gear might fall out otherwise.

The front side of the bag has a stretchy mesh pocket on top that works well for AirPods or other small items like that. There’s an AirTag holder here, but it’ll work with any small tracker just fine. However, it’s tough to get one inside, and it’s somewhat noticeable when you open the bag. In the unfortunate circumstance of having your pack stolen, the bandit might see it when they open it and toss it out. This isn’t a huge deal for most users, but its visibility is worth mentioning.

The middle organization is accordion-style, which is intuitive and fun to use. There’s a rectangular area broken up into three spaces shaped like triangles to segment your accessories, but the holes feel too small for many kinds of gear. However, if you have things that fit inside them, they work incredibly well, and items rarely come out of the organizer, which is ideal.

On the back panel, there are two larger liner pockets for more oversized items, like a phone or a battery bank. These materials are rigid, not stretchy, so you can’t fit extra goodies inside here. It’s nice to have some areas that flex and some that don’t so you can fit different kinds of gear.

Overall, the exterior of the bag does well to protect your gear and look sleek. The front pocket is easy to use quickly, which we dig. However, the internal organization in the main compartment feels suffocating and will only work for a particular kind of pack out. It feels like WANDRD took the organization from a larger bag and shrunk it down into a smaller size without thought towards gear placement, and, given there are three sizes here, this might be the case.

Don’t take this the wrong way; the organization does incredibly well for certain things. However, for travel and people who like to switch up their everyday carry, it might not be the best option.