Waterproof Backpacks

Waterproof Backpacks: For the Rain That Catches You at the Lights

The sky was dry when you unlocked the bike. Two kilometres later the first drops hit the handlebars, the laptop is on your back, and the question is not whether the pack looks waterproof but whether the fabric sheds water and whether the closure lets it in. This collection is our answer, and it comes with a plain caveat. None of the packs here is a dry bag. There is no welded roll-top from a kayak brand on this page, because we do not stock one. What we stock is the kind of waterproof backpack most people are searching for: coated fabrics with a water column rating, water-repellent finishes, sensible closures and, on a few models, a rain cover in its own pocket. Rated by their brands in their brands' own words, which is the rule on every product cited below.

Waterproof or water-repellent? Which one you need

Strictly, a waterproof backpack keeps water out when it is held under water: welded seams and a roll-top folded down three times. That is kayak and packraft territory. If you are going to dunk the pack, drop it in a river or strap it to a deck, this collection is not for you and we would rather say so now than after a wet weekend.

Everything else is a question of degree, and degree is what the brands publish. A water column figure (Klättermusen gives one on every pack) tells you how much water pressure the fabric holds before it leaks through. A PU coating on the inside of the weave (Mero Mero, Patagonia, Millet) does the holding. A DWR finish on the outside (Patagonia, Topo Designs, Deuter) makes the rain bead and roll off instead of soaking in, so the coating underneath never has to work hard. "Water-repellent", the word Kapten & Son uses, means the fabric sheds rain; it does not say anything about the seams or the zip. For a shower on the way to the office or a day on a trail under a passing front, that is enough. For six hours of steady rain on a mountain, add the rain cover. For immersion, buy a dry bag somewhere else.

Match the pack to the rain you actually get

Commute and bike: ten minutes of heavy rain, every other day

On a bike the rain comes at the back panel and the top of the pack, and the laptop sits against your spine. A roll-top keeps the opening above the weather, which is why Mero Mero's Squamish V3 is the first pack we point cyclists to: PU-coated 1,000 mm recycled nylon with a PFC-free water-repellent treatment, a magnetic roll-top, and room for a 17-inch laptop. Its smaller sibling, the Wanaka, uses the same fabric and roll-top at 10 to 15 litres for a 15-inch machine, and the Annecy does the same job in a dressier cut. Ucon Acrobatics builds its Lotus Infinity packs in PU-coated recycled textile with a roll-top, and is unusually frank about it: the brand classes the Hajo Mini and the Jannik Mini as water-resistant and says water may get through the seams. Read that as fine for the ride and for nothing heavier.

If you want a zip instead of a roll, Kapten & Son's Helsinki Pro Bike is the one pack here built for the rack and the rain together: water-repellent fabric and zip, a Click & Go mount for the pannier rail, and an integrated rain cover you pull out when the shower turns into a downpour. The plain Helsinki Pro keeps the water-repellent zip and the back-panel opening without the rack mount, and the Oslo is the same water-repellent idea at 18 litres for a lighter day.

Hiking: a front that passes, a day that does not

Klättermusen is where the numbers get serious. The brand rates the Gyme 25L and Gyme 35L fabric above 10,000 mm and tapes the seams of the top lid, which is the closest thing to a mountain-grade waterproof backpack on this page. The Ull 30L carries the same rating under a drawcord opening, the Ull 20L keeps that cinch opening at a daypack size, and the Bure 2.0 20L brings it down to 20 litres with a zipped top. Below them, the Gilling 20L and Skrymner 20L are rated 1,500 mm, enough for a shower, not for a day of it. Patagonia takes the coating-plus-finish route: the Terravia Pack 36L pairs a PU coating with a DWR finish made without perfluorinated chemicals under a roll-top, and the Refugio Daypack 26L and Atom Daypack 24L get the same PU coating and a DWR without intentionally added PFAS. Deuter's Futura Pro 36 answers the question the old-fashioned way: a rain cover in the bottom pocket, which on a ventilated trekking pack is still the method that works.

Travel: a platform, a drizzle, a taxi rank

Travel packs get rained on in short bursts between doors. Topo Designs finishes its recycled nylon with a PFC-free DWR across the Global Travel Backpack, the Commuter Backpack and the Rover Trail Pack 24L; the clamshell opening on the Global Travel is there for packing, so the DWR is the weather argument. Kapten & Son's Lisbon Duffle Backpack Medium and Lisbon Duffle Backpack Small are water-repellent in the brand's words, cut like a duffle you carry on your back. For a week out of one bag, Deuter's Access 55 is the biggest pack on the page, with the DWR finish Deuter has used without intentionally added PFAS since 2020.

How the brands rate their fabrics

Four terms do all the work. A water column (in millimetres) is the height of water the fabric holds before it leaks; 1,000 mm is rain, 10,000 mm is a storm. A PU coating is the layer that does the holding, laminated to the inside of the weave. A DWR, durable water repellent, is a finish on the outside that makes drops bead; it wears with use and can be refreshed. A rain cover is the admission that seams and zips are where water gets in, and the simplest fix.

Klättermusen sits at the top: it publishes a water column for most of its packs, and on the Gyme, Ull and Bure that figure is above 10,000 mm, with a taped top lid on the Gyme. Mero Mero comes next, with a PU coating rated at 1,000 mm, a PFC-free water-repellent treatment and a roll-top on every model, including the Wanaka Pocket, the Annecy Pocket and the expandable Mini Smögen. Kapten & Son uses one word, water-repellent, across the range, and backs it with hardware on two models: the integrated cover on the Helsinki Pro Bike and the rain cover supplied with the Åre Daypack Lite. Patagonia gives you a PU coating under a DWR finish made without perfluorinated chemicals; the Black Hole Micro MLC 22L is the exception, a recycled TPU-film laminate the brand describes as brushing off light weather and scuffs. Ucon Acrobatics coats recycled textile with PU and calls the result water-resistant, with the honest line about seams quoted above; the Kumo Medium adds a splash-proof magnetic flap and the Jannik Medium a roll-top with an aluminium buckle. Millet publishes no water figure for the Parmelan 35L or Parmelan 25L; what the brand gives you is the hybrid roll-top closure with compression straps, and on the UBIC 20L a 1,000 mm rating with a water-repellent fabric. Topo Designs states a PFC-free DWR and nothing more, Lefrik calls the RPET fabric of the Mini Handy water-resistant, and Deuter's DWR is a range-wide finish rather than a per-pack rating, which is why the Futura Pro's rain cover counts for more than the finish. Sandqvist describes the GRID Rolltop 16" fabric as water-resistant recycled nylon ripstop and shapes the GRID Rolltop 14" around a rolltop closure inspired by classic dry bags, which is a design cue, not a rating.

Capacity and laptop

The collection runs from 10 to 55 litres. At the small end, the Klättermusen Tjalve 2.0 10L weighs 320 grams and is rated 300 mm, a trail-running pack that will take a shower. The Lefrik Mini Handy holds 9.5 litres and a 13-inch laptop, Kapten & Son's Tromso gives you 12 litres and a 13-inch sleeve, and the Bergen Cloud takes a 14-inch machine in 15 litres. The 20 to 25 litre band is the everyday one: the Mero Mero Wanaka and Annecy fit a 15-inch laptop, the Kapten & Son Helsinki Pro, Oslo, Lund Sleek and Bali Pro all take a 16-inch MacBook, the Ucon Hajo Mini and Jannik take 16.4 inches, and the Topo Commuter and Patagonia Refugio carry a 15-inch. The Squamish V3 is the one pack here that swallows a 17-inch laptop, and it grows from 20 to 40 litres as the roll-top unrolls. Above 30 litres you are into the Gyme 35L, the Terravia 36L, the Futura Pro 36 and the Mini Smögen at 30 to 45 litres, none of them laptop packs by design; the Lisbon Duffle Medium is the exception, 50 litres with a 16-inch sleeve, and the Access 55 the outer limit.

Bought here, backed here

Returns run 30 days, so a pack that turns out too big for the bike or too small for the laptop goes back without a discussion. Every order ships from France, and the shipping cost shows in the cart before you pay. Eiken adds a 2-year warranty on top of the manufacturer's, so a seam or a buckle that fails inside that window is our problem before it is yours.