Tom Bihn Synapse 19 review – hint it’s my favourite ever bag

On Christmas morning, totally unexpectedly, I received a beautifully wrapped box.

Under the paper was a brown cardboard box that I thought was an Amazon box….

It turned out to be have the Tom Bihn logo on it…..and I squealed like a girl.

BEST. PRESENT. EVER.

I’d been pining after a Tom Bihn Synapse for ages now.

Much to Angelique’s annoyance.

It is not cheap, so despite my fetish for all things luggage and bag-related, I’d held off buying one.

Now, it was mine.

I first heard about it from a Gear post by Tynan. Tynan is a former PUA and now entrepreneur who writes insanely popular gear posts about how to pack for minimal, long-term travel. (He used to favour the Tim Bihn Synapse but now he favours Minaal.)

(Here’s a link to Tynan’s 2017 gear post)
(Here’s a link to Tynan’s 2015 gear post which is the last one he posted which lists the Tom Bihn Synapse backpack)

The thing that fired my imagination and my lust for it was the fact that Tynan did long-term travel ie. months at a time with just this bag. 19L. 19 Liters!! It must have been a great bag to be able to fit and organise everything you’d need for that style of travel.

So anyway, back to Christmas…

I’ve never been more surprised (in a positive way) by a present.

Here’s a photo of it:

First impressions

1) The material feels tough and durable. I know it’s durable because in a stroke of genius marketing, the company has posted a video of them testing its durability.

2) The zips are super strong. They are YKK like most zips but the zipping action itself is slow and feels harder to pull in either direction. This might seem odd but this does mean that they won’t open unexpectedly. Even if the zip is half done up, it won’t pull open under the weight of the pocket’s contents.

3) There’s loads of pockets! 6 in total:

• 1 x large main compartment with a partition
• 2 x central top front pockets
• 2 x front side pockets
• 1 x bottom central pocket

4) It just feels beautifully made. It has that feeling of quality.

5) It’s spacious. It easily fits my Macbook Pro 13″. I haven’t tried to stuff it to the max but this photo from Tom Bihn gives you some idea of the potential:

 

Possible negatives

I would like there to be a small zip pocket on the inside of the bag for coins or keys or tiny items like USB flash drives and passports. This would mean easier access to these items and mean not digging around in the larger pockets/compartments for these.

Overall

I LOVE it!! It’s pricey, but then again, I didn’t pay for it. Some things just cost more and it’s worth paying the premium (like Apple products).

It’s definitely the right size for me. The 25L would have been too big to be my EDC.

Any questions at all, let me know in the comments!

Further reading

Check out the Tom Bihn Synapse 19 bag here as well as the awesome Tom Bihn site here.

For more on how to pack for minimal long-term travel:

Minimalist Travel Gear Packing List: Insanely Light Luggage Edition

How to Pack Light: The Complete Guide to Ultralight, Minimalist Travel