When I was shopping for a travel backpack, I naturally thought of luggage and outdoor brands that I was familiar with like The North Face, Patagonia, Samsonite, JanSport, High Sierra, and Columbia. Sadly, these brands have a track record of manufacturing in China, and are often tight-lipped about their suppliers. As with many iconic brands, they hope that by keeping their manufacturing quiet, you’ll just assume their quality and responsibleness is the same as it was decades ago. But they’ve long since sold out their brands so they can extract the maximum amount of money from you.
As the quality of the big brands has declined, smaller brands are popping up and are the favorites of travelers. To put this list together, I scoured sites like Wirecutter and other outdoor gear enthusiast sites to see what brands they loved. If I could confirm they’re not made in China, I listed them below, along with some of the things people love about them.
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Best Travel Backpacks Not Made in China
1. Cotopaxi Allpa 35L Travel Pack
This was named the best small carry-on travel pack by Wirecutter. They love Its clamshell design that makes packing easy, with roomy compartments for clothes and smaller pockets for essentials. They also talk about how it’s comfortable to carry, built from tough recycled nylon, includes a rain cover, and comes with a lifetime warranty.
Wirecutter calls the 35L the best size—more practical than the smaller 28L or heavier 42L—making it a reliable one-bag travel option for trips up to a week.
I love Cotopaxi’s transparency. On their manufacturing page, they highlight their factory in the Philippines that makes their backpacks and bags. Yes, they do use China for other products, but not their crown jewels. Buying their non-China products will help keep it that way.
You can get it on their site or on Amazon.
2. Peak Design Travel Backpack
This was named by Wirecutter as the best large carry-on backpack.
They call it a versatile, expandable bag that works well for travelers who carry extra or expensive gear, like photographers). It has multiple access points, fold-away straps, and of course works with Peak Design’s packing and camera cubes. It’s praised for its adaptability, smart design, and comfort despite its size.
Its downsides are mainly the price and the added complexity of all its zippers and features, but with a lifetime warranty and thoughtful organization, it’s one of the best options for gear-heavy travelers.
As of this writing, they say on their FAQs that all of their soft goods are made in Vietnam, which would include this bag (their hard goods are made in China but again, you can send a message by buying the stuff they do NOT make in China).
You can get it on their site or on Amazon.
3. Tortuga 40L Travel Backpack
This is an amazing backpack that you can carry like a regular carry-on bag and it’s TSA approved for carry-on. What makes it amazing is that you can strap it on to your back like a turtle shell, and the straps are designed in a way that it’s easy to carry; it might feel heavy when carrying it, but they designed it so that when you’re carrying it on your back you don’t feel it..
The build quality is great. It expands and contracts so you can use it for anywhere from a short trip of a few days to a full a two week trip or even more if you pack it well. It’s made in Vietnam. They also make a slightly smaller version that looks and feels more like a traditional backpack, but still holds an impressive amount of stuff.
4. Carrywell Travel Backpack
This is an interesting one. While other backpacks are selling for hundreds of dollars, this one is going for $34.99 as of this writing for their “Columbus” variation and $59.99 for two of their “Amerigo” model. Both appear to have similar volume with slightly different dimensions (they also sell a $24.99 model which looks more like a traditional backpack).
I’ve mentioned this brand Carrywell before. They’re a relatively new brand with a very clear mission statement on every product page. Here’s the one on this one: “Our mission is to help reduce American dependence on China. Carrywell is 100% American owned and headquartered in Miami, FL USA. We do not produce any items in China and our travel laptop backpacks for men and women are 100% made in Myanmar.”
Check out their store for more. It looks like they make everything from pet waste bags to men’s belts to suitcases. I’m a bit shocked that Amazon’s thought police haven’t come to shut them down, but support them while you can. It’s only a matter of time before the wumaos come and mass report it as somehow inappropriate.
4. Tough Traveler
Tough Traveler is a brand that should be at the top of Amazon, but of course no-name brands dominate Amazon because that makes Amazon money, it makes China money, and clueless consumers don’t know what they’re missing out on.
Tough Traveler has built backpacks since 1970 in Schenectady, New York—an area of the country that’s been decimated as factories move to China and the New York state government makes running a small business more and more difficult. Happily, they seem to be going strong, and continue to handcraft their backpacks with premium materials.
My favorite is the TrekCom Laptop Backpack. If you don’t need a laptop their Trekker Large Backpack is also excellent. And of course you can visit their site if Amazon doesn’t have a style you want.
5. The North Face Vault Pack
I almost didn’t put The North Face here given that they’ve sold out to China before, but I see them slowly diversifying, so they’re worth a mention.
The Vault Pack is a solid everyday pack that has a good balance of comfort, durability, and practicality. It features the FlexVent suspension system (endorsed by the American Chiropractic Association) making it easy on your back and joints.
The main compartment has a padded laptop sleeve that protects devices up to 15″, while the secondary compartment keeps essentials organized with zip pockets and a tablet sleeve. There are two external water bottle holders and a water-repellent finish. It’s highly rated for its durability and modern look. Based on product photos, it looks like this is being made in Cambodia now.
6. High Sierra Swerve Pro Backpack
The High Sierra Swerve Pro Backpack is a practical, no-nonsense everyday backpack made in Indonesia. It’s sized to handle real life, including a 17″ laptop, with a padded suspended laptop compartment that helps protect your computer from bumps at the bottom of the bag. There’s a separate tablet sleeve, a soft-lined pocket for glasses or a phone, and enough smaller compartments to keep chargers, cables, and random daily gear from turning into a jumbled mess. At 27 liters, it’s big enough for school, commuting, or overnight trips without feeling like hiking gear, and it includes simple but useful touches like dual water bottle pockets and reflective accents. If you’re looking for a mainstream, recognizable brand that isn’t manufactured in China, this Indonesian-made option is worth a look.
Conclusion
The patterns with travel backpacks are similar to what we’ve seen elsewhere. An industry that once was dominated by high quality US-made products gets destroyed as US brands shut down domestic manufacturing. Then, they send their production to China to mass-produce the same outdated models without doing any more innovation.
While China is manufacturing their products, China steals their IP and makes their own clones that they sell for pennies on the dollar. Even tariffs are not enough to close the gap.
Remember brands like High Sierra, Herschel, and Karrimor? These were once premium brands that have lost all their cachet after moving to China.
But something else we see often is happening: entrepreneurs continue to innovate and take over the high end of the market. Most of these will repeat the same mistakes of their predecessors once they get “big” and need to serve more of the market—let’s hope for their sake that when that happens they’ll have other suppliers to choose from than China.
Do you know of other travel backpacks not made in China worthy of mention here? Let us know in the comments!
I have several bags from this company. They still produce many bags in the US. However, some are made in China.
Lifetime warranty. And I must say that the quality is great! I’ve been using them for years without any problems.
Please note that on the website you can see which ones come from the US, as they are labeled “Made Entirely in the USA.” If there is no label, they come from China.
https://www.dsptch.com/collections/packs