Keen Steel Bridge Pack Review

by Shannon

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The Steel Bridge by Keen is a rugged commuter pack that is not only functional for this day and age, but looks like a cool retro knapsack from the days of old. The Steel Bridge has all the modern amenities; a padded laptop sleeve that comfortably holds most 17-inch laptops (it carried our MacBook and Dell with room to spare), pockets and compartments to keep the most organized folks pleased, and extra deep side pockets that can hold a Stanley Travel Mug to a Nalgene with ease. The Steel Bridge has a bomber rubber bottom that means the bottom can handle some pretty gnarly drops and the waterproof liner teamed with rip-stop nylon allows this bag to keep its shape no matter what the contents of the bag, big or small. By holding its’ shape, when you open the hood and look inside, you can easily see all of the storage compartments and quickly find what you are looking for as the bag stands up by itself when leaned against an object.

The closure system on the hood looks cool, but we were not a big fan of the two aluminum fasteners that keep the hood in place: it is awesome that these components are recycled, however, we found it hard to open the pack quickly while on the move. There is snap system on the hood that can be used in conjunction with the aluminum fastener or by itself; we didn’t like using the snap solo because it didn’t seam like a lot of protection for our important goods while riding to work. The pack is designed to weather a storm (waterproof liner), however, when you cinch down the hood there is a gap at the top of the pack on both sides which can easily let water into the pack in the most important area, the computer sleeve.

The pack has 11 different compartments, some with zippers and others without. We used on of the longer compartments for our power cord, the organizational compartment at the front for our wallet and personal goods, and the outer zipper pocket on the hood for our cell phone. It was fun trying to find a place for everything in this pack and you can really get organized; just don’t forget where you put everything. When packs have lots of compartments, sometimes they sacrifice the size of the main compartment. The Steel Bridge can fit gym clothes and your lunch in the main compartment with room to spare. Other features worth mentioning are the removable hip belt, sternum strap that can quickly be adjusted up or down, and extra padded shoulder straps. We found the pack to be pretty comfortable while walking or riding, but this pack is definitely designed for those that take quite a bit to work. Overall, the Steel Bridge is a nice commuter pack with some great features but a few areas we feel could use some tweaking. For more information on the Steel Bridge Pack and other Keen products, please visit www.keenfootwear.com or www.amazon.com/keen.