Patagonia Headway MLC 45L
At Geoff Meets World we are always on the lookout for the ultimate carry-on. If you’re looking for high quality, inexpensive, one-bag travel style luggage to serve as the workhorse for all your travel needs, this may be your bag. The Patagonia Headway MLC 45L is a sleek nice-looking suitcase style carry-on that also converts to a backpack.
Product Specs
Weight: 3 lbs 2 oz (1.45 kg.)
Dimensions: 22x16x9
Size: 45L (2746 cu. in.)
Materials: 9.2 oz CORDURA® Ballistic nylon (exterior)
Overview
Patagonia is definitely one of my favorite companies. They make amazing products, stand by them with great warranties, all while upholding high conservation and humanitarian standards. They are upfront and honest about their materials, sourcing, supply chain, and working conditions in their over-seas factories.
The “MLC” in the Patagonia Headway MLC 45L stands for “Maximum Legal Carryon.” While this may have been the maximum carry-on size during the bags inception in the 1990’s, it is becoming slightly on the large side for the width. Most airlines have begun to adopt a slightly smaller 22x14x9 size restriction. But because this bag is soft-sided, you shouldn’t have any problems, it will fit in most airlines’ overhead bin if you don’t stuff it too full.
The MLC line has been around for at least 20 years. The Patagonia Headway MLC 45L is an updated version in which Patagonia switched to a more durable nylon exterior fabric, while downgrading some of the strap, and handle features. The MLC is offered in two fabric versions, the Headway with CORDURA® nylon exterior, and the newer Patagonia Headway MLC 45L with Black Hole® coated ripstop nylon fabric (review to come!)
The bag is simple, functional, yet understatedly stylish. The simple design, and crisp, compact style make this the perfect bag for someone looking for something practical, yet functional. And with a large laptop case and ample pocket room, this also makes an ideal business travel bag. From around the world travel to business trips, this bag performs beautifully.
At 45L this bag is great for an extended weekend but is large enough to hold up to a week’s worth of gear if you travel light. And as we all know, if you can travel for a week you can travel indefinitely by simply washing your clothes and restocking any toiletries or necessities.
Materials, Colors, Sizes
The exterior of the bag is made from 9.2 oz 940 denier CORDURA® Ballistic nylon. In the world of backpack fabrics, this is a higher end fabric used for military equipment, luggage, and other outdoor apparel. The Ballistic line is a densely woven nylon fabric which is designed for long-lasting performance and offers exceptional abrasion/tear resistance. To geek out on fabric or to pick up a roll of the stuff, visit the CORDURA® Ballistic page. For more information on backpack fabrics, see this post from Carryology.
Currently the bag is only available in Black and Dolomite blue (kind of a grayish blue), both with a lighter grey interior fabric. I own the bag in black, the contrast between the outside and inside fabric isn’t the best. Bright colors or large contrasts help you find items inside the bag and easily alert you to a zipper or pocket being open.
This bag is about average for weight in bags of this size. Weighing 3 lbs. 2 oz. it is comparable to the Tom Bihn Aeronaut 45 and the Osprey Farpoint 40, but weighs much less than other popular brands with travel enthusiasts such as the Tortuga Outbreaker or the Goruck GR2. There is only one size available for this bag, however, after trying it out on several people of varying heights, the fit was comfortable from 5’10” males to a shorter 5’4” female. The straps adjust well and the pack conforms nicely to the back.
Exterior
The Patagonia Headway MLC 45L exterior comes equipped with a large zipper to open the clamshell suitcase, a rear pass-through pocket for hanging the bag over the handle of rolling luggage, an exterior laptop pouch, and two briefcase compartments on the front for storing electronics and other miscellaneous supplies. There is a rear zippered compartment for storing the backpack straps, which can also house the shoulder strap.
The top and one of the sides of the bag is furnished with beefy nylon handles, smaller plastic D-rings adorn the sides of the top for the shoulder strap, while two plastic buckles hang off the rear of the bag for the purpose of clipping the ends of the straps when in backpack mode. There is also a mysterious luggage tag along one of the sides of the bag. While I knew it was a feature from the description, I didn’t know where it was and was surprised when I stumbled upon it.
The shoulder strap is simple and functional. You can disconnect them from the bag and store them in the pouch with the backpack straps. The handles are sturdy and well-made, while they lack a large amount of padding, the added weight would not be worth it as this bag is not designed to be carried by the handles for long distances. The D-rings holding the shoulder straps look a little small for holding the bag while fully loaded. After reading the reviews I have yet to run across somebody who had one break.
The two front pouches are the briefcase component of the bag. There is a larger front pocket with a single zipper, big enough for a large magazine or several books. The second front pocket has a top-opening zipper with 5 larger interior pockets, 2 mesh pockets, and a pouch for electronics, pens, and a passport. 13 pockets in total!
The exterior pass-through pocket allows the bag to attach to rolling luggage by passing the slot over the handle. The Patagonia Headway MLC 45L is a little large to ride on top of rolling luggage, however. From the picture below you can see this bag is almost as large as full-size rolling luggage. Fully loaded the Headway MLC will easily tip using this setup. Also if you are using this for one-bag travel (which we hope you are!) this pocket is unnecessary.
The backpack straps are comfortable for the amount of gear I usually carry. With this bag fully packed the straps feel slightly under-sized and will feel like they could use more padding. This bag is designed to be a functional piece of luggage first, and a backpack second. The straps are a great addition to an otherwise awesome product and are sufficient for most purposes. If you intend on hauling this pack fully load for long-distances it will probably cause some shoulder strain.
The Patagonia Headway MLC 45L comes equipped with several sizes of nylon coil-style zippers. The main compartment has a large, beefy zipper, and the other pockets have smaller reversed invisible zippers, which give the bag a clean, finished look. The zippers do not have the ability to lock, which I do not see as an issue since it is very easy to open this style of zipper with a ballpoint pen anyway. Check out this link for more information about zippers than you ever wanted to know.
The laptop zipper on the back has one small design flaw, however. While it is easy to break into nylon zippers, you can increase security and deter a casual thief by securing your zippers together. You can do this with all the other pockets on the bag which have double zippers, except for the laptop compartment which has a single zipper. An easy solution is to use a nylon coated steel keychain, linked to the D-ring a few inches away. This will deter a casual opportunistic thief. Your bag doesn’t need to be theft-proof, it just needs to be more secure than the person’s bag next to you!
The best solution to prevent theft is to carry a small amount of luggage, and keep it in your sight at all times. When on planes and busses, keep your luggage under the seat in front of you, or if you have to store it in the overhead, use mini carabiners (these are tiny and fantastic), or nylon coated keychains, and store it in the aisle across from your seat, so you can clearly see it.
Interior components and design
I generally use packing cubes for most of my travel. I love compartments, the more the better. This bag, however, manages to reduce the necessity for packing cubes. The ample compartments zip separately, holding and compressing your clothes and gear in their place. The best thing is, when you open the bag each side stays zipped separately so your clothes don’t come tumbling out.
I have tried this bag with packing cubes, and without. I do find they help somewhat for smaller items, like socks and underwear, or to keep your dirty clothes separate from your clean clothes. They also help keep the clothes from shifting while carrying. However, the bag is so well organized that you really don’t need them. This will greatly cut down on your weight and cost.
Below is everything I carry while traveling. Fully loaded with a week’s worth of clothes and gear, I was able to easily fit everything in this bag. In fact, it was probably a little bigger than I needed. For my complete pack list with an explanation of every item I carry see this post.
The large zippered suitcase compartment easily fit all of my clothes for a week of travel. The second zippered compartment was large enough for my pack towel, toiletry bag, day pack, and electronics. I had room to spare in the front pouch for the rest of the gear I want to have easily accessible; sunglasses, passport, tablet, notebook, and pens. The best part was the speed of packing this bag. I could load everything up with room to spare in about 5 minutes!
Fit, Durability, and Testing
This pack fit well on both of our testers. It was comfortable and the straps were easily adjusted to fit different sized people. Below is Geoff 5’10” and Amber 5’4” demonstrating how the pack fits.
The bag is great for transfer between vehicle, airport, hotel, however, if you plan on carrying it around town, this pack will not be the most comfortable. The Patagonia Headway MLC 45L is designed as luggage first, backpack second. While it can be used very conveniently as a backpack, this design was not it’s first purpose.
Overall Summary
Overall this is a great bag and well worth the price. This can be your one-bag for world travel, or your go-to for weekday business trips. The stitching, quality and craftsmanship is impeccable, and Patagonia is an outstanding company with a fantastic return policy. All for a bag that runs below $200 is a fantastic bargan!
Traveler, adventurer, wildlife biologist.
