Who’s buying outdoor bags in 2025, and what are they buying them for?
Overall sales of outdoor bags softened in 2024 given current market conditions, but several brands are finding niches of opportunity in adventure travel, travel accessories, and even car camping.
Adventure travel packs, for example, are a small but growing category, reaching $34.7 million in the past 12 months – an 8% increase compared to the previous year, said Marissa Guyduy, senior manager of public relations at consumer data and research analytics firm Circana. At the same time, outdoor bag sales overall decreased by 9% in the U.S. for the 12 months ending October 2024 compared to the previous year.
Eagle Creek Returns to Its Roots
Since acquiring travel bag brand Eagle Creek from VF Corp. in 2021, Travis Campbell knew that the appetite for travel would be strong post-COVID, and focused on tapping into its heritage in adventure travel, with bigger zippers, durable fabrics, and creating carry “systems,” which present consumers with a variety of solutions to their travel needs.
The additional cost of checking a bag at the airport means travelers are always looking for ways to bring everything they need in a carry-on bag, so Eagle Creek has developed different sizes of their travel packs to accommodate various requirements, depending on the airline, he said. And consumers are increasingly doing different kinds of recreation on vacation, meaning the brand focuses on versatility, including creating multiple ways of carrying a bag, adding plenty of accessories, and designing with enough structure to make it comfortable to carry.
Eagle Creek’s Owner and CEO Travis Campbell. Photo courtesy of Eagle Creek.
“Are you getting on a train, or on a boat, or maybe you’re going to get on a camel, whatever it is – you need a bag that can do all of those things,” Campbell said.
In February, Eagle Creek will launch its new updated travel pack to meet that demand.
“What we built into it was an enhanced suspension system, so it’ll feel much better on your body than a traditional duffel bag will,” Campbell said. “It carries well on your back for either short or extended periods of time. And it’s just a nice enhancement of what we’ve done in that travel pack space. It’s a very clean aesthetic, and it’s got some water-resistant features that I think are important for people that are traveling long distances and in varied environments.”
Technical Travel Bags
Boulder, Colorado-based Matador Travel Equipment calls itself a travel brand for the outdoor industry.
“It’s a little more focused on technical performance than most travel brands,” said founder and CEO Chris Clearman. “Most traditional travel brands are just buying OEM luggage from China, giving it a good color story, and then pushing it out into retail or trying to sell it online. And that’s not really our thing. We’re focused on the technical performance of all our SKUs.”
The line-up at Matador Travel Equipment. Photo courtesy of Matador.
Matador’s travel accessories have sold well this year, Clearman said, but sales of its premium travel packs at full price have been challenging. That said, the brand sold more of its GlobeRider45 travel backpacks this year compared to last, assisted by the two sales Matador had this year.
“It’s a backpack-style pack that’s super comfortable to carry on a big, long backpacking mission,” said Kyle Ogilvie, Matador’s marketing director. “We merged that with travel luggage, so with the convenient clamshell design, but it’s comfortable to carry.”
Matador initially positioned itself as a travel brand for hardcore outdoor enthusiasts but is now broadening its target into more casual outdoor participants who may be interested in hiking, but are also traveling for cuisine, culture, and relaxation, too.
“In my conversations with buyers, they love it,” Clearman said. “Because only a very small percentages of the folks that are visiting these stores are these hardcore ice axe folks, right?”
Taylor Welden, a designer and the creative director at Carryology, an online community of bag enthusiasts, said he and his peers have evolved their approach to adventure travel. They used to aim for “one-bag travel” – to bring just one bag on an adventure trip that they could also take on the trail, for example.
“But through our research and our experience, we’ve realized it’s actually 1.5-bag travel [that’s ideal],” Welden said. That means one medium-sized backpack to load up for the travel portion of the trip, and then having either a packable bag, a sling, or a messenger bag to bring on daily adventures, work meetings, or whatever else.
Car Camping Bags Also in Demand
Colorado-based Kelty is also embracing adventure travel as well as car camping – another opportunity – in 2025, said Nels Larson, a category director at parent company Exxel Outdoors. Kelty aims to make the first outdoor products beginners buy for their recreation at affordable prices.
“I think the big story here is that backpacking, of course, remains a lifeblood, and the beating heart of the core of our industry, but the rise of casual and car camping has eclipsed that,” Larson said.
The updated Redwing Traveler 50 by Kelty. Photo courtesy of Kelty.
Kelty redeveloped its Redwing line of packs with the adventure traveler in mind. It can now be carried in four different ways depending on which handle you choose, has a steel perimeter frame, nine pockets for organization, external laptop sleeve access and stowable waist belt.
“Consumers are starting to value their experience more than the accomplishment, and they want to be comfortable while they’re doing it,” Larson said.
Kelty’s Roadie collection is designed for car camping, and includes bags such as the Trash Pak, which is designed to haul garbage on the exterior of your vehicle, and the Camp Galley Deluxe, which is designed for carrying kitchen gear.
Kelty’s Trask Pak for car-camping. Photo courtesy of Kelty.
“Backpacking remains a core of who Kelty is and what we do, but we’re really well versed and well positioned to speak to that car camping, vehicle-based adventure user, and that’s where our adventure travel comes in,” Larson said. Kelty’s adventure travel program will be dovetailed into its current Roadie program. “It’s trains, planes, and automobiles,” he said.
More Data about Bag Sales
While overall bag sales are down in the past 12 months, the category is up 23% compared to four years ago, growing from $317.8 million to $392.1 million.
“Sales have grown year-over-year until the latest 12-month period, so perhaps there is some stabilization happening,” Guyduy said.
The top-selling backpacks based on dollars sold from Oct. 2023 and Oct. 2024 were:
- Cotopaxi’s Allpa 35L travel pack.
- Patagonia’s Atom 8L sling pack.
- Cotopaxi’s Allpa 42L travel pack.
- Patagonia’s Black Hole Mini MLC 26L travel pack.
- Patagonia’s Refugio 26L daypack.
Changes Coming to Outdoor Backpack Category
While some brands are looking for new niches to pivot toward like travel, other bag companies may see an opening in technical backpacks given Yeti’s acquisition of Mystery Ranch, which has turned off some specialty outdoor retail players.
For instance, when a rep at outdoor brand Yeti told specialty retailer Todd Frank at Grassroots Outdoor Alliance Connect in November that Yeti was planning to absorb the recently acquired Mystery Ranch bag brand in 2025, he had a strong reaction.
“I said, ‘Okay, well, pull the ripcord – we’re done,’” said Frank, who owns Trail Head and Trail Head River Sports in Missoula, Montana.
“I don’t want to speak for other specialty outdoor retailers, but Trail Head has never been a big supporter of or successful with brands that are publicly traded,” Frank said, adding that he is happy for Mystery Ranch founders Dana Gleason and Renée Sippel-Baker and their lucrative exit. But Frank is sticking to his guns and cutting ties with the brand.
Similarly, Trail Head discontinued its business with Osprey after it was acquired by publicly held Helen of Troy in 2021.
Todd Frank stands in front of the cash register at his Trail Head store in Missoula, Montana. File photo by Shop Eat Surf Outdoor.
Layne Rigney, the head of soft goods and bags at Yeti, issued a statement saying that the company is still excited about integrating Mystery Ranch’s talent and designs into the larger company – but neither confirmed nor denied that the beloved Bozeman, Montana brand has a long-term future.
“Going into 2025, we plan to have key products for outdoor, every day and hunt under the Mystery Ranch brand,” Rigney said in the statement. “We have also been hard at work on a pipeline of new bags we are excited to introduce next year. Our team in Bozeman remains committed to Mystery Ranch’s mission to support those who serve in the military and Wildland Fire, and the mission products will remain under the Mystery Ranch name going forward.”
Given the changes with Mystery Ranch, Frank said he’s on the hunt for another outdoor bag brand to replace Mystery Ranch at his store – and there isn’t an easy solution, he said.
“I think that creates an opportunity in the marketplace. I don’t know how or if it will be capitalized on by anybody because as packs have evolved, they are more special purpose,” he said, referring to trends such as ultra-light.
Mystery Ranch, too, has a line of adventure travel bags that, while not entirely new, have appeared in marketing materials more often as of late.
And while some in the outdoor industry are understandably skeptical of the Yeti/Mystery Ranch alliance, Yeti’s recent launch of its Bozeman pack – complete with Mystery Ranch’s signature Y-shaped zipper – sold out in the U.S.
“I was a little wary, and so was the Carryology group,” Welden said, who said he is a big admirer of Mystery Ranch co-founder Dana Gleason. “And then people started receiving them. I got my hands on one. And people are like, ‘These are actually pretty great.’”
Kate Robertson can be reached at kate@shop-eat-surf-outdoor.com
