Think Tank has announced its new Venturing Observer line of luggage and bags.
I delve into the benefits of using Think Tank bags, which offer the ability to replace its protective features without the need for a new bag. Learn about Think Tank’s new line of travel bags and the array of products they offer, including features of the bags themselves, like a compression bag, a clothing cube, and a shoe cube. Incredible perks like the rip-stop material used, to the secret storage pockets for passports and other important documents.
What you will see in this video:
- Admiration for Think Tank’s quality bags in the photography industry
- Think Tank’s expansion into the travel bag market
- Review of the compression bag and its features, including the rain cover and pass-through luggage slot
- The Clothing Cube and Shoe Cube products
- The secret compartment under the fabric in the roller bag
- The importance of the bag’s rip-stop material and replaceable parts
- Appreciation for the bag’s external pockets and deep internal pockets
- Introduction to a new prototype of a rolling suitcase series called the Venture Observer
- Description of the bag’s compression straps and built-in sleeve for easy storage of clothes.
Transcription was done by Descript‘s automated transcription services which means it’s an AI-generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar
Okay. First of all, what do you think of this shirt? Well, don’t mind the microphone, but this shirt, it’s my two favorite focal lengths. 35 85. It’s actually designed by a friend of mine, Taylor Jackson. You might know him from YouTube and well a whole bunch of places, right? If you don’t know who, he’s, check out his YouTube channel, but I’m pretty sure you know who he is.
He’s the guy who works at Outback. If you watch my video on this think Tank, photo four wheeler bag. The roller derby. You might have heard me say, I wish they got into making luggage. The funny thing is, is that they did, this is the venture. I think that’s what they’re calling it, right? Let’s see. Yeah, that’s what they’re calling it.
It’s their travel line. It’s their luggage line. So let’s go over what is happening right here from my friends, the think tank photo who graciously sent me. All these prototypes of what is coming out [00:01:00] that I couldn’t share until right now. So keep in mind that the final product that is available for purchase might actually change by the time it can get into your hands.
But what I have is a bunch of principled information that they sent me about the bag so I can go over everything. Oh man, these feels so good. So basically the, this bag’s roller, it’s a two wheeler. Right. This is called the Venture Observer Rolling Suitcase series. There are two sizes, the two M and the two L.
This is the two M. It is for international travel. It’s a little bit smaller than the two L. It’s a little bit smaller than the Think Tank roller derby as well. It’s about the same weight, I would say. I have a camera and a microphone in the roller derby. It’s about the same weight, but. There’s some pretty cool things that they have done that I’m very impressed with.
First of all. I mean, just the, [00:02:00] just feels good. It’s got this rip, rip stop material on the outside. It is soft, right? So it is a soft bag. It has the, it is a two-wheeler. Okay. Will they come out with a four-wheeler? I hope they do if they come out.
All right, let’s, let’s dig in, shall we? Okay, so international travel size, what more do you need to know? It’ll fit. On the overhead or in the, the, the storage bin of an international flight. So there’s that. Okay. If we look at the front, it is just beautiful rip stop material. That’s, that’s really, it’s just gorgeous.
There is by unzip room for a laptop, goes all the way down there, a tablet. And then there’s also another like outer pocket, so you can fit a lot of additional stuff on the outside. [00:03:00] I do not travel with my laptop on the outside in a rolling bag, so I will not be using this for a laptop, but if I want a magazine or a book or something, it’s perfect for that.
Right? There’s also a nice big mesh you know, zip here as well. Little pocket so you can hold whatever it is you need to hold. Right? Beautiful, beautiful design. So for anybody who needs a carry-on that holds a laptop or a tablet or whatever it is, you’ve got that right here on the outside. That’s not unique to any luggage, of course.
Right. But the design is really, really beautiful. Of course, they’re using their, their heavy duty ykk zippers. So that is worth worth pointing out. On the, so on the side here, we’ve got a TSA lock built in similar to the airport security. From Think tank photo again, but except this is not for cameras, this is for luggage, for anybody, not just photographers.
You’re just getting the think tank photo quality. In a think tank [00:04:00] roller for luggage. Okay, so TSA locks here. Nice, thick, durable handles, replaceable roller blade style weirs wheels. These are replaceable with a simple like hex key. Even the back plates here, these are all replaceable with hex keys.
Everything’s replaceable. Yourself, you could replace it. That’s beautiful. The foot, the feet here for the front, also replaceable. It’s beautiful. So you got another handle on the bottom here? Not, it’s not a thick one, it’s just a regular handle. If it went with a thick one, it would probably be too thick for the, for rolling and stuff.
So they went with a flat, thin one. Fine with me. Works great. Right on the top. On the top, you’ve got a zip. Again, this is very similar to think Tank’s, other designs. So they use a lot of their proven effective design from their roller camera bags in, into the roller [00:05:00] luggage. So you got a nice pocket here.
You can put business cards, your passport, whatever it is you need to put in there. It does come with a luggage tag, which is really nice as well. And it’s actually got a really nice clasp on here too. So that’s a, it’s beautiful. It’s like it’s, I don’t know if it’s vegan leather or what, but it’s canvas on the back.
Leatherish type of material on the front and this beautiful metal clasp to to keep it in place. So on the outside it is gorgeous. Oh, I missed something really important. So, this is actually for water bottle or whatever it is. Got a separate pocket inside the pocket. There is another lock here as well, so you can further lock what you, whatever you need you know.
From the outside so I can lock these two zippers together on the outside to protect the laptop from getting stolen. But it’s, you know, kept, you know, nice and snug in there. So Nice. Instead of it being for a tripod or a monopod, it’s actually meant for a water bottle or anything else. You might need to just [00:06:00] stuff on the side.
Again, this is that rip stop material, so. It can take a good amount of abuse. The handle, like every other think tank roller bag is amazing and user replaceable. Did I say that? A lot of the stuff is user replaceable Now, unlike the roller derby and other think tank camera rollers, where the handle actually can zip and hide right out the way in this one, it just stays like most luggage will do.
So not a big deal. Doesn’t bother me at all. Let’s open it up and see what we can show you inside. Now, inside I have a lot of things that they also sent me, which we’ll get to, which we’ll get to in a little.
Yeah, so this is the inside. The first noticeable thing to mention is the lack of camera dividers. [00:07:00] Why may you ask? Oh, yeah, because it’s not a camera bag. This is luggage. All of the padding that you are used to in a think tank bag, all that thick foam padding. Is gone. This is meant to hold close. Yes.
There’s a little bit of cushion. It’s so thin though. It’s mostly material. Look, I can bend it right. There are some thick parts, like the bottom is not bendable, the top is bendable. The side is a little bendable, but not much. This side, more bendable. Otherwise it is. It is soft. Okay, so when you first open up, you got two big compression pockets here.
This compression pocket actually has the rain cover because like everything tank bag. Literally every bag that they sell, it comes with a seamless rain cover. So if you know you’re going somewhere that is known for rain, or if you see on the forecast it’s gonna rain, you can bring with you a rain cover to quickly slip over the [00:08:00] entire bag and protect your clothing or whatever else you have your laptop from, from that you’ve got, so you’ve got that pocket, you’ve got, you know, the two right here, right?
So that is the flap part of this. Once you get to the inside, This is where it gets really fun. At the top here you have another zip pocket, beautiful soft fabric, and again, the it unzips like every other thing. Team bag, you can unzip and actually get to the hardware in here. Oh, and look another hidden pocket.
So there’s a pocket for your, your apple air tag. There’s a pocket for your passport to hide out of the way. Whatever it is. I think it’s only the one stash pocket. Yes. It’s only the one, but it, it just, it’s out of the way and it’s here and it’s hidden and you would never know it. You then will see that you’ve got these straps here right now, like every other bag for travel.
There is a [00:09:00] compression. Feature. Now in some bags, the compression is literally just straps. It’s two straps that you cinch together and pull, right? With this one, it actually take, you take it outta this little cubby and then it unfolds, and now you’ve got this harder piece of, of fabric. I don’t know what it’s made out of.
I can look in the specs, but you attach it with the straps and then you actually can squeeze down your clothes to compress it even further. I mean, I love the fact that it’s here and I love the fact that I can just tuck it away using this little built-in sleeve and get it off to the side. So when I get to where I’m going, I can take off the compression, get it outta the way, have access to all of my clothes, clothes in one shot.
This bag is brilliant. See, look that. Look at that bending. Look at that. It is nice and soft. As soft as a soft bag needs to be unlike a camera bag that needs that extra cushion. This is beautifully soft. Now [00:10:00] this bag can take a beating. It was loud. The suitcase is fantastic. I cannot wait to be using it on a regular basis for my travel.
And if and when. They come out with a four-wheeler, I will be switching to the four-wheeler for the regular for the, for the regular travel needs. Now let’s get, get into these suckers before we get to the backpack. So these are the clothing cubes. Now, You’re probably already familiar with compression cubes.
I’m not gonna spend too much time on these. These are, again, beautiful fabrics. This is the same fabric that’s on the inside liner of the bag. So if you’re one who cares about things matching and feeling, you know, the same sort of quality throughout, these are amazing. So think Tank has had compression bags for a while.
These are just, you know, instead of designed for. Camera type accessories. These are specifically designed for clothing, so this one has a clear outside and a pocket, you know, a [00:11:00] nice deep pocket, and there’s mesh in the side so that you can compress and have the air come out as you zip. But it also has a back pocket at the same time.
So it’s actually a back to back compression cube for clothes. And this, they’re calling the clothing cube large has a handle if you wanna, if you want to hang it. But otherwise it just a compression bullet bag with beautiful quality, with really good zippers and again, back to back. Beautiful, beautiful designer.
This is the clothing cube medium. This is similar except it’s only the one-sided. There is an additional pocket here. This could be for anything. It’s just a deep privacy pocket for, you know, as you’re packing up your underwear or whatever it is. If you’ve gotta hide something in here for legal hidden, but, Something you gotta hide.
You can put it in that privacy pocket. Finally, you have the shoe cube. This is purely the fabric plaid liner, right? This is not, [00:12:00] there’s no plastic on this, and it’s similar. As far as that, like weird little pocket here, except this time it’s for shoes, so you can separate shoes. Ooh, I got another one of those things in here.
You can separate your shoes between outside of the pocket and inside the pocket. And again, it’s stretchy, so fantastic. Like most think tank products, these are made in Vietnam. So they’re very, very well made. Let’s get to the last, but not least of what think Tank has to offer for travel. If I travel with my camera equipment to a trade show, for example, let’s say I’m traveling to Shutter Fest or W P P I or Imagen usa, or way up North or wherever it might be.
Typically I’m bringing camera equipment. So this would not be for that situation unless I was to use one of think tank’s, camera cubes, or something like that. This is not for cameras. This backpack, while it looks like most think tank bags is really for travel with [00:13:00] just clothing and things like that. If you were to bring cameras, you’d have to find another way to get a camera in this or just use one of their camera bags, looking at it from just a travel perspective.
Let’s, let’s dive in that way. The front, again, has this beautiful rip stop material. The outside deep neo nice cell phone pocket. Again, it’s lined, won’t scratch any devices, so you can throw that stuff in this pocket right here. Then as we open up the big compartment, This is where it gets really interesting.
You have a rain cover, right? So I’ll toss that out of the way. It goes pretty deep. There’s nothing down there. Okay. However, it’s just wide open container. I’m gonna get to what these are in a second. But you’ve got nice two nice mesh pockets. A lot of times I’ll throw in like I in my phone, battery backups.
Into pockets like that. I got another mesh zipped pocket here. I got two pen holders right here, [00:14:00] and I got a nice, you know, again, nice deep size pocket right there. So if you’re wondering, what are these two blue things? Well, on the outside of the bag, you’ve got pockets here. That could be for a small tabletop tripod.
It could be for a water bottle, it could be for anything you wanna shove on this one or. On this one, which basically feels the same exact way. That’s what this is. This is the inside of these outside pockets that you could also unzip from the inside of the bag, so you can get to it from either the outside or the inside.
If you’re ready in here, you can get to what’s what you have stored in those pockets. Really cool idea from think tank. So, yeah, it’s a, it’s not a very deep backpack. It’s a narrow backpack, but that is the main compartment of this backpack. And again, I can’t wait to try this out out while, while actually traveling.
But here’s how it completes itself. On the back side, [00:15:00] we have, it opens nicely so it doesn’t open all the way on this side. It opens all the way on this side. You’ve got a nice big laptop pocket holds up to a 16 inch laptop. A tablet storage, right? So you can hold a tablet in here as well with a nice cushion.
Okay? And then you’ve got, you know, this wide open space you can fit again, magazines or whatever it is. And then you’ve got this nice big mesh pocket at the top. So that is that part of it. Now, because this is for travel, Let me just rezip, zip this back up because it is for travel. There’s two things here.
One, they have the typical think tank shoulder straps, which have these little cis so you can attach accessories or whatever if you need to, but it’s also very cushioned and it’s not mesh. It’s like this foam and it’s not dent, it’s soft [00:16:00] foam like memory foam. And this, by the way, this is called a venturing observer traveler, but you can.
You can use the pass through luggage slot here, right? You can use the pass through in order to get your bag on your, on your roller, or it really should be the other way. So all the weight is facing the other way like this. And that way when you’re walking through the airport and what and whatnot, you’re not carrying your backpack and your roller, you’re just rolling it all right?
So that is a beautiful, beautiful thing. I love when bags have that feature built in my camera bags. Have that be. Have that feature built in just makes things easier. But what think Tank did is they took it to a new level, just like that secret compartment that was in the roller. That you can hide things right under the fabric is they did the same thing behind that pass through.
So right here, there’s another hidden pocket that is perfect size for hiding your passport, hiding your wallet. You can see it right in there. Nobody would ever know it’s there [00:17:00] when it’s on your back. They’ll never know it’s there when it’s on the, on the, on the when the passthrough is using, when it’s on the, on the handle of your luggage.
Beautiful, beautiful design. I packed it with a lot of stuff and it held, it wasn’t heavy. It’s a very lightweight bag. Well, how much does this thing weigh? So the bag weighs 2.4 pounds. It can hold 20 liters. Oh yeah. Rain cover. Forgot about that. Beautiful new products from Think tank. It’s funny how you. As somebody who reviews products that does first look at products, that uses products on a regular basis and is very honest about everything, I’ve always supported what Think Tank is doing.
They make the best quality bags in the photography industry and I’m glad they’re now branching out in into, into just travel in general because it’s like the natural progression for a company who makes such quality bags. So when I said you know, I wish that they were making travel bags and it turned out they’ve been working on it for quite some [00:18:00] time, I was very pleased to hear it.
So I am very happy to have these, to be able to use these for my wife to be able to use these and my kids to be able to use these and all of that. And I can’t wait to see where think tank goes in the future with this venture line and wherever else they go. Just remember that again, things like this, being able to replace.
Protective features of your, of your luggage without having to replace your luggage completely is very important. It’s a nice perk of going with a bag like the ones from Think tank. So by the time that this video is available, by the time that you see this, these bags are available to purchase. You can definitely purchase them from Think Tank directly.
You probably can get that from Amazon. If that’s the case, I will link to Amazon in the description as well. But otherwise, I’ll just link to Think Tank, whatever it is. Thank you Think Tank for supporting me by sending me these to share my thoughts with the world. And I look forward [00:19:00] to additional partnerships with you in the future and for you watching.
Again, if you’re in the market for, for new luggage whether it’s a backpack, whether it’s travel cubes compression cubes, whether it is a roller, whatever it is, check out, think tank. I promise you will not be disappointed.
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