Db Bags & Travel Gear

Db is a Norwegian travel brand, started by a freeskier and an engineer who met surfing and agreed that luggage was badly made. The bags here are the soft end of the range, for daily carry and short trips rather than hold luggage: the Roamer Pro sling, the Hugger backpack, the Utility Tote and the lightweight Weigh Lighter pieces. There's more in bags and accessories.

Where Db Came From

Truls Brataas and Jon Olsson met in the water at Hoddevik, on the west coast of Norway, in 2009. Brataas was an engineering student, Olsson a Swedish professional skier who spent most of the year on planes and most of that arguing about his ski bag. Between them they built one that adjusted for length, packed flat and weighed almost nothing, which nobody had done. Then they needed a name, so Olsson asked his YouTube followers and went with what came back: Douchebags. It worked for a while, and then it stopped working, because retailers outside Scandinavia wouldn't stock a brand called that. Hence Db. The first bag, now the Snowroller, won an ISPO award in 2014, and the Hugger backpack that followed took its shape from a Dreamliner.

Which Db Bag to Buy

Start with what you carry. The Roamer Pro sling is phone, keys, wallet, sunglasses and a passport, worn across the body, and it's the one that gets used most. The Hugger backpack is the workday and day-trip bag, big enough for a laptop and lunch without looking like hiking kit. The Utility Tote opens flat, which sounds dull until you've packed one, and the Weigh Lighter backpack is the gear-carrying version for when you need more room. The Split Duffel is the weekend bag, with the clothes and the muddy things in separate compartments.

Living With Db Bags

These are built for airports, which shows in the details: they pack down when empty, the fabrics take a beating, and the harder-wearing ones shrug off a wet platform. They're expensive, and the honest reason to spend it is that a bag you travel with weekly gets more use than almost anything else you own. The paler colours mark, as pale bags do, and the Weigh Lighter fabric is lighter and thinner than the rest, so it's the range to treat with a bit more care.

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