Chuyen Tactical CT21 v3 Backpack Review

More than 3 years ago, when Chuyen Tactical (CT) was a new bag maker, we reviewed an early version of the CT15. It was a pretty solid bag at the time, though it wasn’t using official X-Pac fabric and the design was very GORUCK-inspired. Today, CT has established itself as a quality bag maker with reasonable prices and has a loyal fanbase that participates in group buys. One of their core backpack offerings is the CT21, a 21L bag. It’s most comparable to a GORUCK GR1 but has added twists and features that make it a meaningfully different product.

Disclaimer: Our CT21 v3 was provided by CT as a sample for review. We are grateful for the opportunity to review and always share our honest opinions, positive and critical.

Overview

• 21 L volume
• Dedicated laptop compartment behind the shoulder straps, with an opening for a hydration bladder hose
• Clamshell main compartment with two zippered pockets behind the front flap and an elastic sleeve against the back wall
• Flat front zippered pocket with a few slip and pen slots and key leash
• Small top quick access zippered pocket
• Dual water bottle pockets that have L-shaped zippers to expand/contract
• Beefy and cushy shoulder straps with included adjustable and removable sternum strap along MOLLE webbing

With all of these features, the CT21 is quite a versatile bag, and for the most part they’re all well executed. You can use it for office commuting, hiking, or minimalist travel. Let’s get into the details of what I like and don’t like about the bag!

Materials and Construction

There are quite a number of variants of the CT21 and it’s not easy to keep up. There are tactical and slick variants (MOLLE or no MOLLE on the front), versions with or without water bottle pockets, and an assortment of color and material choices at any given time (currently a lot of ECOPAK). I have the slick with water bottle pockets in ECOPAK EPX240, which has a heathered denim face fabric. The interior lining is a 210D ROBIC ripstop.

What I like

• All the materials are solid — reputable fabrics, YKK Aquaguard zippers, spongy closed cell foam, Duraflex buckles
• The exterior fabric is highly water resistant
• Stands well on its own with a flat padded bottom, even when packed in different ways. It’s an incredibly well-balanced bag in my experience
• Useful webbing counter pulls at the bottom of the bag where the zippers for the clamshell opening end
• Stitching and craftsmanship are top notch; no sign of wear or tear so far as far as I can tell
• Zipper garages on the front and top external pockets to protect those small openings from the rain

What I don’t like

• I’m mixed on the water bottle pockets expanding/contracting via zippers. I would prefer just straight elastic, but I understand that it loosens over time and this solution avoids that.

• A couple other things that tie into the organization, which I’ll get into below
• The top quick access pocket results in a highly visible sack that drops into the main compartment.

Neutral

• The bag does have a taller proportion (about 19 inches tall) and is moderately heavy at just under 3 pounds
• There are slide buckles at the bottom of the back which I’m guessing are for a waist belt if you want to attach one

Organization

What I like

• The 3-compartment layout (dedicated laptop, main compartment, admin compartment) — it’s a practical design for commuting and travel and is implemented in a lot of bags for a reason
• The main compartment doesn’t seem to have much depth to it, but it can expand more than you think

• The internal pockets in the main compartment have some volume. The top opaque zippered pocket in particular can stash some snacks without getting crushed.
• The front zippered pocket admin makes it more useful than just a flat deep pocket by keeping smaller items at the top while larger flat items can go to the bottom (e.g., a museum or zoo map).
• Love the retention of a water bladder hose opening, and it’s done in a way that doesn’t totally compromise water resistance

Simple and effective water bladder hose opening

What I don’t like

• Having the laptop access behind the shoulder straps — it’s a hassle to get to EVERY time. It’s one aspect they should not have copied from GORUCK

I hate doing this shoulder strap flip-over dance just to get into the laptop compartment

• The front zippered pocket is still quite flat and not practically accessible when the main compartment is full
• The admin slots in the front zippered pocket are also very flat, and the pen slots are pretty tight.
• The top zipper quick access pocket has a somewhat tight opening, due to the binding edge being right under the zipper. Exacerbating this is that this is the only pocket that is black inside and not a high visibility color.

Comfort

What I like

• The straps are great — super supportive foam padding, nicely spaced out at the top, a J-curve for contouring, and relatively wide for weight distribution. The underlining is a slicker nylon packcloth material so they slide on/off pretty smoothly.
• Top handle is similarly robust and easy to grab
• Back panel is well structured with thick foam and a frame sheet, yet still flexible enough to bend according to your back’s shape
• Sternum strap has the elastic stretchy portion on the non-adjustable side! That means you can adjust the other end “all the way” vs. when the elastic is on the adjustable side

What I don’t like

• Sternum strap is height adjustable but within a single MOLLE loop. If you need to adjust outside of that, you’ll have to remove both sides and reattach along another MOLLE loop

Aesthetics

Being a tactical bag company, the overall look is, well, somewhat tactical even with the slick variant. Overall, I’m pretty neutral on the aesthetic. There’s nothing head turning about it; it’s a pretty traditional tombstone silhouette with a rectangular loop field for morale patches. Apart from a subtle logo on the loop field, there’s no external branding. There is a label on the inside of the main compartment.

A few notes:

• I like that CT uses brighter interior lining for visibility, and you usually have choices. The bag I have has an orange lining.
• When the water bottle pockets are unzipped, they will expand outwards, which can look a little bit like mini rocket boosters on the pack. You either like that or you don’t.
• The bag has a slimmer profile, especially in proportion to its height

Summary

It’s fair to say that CT’s design and construction of bags have continuously improved over the years, and they are very receptive to user feedback in order to make regular revisions and iterations as they manufacture the bags themselves. The CT21 version 3 is one of their signature mid-size backpacks and is itself a result of multiple rounds of tweaks. With the high-quality materials and construction with truly reasonable prices, it is a very good value product (the caveat being shipping from Vietnam to the states is not cheap).

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