Aer City Pack Review (Updated 2023)

Aer city pack review
(Updated 2023)

The Aer City Pack is designed to be the go-to bag for all the city folks.

It is a 14-liter bag with a front quick-access pocket and front compartment. What we like about this pack is its durability and its organization. It also comes in three colors: black, grey, and X-Pac. Lastly, it has an extremely comfortable shoulder straps and back panels. A big plus!

Watch our epic Aer City Pack review below!

Aer City Pack
Overall Score

★★★★★ 4.6/5

Overall Score - 4.6/5

Style

Comfort

Functionality

Durability

Value

Overall Pros

Overall Cons

Aer City Pack
Alternatives

Just in case you aren’t sold on the Aer City Pack yet, we’ve added some alternative recommendations below.

These recommendations are very similar to the Aer City Pack, but have some important differences that might work better for you! 👇🏼

Alternative #1
Aer Slim pack

Slim EDC for work and life in general

Alternative #2
Aer Tech Pack 2

Best backpack for extra tech protection

Alternative #3
Modern Dayfarer backpack

Great work + gym backpack

Aer City Pack
Gist of the Pack

Welcome to our Aer City Pack review.

Are you a city person looking for a city pack? If so, this might be the pack for you. But we’re concerned, the slim profile’s nice, but does it have enough capacity? The tech sleeve looks cozy, but is it safe enough for your laptop? And is it worth the $150 price tag? Let’s find out.

Let’s kick off this review by talking about the overall gist of the Aer City Pack. Now, Aer is a company that makes really sleek and sexy urban gear. That’s their bag. That’s their bag.

And this bag in particular is designed for city folk, like myself, because of the way that it’s organized. You’ve got front quick access pocket here. You have your front organization compartment here with lots and lots of pockets, and then you have the main compartment, which has sort of a tech area on the back. Some other compartments and pockets here, and a little bit of space in between.

Overall, this is a pack that’s 14 liters, and it feels like it’s 14 liters. I kind of wish that it opened up maybe a little bit more. Got that limited access, but overall, it does get the job done.

Aer is also known for a few different things. First of all, most of their packs are extremely comfortable. You look at these really well-padded, well-ventilated shoulder straps and back panels, and they’re also known for their high quality exterior materials. In particular, this is a 1680 CORDURA Ballistic nylon, very robust, very durable, but at the same time, it’s so smooth. It just has a really sexy aesthetic to it.

Aer always utilizes YKK zips. These are super chunky YKK zips. The pull tabs are nice because they do allow you to sort of lock them into each other, but you also get a little jingle going on, the Aer dingleberry experience, as we sometimes refer to it as, and it’s also worth noting you have three color options: a black, a grey, and an X-pack version.

Aer City Pack
Front of the Pack

Important points: We have the design, two pockets, and these nifty little pull tabs, very minimalist. It has a nice sleek aesthetic. I mean, one of the biggest selling points is the aesthetic and just the seamlessness of it. Very thin, very minimalist, very chic, very urban.

And with that, you have Aer’s very minimal branding. You see, you’ve just got “Aer” right there. It’s not like some big logo, right? So if you’re into minimal branding, you’re going to be into Aer.

We have two compartments to talk about in the front. First up, let’s talk about kind of the quick access compartment. That’s this guy right here. This zipper is the only PU coated zipper on this pack. It’s water resistant.

I’m a big fan of Aer’s engineering because they’re quite thoughtful because it’s like these YKK zips can be a little sticky, so Aer has these nifty little pull tabs right there. So when we want to open this guy up, just grab like that. Super simple, and there’s one on the other side as well.

With this pocket, though, it’s basic. Basic is good. There’s no internal organization. It’s just a pocket and a key ring holder.

The material is Aer’s sort of signature interior materials, not an interior material that I’m crazy about, but it gets the job done.

But I do like what they’ve done by putting the key holder here. Two reasons. One, I like this actual buckle, but two is accessibility. You’re in the city. You got your City Pack on. You want to grab your keys? Accessing them in this compartment like that is significantly easier than if they were in any other compartment. It just means that you don’t have to take your backpack off to grab your keys, and that is a huge selling point for me because I don’t want to take my pack off to have to grab things. The more things I can grab with my pack on, the better.

Now, let’s get into the second compartment of the front. We’ll call it the pocket compartment. Why? Because there are lots of pockets. There’s two down here. One here, one here, one here, one here, one here and a big old sleeve right there. One thing to know about this pocket, too, is the way the Aer designed the outside aesthetic right here because it’s got this cool, wrinkly hipster look when it’s not full. But if you pack this guy out, you got a lot of bulkier items, then this part will pop out a little bit more, which just gives you a little bit extra room to play with.

Let’s start with the bottom two. These guys are larger pockets. I think this is good for things like a Bluetooth mouse, a chunky Logitech Bluetooth mouse. You go ahead, slide it in there, perfect fit.

On this side, we’ve got an elastic pocket right here. I love Aer’s elastic game. It’s got a nice silky elasticity to it, feels quality, and it has nice little expandability, so if you put bulkier bits of gear in there, they’ll fit.

Pockets, pockets, pockets. I got a little pen pocket right there. You could probably fit two pens easily in that pocket.

Coming up north, we have this zip pocket right here, nice little pull tab. Ooh, seamless zipping experience, lightning fast. This guy runs down here. This would be a great compartment for things like a laptop charge, or it can actually fit up to a seven-inch tablet.

And then finally you have kind of a document sleeve right here. This is a deep pocket. It runs right down to there, okay? So this runs basically the entire diameter, circumference, whatever math word that is of the backpack.

Aer City Pack
Middle of the Pack

Important points: In the middle of the pack, we’ve got a water bottle holder, two side handles, a top pocket, and a main compartment.

Let’s start off with the water bottle pockets. Now, I got a 22 ounce water bottle right here from a company called Earthwell. Fantastic water bottle. Shout out to Earthwell, and as you can see, this water bottle fits, but it’s tight. This, I believe, is a very clear design choice by Aer. They know that city folk like sleek and chic objects, right? We’re not usually the type of people that walk around town with a big ass one liter Nalgene water bottle.

Moving up, we got this little clip guy right here. Tabb has no idea what it’s for. I’ll be honest, I’ve reviewed hundreds of Aer packs, it feels like, and I’ve never actually used them. But in essence, it’s used to clip things on, right? So you have your water bottle right here. You want to clip it on with a carabiner. You can do that. Yeah, it’s just kind of fun to play with, fun little thing to play with with your finger. You know what else is a fun thing to play with your finger? Hitting a Like button. That was bad.

Moving on, oh, see here. Now, this is one thing to keep in mind with Aer is with all this Aer dingleberry, jingleberry going on right here, it gets a little confusing, right? There’s a lot of zipperage going on, but if you move the zipperage, you can see right here, we have a top compartment.

Now, I love what Aer has done with the materials of these compartments of their new packs. It’s really soft, really padded, and it’s a nice material. It’s like a micro fleece or something, so it means that anything that’s fragile, any bits of gear that you don’t want to get scratched, this is where you put them. Specifically, sunglasses.

We got two handles here. We got a top handle and a side handle. It’s a basic nylon webbing, basically a seat belt, but I like the padding. There’s a nice amount of padding in there. It’s really comfortable, almost like a jelly sort of a feel to it. Aer put that little bit of extra love into their handles, and it’s just got a really nice feel to it.

And for the moment you’ve all been waiting for, let’s get into the main compartment. Now, one thing to know about the main compartment is the opening is not consistent, right? You can’t get down as far on the water bottle side as you can on the opposite side. That lack of consistency doesn’t really annoy me because I’d rather have the additional opening on this side because I get what they had to do. They couldn’t put the zipper further down into the water bottle holder. That’s not going to be an option, right? They had to cut it off there.

And with that lack of opening all the way, it gets a little bit tight in here, and this is one of our concerns with this pack is just kind of the tightness. Now, it does open up a bit, right? You can expand it. But getting to the things that are in the bottom of the pack might be a little bit of a…

We got two elastic pockets over here. Put a pencil case in there, put your laptop charger in there, or if you got any other Aer products, this is the Aer Split Kit, go ahead and slide that in there like a glove.

And then on the opposite side, we have the tech area. You’ve got an elastic pocket right here and then the actual laptop compartment. Two notes about this laptop compartment. I like the padding. I don’t like the suspension. And I don’t know. Think about it. You’re carrying your laptop in your bag. It’s the most expensive piece of gear you probably have. I know that it is for me. I want my laptop to be safe, and I want it to feel nice and cozy in its home, and this is a material that gives that cozy feeling. It should be noted it fits up to a 16-inch laptop.

But I wish that the false bottom was false here because the false bottom is right here. Where are you? It’s like right there, which is okay, but I like my false bottoms to be a little bit false. [inaudible 00:08:26] I wish it was kind of up here just to give you that little extra piece of mind and security in case you do one of those with your backpack, right?

Aer City Pack
Back of the Pack

Important points: It has cozy shoulder straps, a well-ventilated back panel, a magnetic sternum strap, and a luggage pass-through holder.

First up, the shoulder straps. Now, if you’ve seen my reviews before, you know that I’m kind of a really big fan of how comfortable Aer backpacks are. That’s because they’re just really well padded and really well ventilated. That’s all you need. Just padding and ventilation. These shoulder straps provide both, very cushiony. We usually refer to it as the Aer mattress experience. It’s just very, very, very comfortable.

Moving on down, we have another little clip for your carabiner right here, and then we have a sternum strap. Sternum straps are important as it helps distribute the weight of the backpack, less on your bag, more on your chest. This sternum strap is nice because it is adjustable and completely removable. You can just go ahead and unclip it if you don’t want it. But if you keep the sternum strap on, you will be smitten to know that it is magnetic. Magnets and backpacks go hand in hand, and this hardware, in particular, is made from a company called Woojin, and Woojin makes great magnetic gear. It’s got a really nice, easy feel to it. It works well.

Moving down south, we’ve got some web holders. Web holders, or as we refer to them as dangle stoppers, are always appreciated because it makes sure that the excess nylon is not flapping all over the place.

Now, let’s talk about the back panel. The way that I feel about the shoulder straps, also, I feel about the back panel. Very well ventilated, very well padded. And then on top of it, you don’t just have ventilation on the actual materials here. As you can see, you got this little ventilation line right there, right, and this is for the breeze. So we walk around the city on a hot fucking day, that breeze just cuts through there. It ventilates your back. Very satisfying.

And in that cut, we have a luggage pass-through holder. Those times you’re at the airport, you got your suitcase, don’t want to carry your pack anymore. You just sort of slide it into place. Good to go.

Sideways luggage pass-through holders, though, usually aren’t as awesome as the ones that are like this because your backpack’s going to be on the side and things might fall out of the pockets and stuff. But I guess I’d rather have it if I was a luggage traveler than not have it.

Aer City Pack
Pros and Cons (Detailed)

Let’s talk about some pros and cons of the Aer City Pack. It’s made with amazing materials. It’s got a super comfortable fit and feel, and I got to admit, huge fan of that slim profile.

But I got some cons for you as well. The main compartment opens in kind of a weirdish way. The laptop compartment is not as suspended as I would like. And the water bottle holder can’t fit a super girthy water bottle.

Aer City Pack
Alternatives (Detailed)

So if you’re still here and you’re like, “I’m a city person, this City Pack is for me,” and you’re going to make a purchase, we do appreciate if you use our link. That link makes sure that you get the best price, and it also helps to support our channel/blog.

But, maybe you’re not sold. You’re sitting there and you’re like, “It’s close, but it’s not close enough. I’m still here. Wish somebody would give me a recommendation.” We got you.

So you might be thinking to yourself, “Dude, I love the Aer aesthetic. I love the slim profile of this pack. I just don’t need all this pocket stuff going on.” Don’t worry. We have the perfect alternative. It’s called the Aer Slim Pack. Same aesthetic, same slimness, less pockets. Watch it here.

Now, you also might be thinking to yourself, “This is great. I love this Aer pack, and I want to use it for all my tech stuff.” If that’s you, then I would recommend checking out a different review in the description of the Aer Tech Pack 2. Basically, the same pack, not quite as slim, but it’s just built for tech gear. This means that a better laptop compartment and all the zippers are PU coated, which will protect your tech gear from the rain. Watch our review here.

You also might be thinking to yourself, “This is a really cool City backpack, but I wish that I could just see a different take on an urban backpack.” We got you. In the description below, check out our review of the Modern Dayfarer backpack. It’s got a really similar aesthetic, same exterior materials and the same urban vibe, but it’s just done with a completely different take. It maintains its shape. It’s got nicer internal materials, easier sort of access when you’re carrying the pack, and a ventilated shoe compartment. Watch our review here.

Aer City Pack
Conclusion

What do you think about the Aer City Pack? Is the access to the main compartment a little too limited? Do you wish that the water bottle holder could hold a girthier water bottle? Love that word. Or if you own this pack, please let us know what your experience has been like so far. We would love to hear from you, and your comments help make the internet and this channel just a better place, more educated, which means that people can find the pack that is perfect for them.

Thanks, guys, and we’ll see you next time!

***Disclaimer*** Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means that if you use our links, Nomads Nation will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thanks for the love and support!

Aer City Pack Review (Updated 2023)

Aer City Pack Review (Updated 2023)

Aer city pack review
(Updated 2023)

Aer City Pack
Overall Score

Overall Pros

Overall Cons