Patagonia Atom Sling Bag – Lightweight, Compact & Versatile Crossbody Pack

A practical alternative to a purse but lacks the best components of the original design. The Patagonia sling bag I bought a thousand years ago is showing its age with stains and missing zipper pulls. Cosmetics aside, I much prefer the old to the new. First, the old one is made of a soft, nylon-like fabric that's lightweight and molds to my shoulder and back. The new one is a stiff, unwieldy fabric that feels like carrying a chunk of cardboard around. Secondly, my old sling back has a zippered, interior mesh pocket within the main compartment for keeping valuables safe and secure. The new version has an interior compartment with an open envelope that serves no purpose as far as I can tell— as if your wallet is going to politely stay put while you climb over a barbed wire fence or do a handstand. I give the new version credit for having a larger exterior phone pocket. The old version was made for a flip phone (yes, it's that old.). Even so, my old sling bag has a secondary, small zippered pocket on the outside that easily accommodates today’s larger phones. Had I examined the new sling bag in person, I probably wouldn’t have bought it. Hopefully, I’ll start to like it more over the next thousand years.

The Atom 8L is the “Goldielocks” size for an everyday pack, it’s not too big or too small, it’s just right. I’ve been using an older version for about 5yrs and really liked it but felt it could be a tad better with some minor tweaks. Well I’m not sure how Patagonia read my mind but they did. The smaller zipper section is a little bigger, they changed the internal table sleeve into a divider for 2 equal sections, they enlarged the should pocket, and added a handle to the top, and polished everything else. Essentially they made the best EDC sling even better, just can’t say enough good things about this quality sling pack.

The Patagonia Atom Sling is a weirdly comfortable bag. I constantly put it on backwards which is annoying but once on correctly it is very convenient having everything right there. I do wish the larger pocket had zipped compartments for my edc items like pens, chapstick, lens cloth. I feel like these smaller items get lost in the bag and I have to dig around for them risking dropping it all on the ground. I’ve been using it for over a month now and am still on the fence how I feel about it. The size is a just right but my phone does not fit in the strap pocket. I like the comfort of the bag, it even works over my winter coat.