This bag has become my shell. A bit like one of the ninja turtles, but in hot pink, and a lot less cool. As one of the few female members of staff, I didn't have to present much of a case to be the one to test out this backpack, there were no fist fights breaking out over it in the boot room. Maybe because it's a small size? Maybe fear of emasculation…

The garish colour is the first thing you notice about this particular edition, this season's colours are significantly more muted, so if you and your masculinity can’t handle ‘hot coral’, there is a plain black alternative.

The Trad 24 is designed to be a climbing pack, it's ultra lightweight, packs down to nothing and comes with a removable aluminium frame to prevent your gear from jabbing you in the spine. The exterior is simple, and it looks good. There's one external lid compartment, side ski fastenings, ice axe and hiking pole loops, and a circumferential zipper. The straps all have multiple purposes i.e. the ski fastenings can double as a rope attachment, or can be used to carry baguettes and bags of muesli when the bag itself is already full of avocados. One major improvement would be a method of attaching tins and cartons of almond milk to the outside. This would greatly enhance the bulk buying experience. The 24 litre capacity roughly translates to 3 days worth of food*.

The circumferential zipper is a really useful feature that gives you access to the entire bag instead of having to pull everything out of the top. It's a unique feature on a lower volume backpack but it’s common to most the Ortovox Trad range.

 Although it’s designed as a climbing bag, it does pretty well as an all-round day bag. I've used it on walks, mountain biking, the occasional run, and as the world's most high-tech shopping bag. It has barely left my back for the past five months, aside from three rounds through the washing machine (one coffee spill, a hot chocolate powder explosion combined with rain, and another incident involving garam masala) all of which it survived. We’ve been through a lot together. 

*Highly variable depending on metabolic rate and how boujee your taste buds are. This is based on no science, whatsoever.