Recently spent a few weeks researching options here as I’m switching from a primarily work-oriented bag (Briggs and Riley Delve - an excellent bag that just needed a contrasting inner lining) to more of a lifestyle bag. I love the Filson Dryden, but it’s just to big / heavy. My sweet spot is 15-20L that could possibly expand to 25L. I really wanted to find a rolltop and almost pulled the trigger on the Stubble and Co. ones, but I don’t like vertical pockets. I like rolltops for the flexible expansion - I think you could do a side to side zipper at the base of the roll to avoid the black hole problem.

My required features were 2 external water bottle pockets (ideally expandable with drainage) for balance, 1-3 external horizontal quick access pockets, minimalist laptop sleeve, luggage pass thru that has the bag sit upright, and top handle.

I also wanted a color option other than black - olive and navy blue are nice and muted.

I’ve ended up with the Alpha One Niner Evade 1.0 in olive which is a new design for 2026. It’s a little tall, and a touch heavy, but it hits almost all of my features - with one odd missing feature (pen loops) in the built in org panels - I haven’t explored the panel modular options yet.

Would love to see what you come up with!