There’s more than one reason why we wanted to review a “diaper bag” in our outdoor adventure sport website. 

The first is because outdoor adventure sports people procreate and have little rock climbers, mountain bikers and mountaineers that need more gear than we do.  We have to carry it somehow, and traditional backpacks don’t always cut it.

Secondly, while most dads are proud to carry their babies on their shoulders and change diapers, we’ve lost hope that  TapOut or Nike will ever come out with a cool multi-use diaper bag anytime soon.

Thankfully, Go GaGa’s philosophy in manufacturing useful and carefully ergonomical diaper bags have come up with various colors and styles that not only look great, but can also be used for a variety of other functions. The example we tried is the Messenger Bag , which is one of the larger bags in the company’s line up. While it does have diaper carrying capabilities, it looks more like a computer bag than what one would expect a diaper bag to look like.

Women find the bag very useful and incredibly comfortable  with easy to reach pockets and water resistant material making it easy to clean up messes. For guys, the Messenger is also comfortable, ergonomic and most importantly, much less ego bruising than a pink Hello Kitty style bag, or one of those brightly colored diaper bags that we get stuck carrying while two attractive joggers pass and giggle uncontrollably at our clashing attire.

The GoGaGa Messenger is designed as a multi-function bag that can be used for work, baby gear and even some outdoor sport activities. It measures 17×5.1×15-inches (Length, Width, Height) making it large enough to carry lots of gear, but not too large as to be as cumbersome as a school book-bag sized day pack.  Nevertheless, it features a removable changing pad and plenty of pockets for bottles, diapers and other gear. Several of the pockets are conveniently placed, making it easy to carry your baby and reach for what you need with one hand.

What we liked most, is the ergonomic strap that distributes weight across the entire shoulder and back, making this a great bag for carrying heavy stuff like water bottles and food. But the Go GaGa Messenger is also great for carrying other gear as well.  Although we couldn’t test the Messenger as a diaper bag, (our teenage kids only ACT like babies), we did manage to put the GoGaGa Messenger bag in a variety of situations and compared it to a traditional day-pack, in order to determine its usefulness in different environments.

BIKING

While the Go GaGa bag proved to work well carrying two water bottles, energy bars and even a bike helmet, it had a tendency to swing to the side on rough terrain, making it cumbersome in mountain bike situations. Furthermore, you also can’t carry a water bladder with the Go GaGa Messenger, but it does handle the load of two one-liter aluminum water bottles.

For urban areas however, it was easy to shift the bag over to your back and trudge along just like the New York City messengers do along city streets. On smooth surfaces, the bag didn’t shift as much and made it easy to get from one location to the next. It’s size allows you to carry your work clothes if you commute by bike, or an extra pair of sneakers, so you don’t have to walk around in your bike shoes.

HIKING

We actually liked the Go GaGa bag as a simple day-pack. Again the unique shoulder strap made it much easier to carry several liters of water very comfortably. The insulated side pockets actually kept our water relatively cool and the front cover closed enough to keep dirt and dust out of the bag which also comfortably housed trail mix, a digital camera, a small first-aid kit and a lightweight sweater. The front pocket made it easy to access our topo map and compass and because the bag is made from ballistic nylon, there was no fear of it ripping while walking through brush or rocky outcroppings.

URBAN EXPLORING

Here’s where the Go GaGa bag really shined. Not only does the bag look perfect for the urban environment, it’s also very functional to carry a 14-inch laptop, a sack lunch, two one-liter water bottles, cell phone and even your work-out clothes.

You can feel comfortable carrying the Go GaGa Messenger bag all day during long walking excursions when you explore a new city on vacation, or even when heading to an amusement park where you need to carry lots of baby gear, food, water and more.

The Go GaGa Messenger bag is available in a variety of colors to match the rest of your outdoor gear or apparel. The bag retails around $118. Two models (Eggplant and Sea Blue colors) are made from recycled materials and retail around $128. For more information on the Go GaGa line of bags, visit them at www.gogagalife.com

By Dan Sanchez