As constant travelers, I am always excited to try out new and innovative travel gear.
Well, we have recently been lucky enough to trial two of Loctote’s most popular products, the Flak Sack II and the AntiTheft Sack 3L.
They have a lot of obvious applications to the travel market and we were super excited to give them both a try.
As always, I want to be 100% honest and upfront with our readers, and share that we did not pay for this bag.
We received both bags as part of a collaboration with Loctote and they wanted us to write a fair and honest review sharing our genuine experience.
And that’s exactly what this review post is … genuine!
I want it to be a useful and detailed review of Loctote’s Flak Sack (it’s headline, groundbreaking product) as well as the smaller 3L AntiTheft Sack.
After using each one for 2 months (to date) I want to share …
And of course …
Are either one worth the price tag!
Let’s get started ...
Founded back in 2016, Loctote specialise in making a range of anti-theft bags.
They are most famous for their Flak Sack, a drawstring bag made of a range of innovative slash-resistant materials.
They gained immediate popularity when launching the bag through Kickstarter & Indiegogo where they raised a combined $1.4 million!
They went on to even greater fame when they appeared on Season 8 of Shark Tank.
A show that Cazzy and I love! Though surprisingly it must be one of the few episodes we missed as that’s not how we first came across them.
With the runaway success of the Flak Sack, the company has gone on to produce a range of other bags and travel/lifestyle gear. I'll talk more about the products they have on offer below.
The best place to buy Loctote bags is either directly from their website or over on their Amazon store.
You may find that, dependant on your location, they sell a wider range of products from their site directly.
So I recommend visiting both stores for the widest choice of up-to-date colours and products.
Below we review:
I was VERY excited to receive and review Loctote’s headline product, the Flak Sack II.
It’s their bread and butter and the groundbreaking product that earned them so much through Kickstarter and got their business off the ground.
Personally, I think it looks great and was interested to try out, not just it’s anti-theft capabilities, but more how well it works as a general-use backpack.
And to see whether it could truly compete with the best anti-theft travel bags out there.
So first up ...
I have only ever owned cheap plastic drawstring bags, you know, the sort that come free with a pair of new sports trainers.
I used them a lot as a kid for holding gym kit, but they always broke after a while and were never really a serious daily-use bag.
And since we’ve been travelling, drawstring bags have never really been on my radar. Instead, my go-to daily backpack has (for 5 years) been my Osprey day pack.
So when we came across Loctote, I was genuinely really excited to see how well it holds up as a day-to-day general use bag.
Beyond its anti-theft properties (which I will discuss below) I was most interested to see:
And honestly, I was really shocked when I first took it out of the packaging (in a good way).
The bag feels incredibly well made. Solid, durable and really nice to touch.
It’s hard to get too excited about the feel of a bag, but I’m not exaggerating when I say that the material the Flak Sack is made from feels like it’s worth the price tag.
It has a sort of heft to it that immediately makes you feel like it’s secure, and I couldn’t find any signs of poor stitching or dodgy finishing.
It’s safe to say, in the design department, it’s hard to argue that Flak Sack is top notch.
I have done some online research to see what complaints people have about the Flak Sack. One of the few recurring themes I saw was people saying it was too heavy. Which I find strange as surely you would want it to feel heavier?
At the end of the day you’re paying for a bag designed to withstand knife attacks, so you would expect the materials to come in heavier than a standard drawstring bag. Personally, I think the weight is perfect, neither too heavy nor too light.
If the Flak Sack is ever going to compete as a genuinely useful bag, it needs to be comfortable to wear for extended periods of time.
And as someone who has a pretty lean build, I will quickly suffer from bags that aren’t very comfortable.
Especially with drawstring bags, as the rope is very quickly going to dig into my shoulders and become unpleasant to wear for more than an hour.
Well, the big thing that I think sets Flak Sack apart in the comfort department is the cool little button latch on the drawstrings.
At first I figured they were simply there to make the bag look good when you take it out of the packaging, but I soon realised they are a fundamental part of the bag.
When wearing the bag, you clip them up and the bag lifts up and hugs your back, making it a LOT more comfortable to wear.
It takes a lot of the pressure off your shoulders and it’s then hard to notice the bag is even there. It will never be as comfortable as something like the Tropicfeel Shell, which has large padded shoulder support.
But then again, that's not the market the bag is trying to compete in. But with a typical weight inside, it’s really comfy.
Now, I’m not going to claim here that Loctote has revolutionised the drawstring bag industry. It could be that I am simply in the dark here about how people wear bags like this?
Personally, I’ve not noticed anyone wearing a bag in this way, and never used one myself, so maybe this feature is pretty unique. But either way it really does do the trick.
Combined with the high quality fabrics used throughout, it makes the bag comfy to wear for long periods.
It will never be as comfy as a larger camera backpack for example, with thick straps, so bear that in mind.
Let’s look at each one ...
The bag itself is made from a proprietary material called Flaknit. It’s slash proof, meaning it’s near impossible to cut with a knife.
It turns out there's actually a whole scale for how slash-resistant a material is, and Flaknit comes in at ANSI Level A9.
Which is the highest level there is! A quality usually reserved for gloves and other safety material where people are working with heavy metals or regularly handling lots of glass or metal.
Put simply, you couldn’t make the bag any stronger. Which is why it has such a dense, solid feel to it. Many people comment on the weight of the bag as a negative thing, but personally I like it.
If you’re spending this much on a bag to protect your belongings to the max, then having that added weight in the material is comforting and a sign of top quality.
One of the main features of the Flak Sack is the ability to secure it to solid objects.
It does this with a steel reinforced locking strap that you cinch tight and then lock onto a pole or tree, or other immovable object.
The strap is secured tightly around the head of the bag, and then you loop through the supplied brass lock to hold it in place.
It seems to work great and does exactly what it says on the tin. The only thing I will add here is that it’s quite tough and a little awkward to do the first few times.
But after a few uses, it becomes slowly easier to reach the full tightness level.
A big problem with theft is people quickly slashing the straps on someone's bag (yes, even whilst they are wearing them) and then running off with the bag.
Well, with Flak Sack, even the straps are made from a slash-resistant material, making this type of theft near impossible.
Also helping to prevent this, and make the bag comfier, is the sternum strap I mentioned above.
It’s not exactly groundbreaking in a safety-sense, but well … It works!
Another common theft people suffer from these days isn’t so much physical theft, but instead data theft.
You’re probably pretty aware already of this problem, where people simply brush past you and can electronically swipe card details.
RFID blocking has become a pretty standard form of protection against this and is most common in things like wallets and purses.
Flak Sack takes this one step further and incorporates a large pocket lined with RFID blocking material and specifically designed to hold things like credit cards and passports.
I think the main target audience for Flak Sack is people who live an active outdoors lifestyle and need to occasionally leave their bag unattended.
For example surfers, who head into the water for a couple hours at a time but want a way to more securely store their belongings.
As long as there is a fixed object in the sand, you can lock your bag to it, making a quick theft pretty much impossible.
Beyond this, there are tonnes of other use cases.
I think if you’ve suffered a bag theft before, then the Flak Sack will really resonate with you and help make you feel more at ease with your belongings.
Personally, I use the Flak Sack for a range of different things, but mostly when visiting new attractions or cities and I have just a few belonging to take with me.
It’s not so big that we can store all our blogging cameras, coats, keys, wallets, travel drone etc. But it’s perfectly big enough to take a few crucial things. If we do need to carry more, then we will take one of our larger day bags.
I definitely feel like my belongings are more safe inside the Flak Sack. Particularly in crowded places, where we are always more wary of someone sneakily reaching in and stealing something from our bags.
Bottom line: Personally, I think it’s designed for people who want a high quality, good looking bag, with the added comfort of knowing their belongings are much safer than inside of a standard day bag.
I will be completely honest here, I was far more excited to review the Flak Sack than I was it’s smaller 3L counterpart, the AntiTheft Sack.
In terms of immediate use capabilities, I was much more struck by the Flak Sack, and a little more unsure of how and where the AntiTheft Sack would come in useful in my day-to-day life.
Well, I think I have it figured out! But first up …
Once again, this feels like a real quality bag. It’s not as slash-resistant as the material used in Flak Sack (more in that below) but it definitely feels very secure and is well manufactured.
We found no dodgy sews or areas where we think the bag may be prone to tearing over time or being easily accessible.
It’s essentially a mini Flak Sack, but without the drawstrings. So it works in much the same way, but instead folds down much smaller and can be packed away until needed.
The bag itself achieves level A4 cut protection. Which is less than Flak Sack but still perfectly strong enough to keep out all but the most motivated of thieves.
Really, the main way the bag is kept secure is with the steel reinforced locking strap that tightens around objects and then is secured in place with a padlock.
This locking strap is by far the toughest part of the bag and not at all easily accessible.
There is a specific pouch inside for storing things like credit cards or even passports. This pouch contains RFID blocking material, so you’re safe from having your card details swiped.
As I said at the start, I wasn’t 100% sure to begin with how the AntiTheft Sack would fit into our lives.
And to be 100% honest, I use it far less than Flak Sack. For obvious reasons, it’s not as much of a daily-use bag, and at first I was wondering where exactly I could properly trial it.
But here’s the thing … Once we started carrying it around with us, we started finding more and more ways it was great for our traveling lifestyle.
For example, we recently found ourselves at an indoor spa in Romania (which was incredible by the way) and one of the key parts of the experience is trying out the dozens of spas, swimming pools, flumes and saunas.
And as Cazzy is type 1 diabetic, she always needed to leave her insulin pump (which is worth thousands by the way) outside unattended.
The AntiTheft Sack was absolutely perfect, especially seeing as it’s water resistant so less chance of her pump getting damaged by the very damp environment all around.
Another time we found it useful was when using Lime (one of the big electrical scooter rental companies in Europe).
You can securely strap it to the bars and then have less clutter in your pockets when out exploring the city.
We still carry it around and are discovering new uses for it, but I think a really big one will be more places when we are at a waterfall or by the beach and want to go in the water and need a place to quickly lock in Cazzy’s pump and our van keys/wallet.
Bottom line: The AntiTheft Sack isn’t something you necessarily always wanted. But once you use it a few times, you start to see more and more just how useful it is!
If you’ve skipped a lot of what I wrote above then let me quickly summarise this for you …
I genuinely love the Flak Sack.
Since first trialling the bag for this review, I have continued to use it extensively in day-to-day life. It is comfy to wear, feels amazing, looks great and is simple to use.
These properties alone, in my opinion at least, make the bag worth the price tag and a great gift for a fellow backpacker or traveler.
This doesn’t even take into consideration the anti-theft properties of the bag.
When you take this into account (i.e. the ENTIRE PURPOSE behind the company) I think buying this is a no-brainer.
As I have learned over the years, any decent travel gear comes at a premium. You can buy cheap, but it simply won’t last.
For example, I’m a big fan of the Osprey. I bought a 60L backpack and 25L daypack combo when we first started backpacking in 2016.
I still use both of these bags today (2021). The day pack in particular must have been worn more than a thousand times, and is still going strong.
And I think the same will happen with the Flak Sack. I can see myself using it for years to come and is the perfect grab-and-use bag for things like the gym, or carrying some basic travel gear when exploring a city.
Personally, and rather a miracle perhaps, Cazzy and I have never suffered any form of theft when travelling.
So the pain of having items stolen is something that has never resonated with us, and I am less drawn to the Flak Sack for those exact reasons. However, having tried and used the features on offer I can 100% see how they are innovative and should be go-to features in all travel bags.
For most travelers, I would say that the AntiTheft Sack maybe isn’t as essential as the Flak Sack.
In terms of practicality, it has less obvious applications, and is personally something that we now use less often.
That being said … If you are looking for a well-made, easy-to-use and subtle small bag to keep your belongings safe … .then yes I 100% endorse this bag.
If you can see how it would be great in your chosen lifestyle, then I say go for it.
The biggest market that springs to my mind are surfers. If you regularly find yourself on beaches with a pair of car keys and a phone to hide, then the AntiTheft Sack is absolutely perfect.
Simply put your belongings in, find somewhere hidden, like a tree or pole, and attach your bag to it.
In the more detailed review above I gave a few more obvious use cases for this bag, and I’m sure there are hundreds more that don’t cross my mind.
But yes, it performs it’s job absolutely perfectly and I love it’s high-quality feel and ease-of-use.
At the time of writing, it’s priced at $69, so is definitely not the cheapest bag out there. But when you think that it’s designed to keep safe things like your phone, car keys, or jewellery which together are worth hundreds, if not thousands of dollars, then it makes absolutely perfect sense.
There are two other bag products that Loctote currently sell, these are:
The difference between the Flak Sack Sport and the regular Flak Sack is that it’s designed to be both lighter (roughly half the weight) and more water resistant.
Clearly very useful attributes if you intend to use your Flak Sack in conditions where it’s likely to get wet, like when off surfing.
It’s popular as a go-to bag for a range of outdoor pursuits, like hiking or running, but still maintains most of the anti-theft features as the standard Flak Sack.
The Cinch Pack is the next logical step for Loctote to make in creating a full range of practical, anti-theft bags.
It is a larger daily backpack, clearly designed to offer more space and comfort and be more of a general day-to-day bag.
Offering more space and padding for storing things like travel laptops and camera gear. But all whilst incorporating the same innovative anti-theft ideas they have used before.
LiteLok is a lightweight, flexible bike lock designed to be more secure and practical than other bike locks already out there.
I mean, it looks about as cool as a bike lock can look, which surprised me. I would definitely give it a try if I had the space in our van to even store a bike!
They sell it in a range of styles, colours and even security levels. Definitely worth checking out if you use your bike a lot for commuting.
Well, that’s about it!
I would be keen to hear your thoughts on Loctote, so just drop a comment below
Are you new to the brand and thinking of buying one?
Or maybe you’ve already bought one and want to share your thoughts?
Let me know …
And be sure to check out or other gear reviews:
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