Back to Being a Road Warrior with Apera: Review + Giveaway

As many of you know, I am gainfully employed again! My job requires fairly frequent but short trips to visit the HQ (in San Francisco – YAY!) and to visit clients for meetings. Yup, I am becoming a road warrior again. In my first month, I took a trip to Dallas, San Fran and Indianapolis and next month I have booked Dallas, San Fran x 2 and Kansas City already. I am well practiced with bringing great, healthy portable foods and snacks and my running gear. One recent improvement in by road warrior bag of tricks is an awesome bag that I had the opportunity to test for the blog. Meet my new best friend, the Apera Tech Pack!

apera tech pack

I saw a bunch of reviews of Apera bags on other blogs so I went over to chat with them at the Rock and Roll Half Marathon expo in Chicago. I checked out the bags and their website and they offered to send me one. Twist my arm! I picked the Tech Pack in “Pearl” for my upcoming travels.

Apera bags are really high quality and the company has a mission to make bags healthier. Apera bags are designed to be healthier – with built-in antimicrobial product protection to inhibit the growth of bacterial odors, separation of your wet, sweaty gear from your dry stuff, and venting air to keep your bag dry and suppress odor. Apera bags also feature intelligently designed wet, dry and tech storage areas within each bag to provide an easy keep items clean and organized. There are separate vented compartments with wipeable linings and a huge interior storage area with light colored lining to help you find your gear.

Features Apera

They says, the “Apera Tech Pack is the versatile, do-whatever-you-need-it-to backpack.” I agree wholeheartedly! This bag moves from work to the gym to a business trip with ease. This bag has SO MANY pockets and awesome features:

  • Two enormous pockets on the front for shoes
  • Large interior storage pocket holds a change of clothes and a set of your workout gear plus whatever you need for the gym or even an overnight trip
  • Two separate padded pockets for laptop
  • Padded straps and back portion – comfortable and easy to carry
  • A tech pocket at the top for your phone and cords
  • A pass through area for securing the bag to your rolling suitcase handle
  • Antimicrobial product protection (to resist bacterial odor)
  • Vented pockets
  • Wipeable linings
  • A separate washable insert to help keep your wet or sweaty items separate from your dry gear

I used this for a one night trip as my only bag and brought it on several others with another bag. When it is completely full, it needs to be stowed in the overhead bin, but without the running shoes, it fit fine under my (coach class) seat.

Under my coach seat with no issues!
It fits under my coach seat with no issues!

I love this bag. It is so well made and fits everything I need. There is a place for everything, too, so I don’t have to dig around too much to find what I need. My one issue is that the straps seem to slip. I saw that Val’s husband helped her with this, so I need to ask her secrets! These bags are not inexpensive, but I feel like it will last me for many years. I think it is worth the price ($124 retail at Apera online).

Sprint Bag ($19.99 value) and WAY BETTER than that string bag you got at your last race!
Sprint Bag ($19.99 value) and WAY BETTER than that string bag you got at your last race!

Great news! Apera Bags is offering to giveaway one of their Sprint Packs plus a 25% off coupon for any other Apera Bag. The Sprint Pack is the same bag Apera donates to Special Olympics athletes for every three bags they sell. It’s perfect for packing a few items for a trip to the gym, to the park, or wherever you go. Inside, there’s a panel that divides the main compartment and keeps things organized in two separate areas. There’s also a large zippered pocket on the front of the bag that gives you even more storage. A large opening allows you to pack your stuff quickly, then cinched closed easily via the two shoulder straps. Two vented areas on each side of the lightweight bag allows interior contents to breathe. It is also antimicrobial.

Use the Rafflecopter widget to enter below. The giveaway is open to US residents, 18 and over and is void where prohibited. The giveaway ends on September 30th and a winner will be selected and notified on October 1st.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

In the mean time, if you want a chance to win a bag like mine, or one of their other cool styles, from Apera, they hold a giveaway each month on their website!  Up for grabs this month is a free Apera bag – winner’s choice, any style and color!  Just sign up for their email newsletter. Then, they’ll randomly draw a name from their email newsletter database to select a winner.  Enter now! You can also keep up with Apera Bags on Facebook and Twitter.

PS. Don’t miss my other giveaways, too!

Please note: I was provided the Tech Pack at no cost in exchange for an honest review. I was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own.