GORUCK Kit Bag – Our Review

In a previous review, we discussed the GORUCK GR3, commenting on its grandiose size (by brand standards, at least), and contemplating the “bigger is better” archetype.

Well, after reading that review, it seems as though the GORUCK Kit Bag had something to say:

“Hold my beer…”

Despite our gushing over the largest GR3’s 45-liter capacity, it seems as though we kinda jumped the shark on its overall carrying capacity. To be more direct, there are two different GORUCK Kit Bag iterations that exceed (in one case, by a lot) the biggest bag in the GR-line’s capabilities.

Point blank, if you gotta haul a lot of stuff and you’re deadset on a GORUCK bag, these are probably your best bets.

Don’t expect to do much (and by “much” I really mean “any”) rucking with these bags, but if you got a big trip planned or (even better!) you need a gym bag that can actually haul all of your random gear, the GORUCK Kit Bag options are worth a long, hard look…

Sizing (not scored)

I want to provide a few special pictures of the Kit Bag (32-liter) to give an idea of sizing. For reference, I’m ~5’8″ and Mel is ~5’2″:

Gym

This is the area where I think the GORUCK Kit Bag shines the most and possess the most significant amount of utility. It has actually become my wife’s “everyday driver” gym bag.

(in case you didn’t quite get what I mean here, that translates to the bag that she takes with her every time we actually go into the commercial gym in town!)

What’s especially impressive about this fact is that hers is the “smallest”, 32-liter iteration…and she packs a lot of stuff with her when she heads to the gym.

Olympic weightlifting shoes, lifting belt, water bottle, jump rope, chalk bag, multiple towels, resistance bands, barbell collars, a few different change plates, thumb tape…yeah, that’s her typical array of items; in many cases she’ll stuff something else in there, depending on what the workout calls for that day.

To be fair, the “beauty” of this arrangement is that she pretty much dumps everything into the main storage compartment. There isn’t much separating of these items nor does she stuff much in the external pockets (if you need to keep a pair of shoes separate for whatever reason, the 32-liter bag ain’t gonna be the option for you), but it just…works.

Unfortunately, this is one of those things that is kind of hard to describe.

You know how some bags that seem rather large and/or have a really big stated load capacity end up being kinda crappy as gym bags? Like, those bags where for some reason, you feel like you never have enough space? The Kit Bag is pretty much the opposite of that; it doesn’t look all that big, but it easily fits all of that stuff.

We don’t really use our 57-liter Kit Bag as a gym bag, but it is even more functional, albeit slightly superfluous for most of the gym-going population. The few times I’ve loaded my gear (which is pretty similar to my wife’s, although I don’t bring collars with me) into the larger Kit Bag, it’s almost been too big; there’s that weird feeling of way too much empty space relative to the amount of “occupied” space in the bag.

The good news here is that if you do plan on carting work clothes with you to and from the gym, the 57-liter option provides enough capacity to easily accommodate these items. Granted, you still won’t be able to separate them, but slipping them into clean plastic bags or something should go a long way in keeping them untainted by your gym gear.

I can’t really speak to how the 84-liter iteration performs as a gym bag, but I would think that unless you’re actually bringing, like, a few barbells with you in your bag(!), it’s probably a bit much for this type of venture. It’ll definitely work, but the bigger options definitely lend themselves more to travel.

Overall, I really like the Kit Bag as a gym bag and we have discussed in our article comparing the Kit Bag and the GORUCK Gym Bag that the former is actually (and ironically!) better for gym-going purposes than the latter. If a bag can be better for gym use than one with “gym bag” in its name, it’s gotta be a pretty good option.

Gym: 90

Travel

Despite being designed with more of a travel intent (I mean, when you click on the bag’s full description, it is described as the “Special Forces Flight Bag”…so, yeah; definite travel in mind with this one), I actually think that the Kit Bag is slightly “worse” at this general task area than it is for gym-going purposes. It’s by no means “bad” in this area; just not as great.

With that being said, if your main priority when traveling is just being able to jam as much stuff into your bag as possible without much regard for organization, the GORUCK Kit Bag works pretty well (especially the larger offerings). If you really need to efficiently separate your stuff, packing cubes can help.

However, at the end of the day, your looking at a smaller bag (32-liter) with only one external zipping pocket or larger bags that only have somewhat insignificant internal zipping pockets (in addition to a couple of exterior pouches that are better-suited for holding water bottles and crap like that). If you’re anal about arranging your gear, this setup isn’t ideal.

Additionally, the lack of backpack-style straps don’t really lend the larger bags to being overly comfortable to haul around for any extended period of time. A shoulder strap is nice, but when you got 84-liters worth of gear…definitely better to distribute the weight on your back (or, preferably, on something you can roll. Unfortunately…no wheels on the Kit Bags, either).

One last thing to note is that the 84-liter bag is not carry-on compliant. Now, due to the rather pliable nature of the bag, if you don’t have it packed to the brim, you could probably get this to work for you in this capacity (it would just fold into itself to slide into an overhead bin), but this is something else that negates (just a tad, in this case) from its score here.

Overall, if you’re content with a bag that just allows you to throw a bunch of stuff in without much concern for some intricate organizing scheme or arrangement, the GORUCK Kit Bags are solid options. If you’re more accustomed to a proper suitcase, though, these ones might be slightly frustrating.

Good travel bags…for a certain kind of traveler…

Travel: 85

Load Capacity

The Kit Bag has the distinction of being the GORUCK bag with the largest load capacity. If you opt for the biggest variation, you’ll enjoy the 84-liter capacity that beast offers.

Of course, the bag doesn’t score nearly as high if you go for the 32-liter or 57-liter options, but even the latter of these two qualifies as the GORUCK bag with the second highest load capacity.

A good thing about these options is that when they say 57 or 84 liters, they really mean 57 or 84 liters. The internal, main storage area is pretty much completely wide open, equating to a maximized effective carrying capacity. Only the smaller exterior pockets, which have their own degrees of utility, subtract from this area.

It’s not that difficult to find bags with similar or even larger load capacities than the largest GORUCK Kit Bag, but it’s hard to classify the really big ones in the same category. Most of these wind up being more in line with some weird, amorphous speciality bag or a completely bare-boned duffel. As such, this bad boy stacks up pretty well against the competition.

Load Capacity: 90

Materials

If you know anything about GORUCK, you’ve read (or heard, if you prefer video) one, strange word more times when researching the brand than you have at any other point in your life.

Cordura

It’s in all of the bags. Hell, it’s even in some of the GORUCK shoes.

Cordura ain’t as niche as it used to be. It’s a legit material; robust, tear-free, and durable, but it’s not all that uncommon as far as rucks go.

Still, when it comes to bags you’d take to the gym and even a lot of larger travel bags, there aren’t too many other materials I’d choose for the “looks-to-not gonna be destroyed in transit” ratio over 1000D Cordura.

…and in the Kit Bag, you get all Cordura, all the time:

Again, nothing crazy, but at the same time, nothing that is going to let you down…whatever you happen to be hauling around with you.

ove from “outstanding” to merely “excellent”.

Materials: 95

Price

It’s a little bit difficult to make a perfect, “apples-to-apples” comparison with the GORUCK Kit Bag and other bags of its size and utility. Because we’re ultimately talking about three different bags of three very different sizes, making more blanket comparisons isn’t easy.

We’re gonna try anyways!

Ultimately, it isn’t that hard to find large shoulder bags for a decent price. Considering that the larger versions of the GORUCK Kit Bag don’t have all that many interesting features that really set it apart from others, it can be lumped in with most other bags of its type.

With that being said, you’re not necessarily getting blasted on price, especially with the larger models. Considering the materials and overall “quality” of the bag compared to others, you may even think that the price is a “steal”.

However, we’re not making “value” assessments here; we’re talking about absolute price comparisons. In this regard, the GORUCK Kit Bags (collectively) are solidly in the slightly below-average camp.

Price: 70

Customer Reviews

One thing I have to reiterate before getting into this portion of the review is that there are multiple vastly different Kit Bag sizes as well as a number of different material types. Unlike many other GORUCK product review areas where bag reviews are separated based on material/composition, all of the Kit Bag reviews are lumped together.

With that being said, these reviews collectively add up to a 4.9 out of 5…so…with a score that high, it really doesn’t matter which variant is the bag being reviewed; they all get really high scores. Considering that only 12 of the (current) 454 bag reviews are below 4 stars…yeah…you pretty much can’t go wrong with any of the options in GORUCK’s Kit Bag “armory”.

Something to note is that the Kit Bag, like the vast majority of GORUCK’s non-ruck (and, non-shoe) options, can pretty much only be found on the company’s website. You can find a bunch of rucks, shoes, and some other items on Rogue and, recently, the company has expanded onto Amazon with a few items, but as far as Kit Bags go, you gotta go through the main site.

While this isn’t a problem, per say, it does mean that any and all of the reviews you’re going to come across for the Kit Bag are housed on GORUCK’s website; if you want to find reviews on third-party sites…you’re gonna be looking around for a long time.

The good news is, as you can probably tell from our review, the Kit Bag does warrant some lofty praise and I wouldn’t hesitate to put a lot of faith in what the reviews on the main site have written about it.

Customer Reviews: 98

Customer Service

The totality of my experiences with GORUCK over the last few years has been interesting…and in this case “interesting” has generally been a good thing.

Actually, over time, these experiences have gotten better and better with some of my earliest encounters with GORUCK’s customer service staff being the “worst”. I use quotations marks here because the less-than-stellar experiences I had actually weren’t that bad in the grand scheme of things (having to duplicate an entire order to rectify a mistake I made in my shipping address and having a problem with a QR code on a returned-item slip).

To be fair, in both of the aforementioned encounters, personnel were quick to get back to me and provided me with solutions that I found to be perfectly reasonable. In the 5 or 6 other encounters, I not only received fast and clear assistance, but also experienced outcomes that were undoubtedly resolved in my “favor”.

I won’t go into specifics with all of these, but I will say that the company has definitely prioritized customer service over enforcing their policies to the “black letter” standard.

I can also report that actually dealing with the personnel is a nice change of pace from what I can only assume are greater and greater numbers of bots or poorly trained, outsourced generic “help desk” workers. I like dealing with human (or at least very human-acting) Emily in Jacksonville.

Customer Service: 95

Who is the GORUCK Kit Bag really for?

Most GORUCK enthusiasts probably have something a bit different in mind when they click over to the company’s website and start looking around. The Kit Bag is certainly more of a niche offering, especially relative to the more traditional rucks the company sells, but looking a little closer under the hood, there are definitely specific groups who would most appreciate it.

Let’s see who they are:

Those who want a bag with a yuge load capacity

Like we mentioned, the two larger Kit Bag options rank numbers 1 and 2 in overall load capacity among the GORUCK line of bags. While the 57-liter option has a ~20 percent larger load capacity than the next closest contenders (45-liter GR2 and GR3 options), the 84-liter Kit Bag almost doubles them up.

If you do opt for the bigger options (or even the biggest option) beware, though; it’s a bit of a hoss. I mean, just look at how big it looks on this guy (who I think is somehow related to GORUCK founder Jason McCarthy):

Good option…but make sure you can handle it…

Those looking for a non-“black hole” gym bag

I know, I know; to a lot of you, this whole “black hole” thing doesn’t make a whole lot of sense…

…but to others, you know exactly what I’m talking about here.

Despite having a decent enough load capacity, the Kit Bag is not a bag that takes less than a second to throw your gear into…and 5 minutes to fish specific items out of.

I don’t know if it’s some type of supernatural thing (yes, this review is really starting to jump the shark, but whatever), but stuff is just…easier to find in the Kit Bag. Maybe it’s because of the orange inner lining that doesn’t make it so “dark” inside the bag (and, as a result, harder to locate specific items)…

Whatever the reason is, I don’t really care; I can quickly find my stuff and that’s all I care about.

Not for those seeking a “standard” ruck

It doesn’t take long to realize that the GORUCK Kit Bag isn’t…ya know…a “standard” ruck.

It’s not actually a ruck at all.

If you’re looking for more of a backpack-style ruck, there is no way that this is going to be the option you reach for.

Plain and simple.

Thankfully you have a lot of other GORUCK bags to choose from. Just go with one of those other…I don’t know…12 other, more “standard” ruck options.

How we reviewed the GORUCK Kit Bag

Despite the name and overall “aura” of the website, we do head into a commercial gym a few days a week for workouts (apparently this is something that is really important for me to do so I can…ya know…actually talk to people now and then).

Since the day we got our hands on our Kit Bags, the smaller, 32-liter one has become my wife’s exclusive gym bag.

If this wasn’t enough testing, we have also put our 54-liter bag to the test in a few different ways, most notably in preparation for a short-term move (which, funnily enough, never ended up materializing) where we were trying to pack as much stuff as possible in as few bags as possible.

Most people don’t plan on leaving the country for a month so that renovations can take place, but it was nice to know that I could fit ~4 weeks of summer clothes into a single mid-sized Kit Bag.

GORUCK Kit Bag Alternatives

There are any number of reasons to select the GORUCK Kit Bag as your gym or travel bag of choice. If you can’t seem to find one, we’re pretty sure that one of these options will serve you (almost!) as well”

Frequently Asked Questions

Please don’t be the guy who asks that second question…please…

The GORUCK Kit Bag…the Best non-ruck GORUCK bag…?

We’ve established that you pretty much have to be a certain type of someone with a certain objective (or objectives) in mind to truly appreciate the GORUCK Kit Bag options…

…but if you do happen to be that someone, this is a legit bag option.

If you can accept that you’re never going to be able to use your Kit Bag for a GORUCK Light or other type of GORUCK event and that you’ll probably be a bit more limited in your patch/Molle customization options, there really isn’t much downside with the bag.

There are other large, shoulder bag-style options to choose from, many clocking in at lower price points, but, in most cases, you’re sacrificing on the materials used and are definitely gonna be hard-pressed to find a comparable warranty.

A giant shoulder bag probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think of GORUCK and I’d seriously doubt that one is one on top of anyone’s wish list, but for a bag that is almost universally versatile in the “gym bag”, “travel bag”, and even “everyday carry bag” categories, it probably should be…

As we finish things up, I encourage you to check out our definitive guide to GORUCK backpacks, bags, and vests. If the Kit Bag turns out not to be the bag for you, maybe one of the other 9 in our review will work out for you!