The ultimate bag for urban nomads and serious travellers

IT FITS your laptop, passports, books, a water bottle and some clothes — and best of all no one can access your stuff.

Happy Tourists Enjoying The City And Posing For Photo

AT FIRST glance it looks like a conventional backpack — all curvy shoulder straps and a back-hugging central pouch.

But upon closer inspection, something is not quite right: The zippers are missing — or at least it seems that way.

Actually, this is RiutBag, a new backpack designed expressly for travellers.

It cleverly places its zippers on the back side of its pouch — rather than the front.

It’s a simple and clearly ingenious move that suddenly makes this ubiquitous travellers’ accessory so much safer and pilfer-proof.

No more worrying about forgetting to zip your backpack and some dude behind you swiping your stuff.

RuitBag secure backpack for travel. Picture: RuitBag

Crafted from sturdy, water-resistant materials and available in a pair of sizes (10 litres and 15 litres), RiutBag is the brainchild of British-based Sarah Giblin, a veteran traveller who saw a niche — and need — for a safer style of backpack.

Like many great inventions, the RiutBag resulted from a mix of necessity and love. Having met her partner while living in Berlin, Giblin returned to the UK to study law and commuted to Germany to maintain her long-distance relationship.

RuitBag secure backpack for travel. Picture: RuitBag

Those trips led her to conclude that a new form of backpack could — and should — find form, and the RiutBag was born.

Today, the RiutBag is real, funded by a successful Kickstarter campaign, manufactured in China and already enjoyed by its first crop of consumers.

Designed for both serious travellers and urban nomads, the bags easily fit a laptop, keys, passports, books, snacks, a water bottle and perhaps even a hoodie.

Both sizes meet airline carry-on rules so the RiutBag can easily replace, or at least complement, bulky checked bags.

Best of all, with its inside zippers, the RiutBag serves as bold-yet-subtle evolution in fashion, which always seems to favour fickle form over much-needed function.