Sling Showdown! Round 6 - Peak Designs Every Day Sling 5L vs Bellroy Sling vs Chrome Kadet

Here we go again! Another sling challenger.
I have become a fan of slings for urban exploration. They are smaller and less obtrusive than backpacks but still let you carry what you need for the day. Typically, I carry a charger for my phone, a battery pack, my iPad Pro Mini, some snacks, maybe a water bottle, and my headphones. Anything more and I prefer the weight distribution of my backpack.
So, this is round six of my sling showdown.
The Peak Designs Every Day Sling 5L has been on my radar for awhile. It's been reviewed plenty by others, and seems to get high marks by all. Peak Designs seems to focus on camera bags and creates features that cater to this crowd. That is one reason I do not like their backpacks and other bags. But, for a sling, I usually do need something that works well with a camera so the Peak Sling seemed particularly interesting.
I have done reviews on several other slings before this and so had a decent baseline to compare this bag to. I currently use the Chrome Industries Kadet, the Bellroy Sling, and the Timbuk2 Classic Messenger Extra Small for this use case. The Kadet a bit more obtrusive with its metal seatbelt buckle shoulder strap, but it fits my iPad Mini easily plus more. The Timbuk2 Classic Messenger also holds the iPad. The Belroy is too small for this, but works great if I am looking to be minimal. It's much sleeker and streamlined. It still is great for carrying my Mavic Mini drone though.
So, the Peak Design had some stiff competition.
From out to in, I loved the materials. It looks textured, but actually feels very smooth. The tout it as being water resistant as well. I picked the Sage Green and really like the color. The zippers are YKK and AquaGuard. I did not like that there was only one pull per compartment though.
The shoulder strap is great, with nice padding and seatbelt nylon webbing. It has a quick adjusting feature that is nice. I did not like the lack of a quick release though. The way it is set up makes the bag somewhat less ambidextrous than I like. You can still use it on either side, but it's just a little inconvenient.
There are two separate compartments. The front, smaller one is a bit snug and it is hard to get things in and out.
The main compartment was also a touch small for my needs, with no way for me to fit my iPad Mini in its case. If I leave the iPad naked, then it can fit in the sling. This is not ideal though, since I need the keyboard that is part of the case.
The sling had some other interesting features though, with an organizer for SD cards in the main compartment. It was well padded all around and I would not worry about it my contents getting damaged. This does make the bag much more bulky than my other slings. It would be much harder to pack than my other bags.
The main compartment also came with two adjustable dividers that let you customize how you want to organize it. Nice.
Overall, I think the Peak Design Sling 5L was good. I like some of the design choices, but it fell short in a couple areas. I like having two zippers on my compartments. but given I need something that fits my iPad Mini, I will try out their next larger size and see how it fits my needs.

Some quick links (some are Amazon affiliate links):

Bellroy Sling

Chrome Kadet

Timbuk2 Classic Messenger Sling X-Small

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Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0
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#PeakDesignsSling #EveryDaySling #ChromeKadet #Timbuk2Messenger #EDCSling #BestSling #SlingBag #BellroySling

[AbyssalTenacity]

Unsure if it suits your needs, but the Life Behind Bars Echelon has a lot of features for a solid price point. Maybe another contender lol

[EverGone]

this video is literally the only video that features the SAGE color! thanks for this. and did you ever get back your drone from the palm tree?

[brandyarzillo]

How does the small front pocket do for fitting an iPhone?

[barridail]

Great review. You should look into the Every Day 6L.

[Fe.Breezy]

Great review, hope your channel blows up! r/onebag has brought you up a couple times!
Edit: nice jacket! I’m thinking of grabbing one during their sale now.

[rudycorrea]

The peak design does have an iPad sleeve in the main compartment..

[bluenerve]

Which do you prefer?? The Kadet or the peak design?