{"id":178248,"date":"2025-12-11T02:19:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T02:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/178248\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T02:19:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T02:19:09","slug":"fellas-does-a-tactical-backpack-make-you-athletic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/178248\/","title":{"rendered":"Fellas, Does a Tactical Backpack Make You Athletic?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am bombarded with unrealistic, six-abbed<\/a> fitness content daily. So I filed a complaint to my friends: why is social media crushing my body confidence? \u201cYeah, well, imagine being a woman,\u201d one withered, and OK, totally fair enough. But as the global himbo domination marches on, there\u2019s an accessory that\u2019s become just as ubiquitous: their bags.<\/p>\n

Big, black and looking a lot like something a commando would wear for a legally murky mission to eliminate \u201can enemy of the West\u201d, tactical backpacks<\/a> are everywhere. On the tube, on the way to work, and especially in the sort of gym where people high five their personal trainer. If you\u2019re into fitness<\/a>, the commando bag has become a calling card to signal that yes, you do lift, bro, and yes, you\u2019ve got the backpack to match. But\u2026 why? We are sickeningly spoiled for choice in this department. Serious, \u201cwelcome to the Four Seasons, sir\u201d leather hold-alls abound. Lululemon<\/a> has bridged the gap between functional-ugly and functional-nice-to-look-at. I\u2019ve got a massive beater tote that fits work stuff, lunch stuff and gym stuff. And yet dozens of men are gravitating to the Action Man bag.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re largely in agreement that war is bad, but backpacks that look like war? Good, apparently. Maybe it\u2019s the customizable element commando versions have. On the tactical strips, the jacked among us slap on all different sorts of velcro badges, like the grown-up equivalent of getting your \u201chelping the elderly\u201d Scouts\u2019 patch. At my gym, I\u2019ve seen variations from Iron Man, CrossFit and marathons from cities that are boiling hot year round. It\u2019s not enough to look athletic: you need a backpack to spotlight your PBs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people are incredibly invested in something, they tend to buy into it both literally and figuratively. For that reason, I think almost all hobbies have an unofficial uniform of sorts, and the Bergen-inspired backpack has definitely become part of that for functional fitness fans,\u201d says Harry Bullmore, a fitness writer at The Independent<\/a>. \u201cWith that uniform comes a sense of belonging, which is something the human brain values highly, especially if it aligns you with a community you care about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plus, if you are legit serious about the macros<\/a>, the shakes and the split-day regime, \u201cmilitary-grade\u201d backpacks do sort of make sense. \u201cYou might need different shoes for running and lifting, accessories like lifting straps and resistance bands, all manner of supplements and other things for fuelling performance,\u201d says Bullmore. \u201cTactical backpacks have the Mary Poppins compartments.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I am bombarded with unrealistic, six-abbed fitness content daily. So I filed a complaint to my friends: why…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[1246,4383,16495,14652,565,84622,134,111,139,69,1243,15593],"class_list":{"0":"post-178248","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-_commerce","9":"tag-_exclude-reg-gate","10":"tag-_seo","11":"tag-digital_syndication","12":"tag-fitness","13":"tag-gq-recommends","14":"tag-health","15":"tag-new-zealand","16":"tag-newzealand","17":"tag-nz","18":"tag-shopping","19":"tag-textbelowcenterfullbleed"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}