Why We Built the Explorer 2

A founder's note

It started at a stag do

I fly a fair bit for work, and out of habit I always check a bag in. So for years I dodged the whole gate game without even noticing it was there.

Then came a stag do. Four nights away, a short trip, so I travelled light and did not bother booking any luggage. I got stopped at the gate and charged to put my bag in the hold. Fair enough, my mistake. Except I still did not sort it for the flight home, so I got charged a second time on the way back. Same trip, same bag, twice.

That is the moment BRAW is built against. Not the flying. The petty, expensive, deliberately confusing game around the bag, and the sinking feeling of paying for it in front of a full queue.

We are a small Scottish brand, designed in Glasgow, built to beat the rules that get you charged. The first Explorer did that well. Then the size rules moved, and instead of patching the old bag we rebuilt it properly. That rebuild became the Explorer 2, and this is the story of why we built it.

When the rules moved, we moved

In 2025 Ryanair raised its free under-seat size to 40 x 30 x 20 cm. Good news for travellers. A chance for us to start again with a clean sheet.

Most brands would have nudged a measurement and called it a new model. We took the whole thing apart. One question the bag had to answer: how do you carry a week's worth of kit in a bag the airline lets you take for free?

The answer was never "make people pack less". You should not have to leave things behind to dodge a fee. The answer was compression. Get more into the same legal box.

The ClipPod: a compression backpack that changes shape

The heart of the Explorer 2 is the ClipPod. A removable vacuum bag that sits inside the main compartment. You load it, draw the air out with the WEE Pump, and clip it shut. Around 24 litres starts packing like 32.

The Explorer 2 has a second life built in. The moment you land, take your kit out, or lift the ClipPod out, and the bag becomes your day bag and commuter bag for the rest of the trip. It is not a travel-only hauler you leave at the hotel. It is the bag you actually use all week.

The ClipPod does a job of its own too. It unclips, slings on its own strap, and makes a good wet or sweaty kit bag. Going for a swim or a paddle, or coming back muddy, seal the wet gear in the ClipPod and keep it away from the clean clothes in the main bag. That was the goal from the start. Not a backpack you fight with. A system that changes shape around your trip.

We have been tweaking this bag since the very first version. That one was all Cordura. Then we added our 900D facing on the panels that take the most abuse. On the Explorer One the compression section was sewn in, built into the bag, so it did its job but you could not take it out.

That is the piece we cracked with the Explorer 2. The compression became the removable ClipPod, which is what gives the bag its second life as a day bag once you land. Same idea, finally done right.

We built the rest to match. 1050D Cordura shell, 900D facing, YKK and Aquaguard zips, an odour-proof section so your shoes stay away from your clean clothes, a 16in laptop sleeve, and a hidden pocket for your passport. Years of "what annoyed us on the last trip", solved one at a time.

Designed in Scotland, made to travel

The name means beautiful, or brilliant, in Scots. We are proud of where we are from, and a bag built by people who actually travel is a different thing from a bag built by a spreadsheet.

We are still small, and that is the point. You are not buying from a faceless brand. You are buying from three of us, Valbo, Tommy Young and Richard Rankin, and we hand ship every single backpack from our warehouse in Glasgow. When something is not right, you tell us, and a real person answers.