Troubadour Goods Review: What to Expect

Troubadour is one of our favorite brands for high-quality travel goods like bags, backpacks, duffels, briefcases, totes and slings. Much of the brand’s mantra is based on sustainability and function, along with sleek designs that bring minimalism to your travel gear with ultimate style.

The brand is known for men’s, women’s and unisex products, made from combinations of genuine leather, vegan leather, recycled leather and modern fabrics. Most of their products are timeless, classic and have a cool streamlined look. They’re the kinds of backpacks, totes and duffels that blend in to any outfit you choose while on the go, and also catch the eyes of those around you for looking dashingly good.

Where to buy Troubadour?

I actually just found out that Troubadour has a flagship store in London (too bad I won’t be there any time soon!). If you’re looking for where to buy Troubadour in person, visit this page of their site.

I recommend buying online, which is how I learned about Troubadour and decided on the products I wanted to try. I think their photos of the bags and backpacks on models are really well done, both to show close-ups of the quality, features and details, as well as how big or small the product is on a person.

There are quite a few retailers in the US where you can see Troubadour in person. Check out Nordstrom, Equinox stores, Four Seasons Hotels stores and Bloomingdales.

What types of products does Troubadour sell?

Troubadour sells minimalist and classic backpacks, tote bags, business bags and travel bags.

Among my favorite items are the Ki Backpack, and Momentum Backpack. Those are just backpacks, though. I also have the Carrier Tote, the Orbis Duffel and the Ki Crossbody in vegan leather.

Troubadour sells products for both men and women, and some products lean more to the feminine side or the masculine side; however, the large majority of Troubadour products are unisex.

I’m pretty obsessed with most of Troubadour’s products because of how minimalist and timeless they are. As my taste has matured, I am always looking for bags that will stand the test of time for both quality and style.

I recently also reviewed the Generation Leather Backpack, the most luxury-level Troubadour product I’ve owned.

Aside from backpacks, there are accessories like tech cases (see our Rig Case 2.0 review), backpack covers, crossbody bags and replacement straps.

What are some of the benefits of Troubadour?

There are lots of benefits of Troubadour’s products. To start off with, their products have a five-year guarantee against manufacturing faults. I even experienced this when I got my first backpack from Troubadour, in the mail. It had an issue with the strap, and all I did was contact Troubadour and they sent me another one.

If you have an issue with your Troubadour product during the first year of use (due to a quality manufacturing fault), they’ll send you a new one. The brand wants to do everything possible to make sure you have a flawlessly functional product.

Other benefits of Troubadour are the intentional, smart and design-savvy features. In my latest experiences with Troubadour gear, there are water bottle sleeves inside the bags, duffels and mini backpacks, hidden pockets for valuables, removable ergonomic straps for crossbody wear (with non-slip backing!) and beautiful vegan leather accents.

Looking for something like hidden pockets? See examples of this in my Troubadour Apex Mini review.

I have lots of good things to say about Troubadour and all the Troubadour products in my travel collection.

Where does Troubadour fall short?

I don’t think Troubadour falls short anywhere, quite honestly. Just today I used my Ki Backpack while heading into the office, and I was so happy with every bit of the experience, from the smooth zippers, to the magnetic top flap, to the inner pockets that hold all my many accessories in an organized way.

Another shortcoming of most Troubadour products is washability. I have tested and reviewed lots of Troubadour products to date, and one thing I keep harping on is the need for spot-clean only care on most of them. I talk about this in my Apex Sling review and Apex Everyday Tote review in that the only “con” of either item is that they can’t go in your washer.

There are some particulars like “thick” straps that may not be the preferred style for some consumers. I talk about this in my Troubadour Ki Crossbody review where you can see a case in point.

What is the Troubadour return policy?

If you have a product with the original tags still attached, you can return a Troubadour product within 100 days of your purchase! You can get a full refund. Unfortunately, if you don’t have the tags on, your chances of a refund are pretty low.

Note that there are return shipping costs, and they are deducted from your return value. For any questions about the policies, you can reach out to Troubadour at the customer service page.

Five-year warranty

What is Troubadour’s warranty? I can tell you first-hand: when I got my first Troubadour backpack, it came in the mail with one of the shoulder straps sewn on in a twisted/backward manner. It was hard to tell, just by looking at it, but when I put on the backpack, I noticed that no matter how I re-twisted the bottom straps of one of the shoulder straps, it still looked twisted.

It turned out it was sewn on improperly, and what Troubadour’s warranty does is it has the company take total fault for that, and they’ll take back the item and send a new one. I contacted customer service, received a label to send back my Troubadour backpack, and within a few days I had a new one that had no issues.

It’s worth having a warranty backed by the brand for these reasons. With Troubadour’s warranty, the brand will repair any “manufacturing fault” as long as you have your proof of purchase (so keep that around!).

It’s another reason to buy Troubadour’s products directly through the Troubadour website, or via an “authorized reseller.” The warranty doesn’t come with goods bought second-hand or from retailers that are not authorized by Troubadour to resell their products.