The Best Basketball Backpacks to Carry Your Essentials

Buyer's Guide to Finding a Great Pickleball Set

The features you need in your basketball backpack are unique only to you for several reasons. First, your shoe size, gear, sweat odor, game time, and everything else are different from everyone else. All these factors determine the specifications of the backpack that will fulfill your needs, look cool, and be appropriate to your size.

Some features are a must-have and should never be compromised. For example, you will always need ventilated compartment for basketball, odor insulation between all pockets, water bottle holders, and a spacious shoe compartment in a basketball backpack. If you follow the six steps below, you will be able to get your hands on a handful of great options capable of fulfilling all your storage needs relating to basketball.

Consider Everything Around Your Basketball Life

Just write down roughly how often you play basketball, what additional things you want to carry to the basketball court, your general aesthetic preferences, your favorite colors, and brands, and your budget. We recommend putting it in the form of a range, or generalized statements, rather than being very specific. One super-specific requirement can make you compromise on many other important features.

Jot Down How You Will Use It

Do you want your basketball backpack to accompany you to the gym, hiking, or travel? Maybe you have a busy schedule and go straight from the basketball court to work. In that case, you may need to carry your laptop and many other items not related to basketball. You should write down a generalized list of such purposes to move on to the next step of planning, i.e., figuring out the size of your backpack.

Calculate the size

A solid method is to calculate the required dimensions of the backpack and its individual compartments. For example, basketball backpacks start from 18 inches and go all the way up to 23 inches—the storage capacity range from 20 liters to 40 liters. If you do not want to do all that maths, the next best way is to consider your height and select an appropriately sized backpack. Then, you can cross-check your items against the pockets available in a basketball bag.

Backpack materials

Basketball players outsource all their storage job to the backpacks, and it is a challenge for manufacturers to deliver the requisite efficiency. The durability of the material used is the most important factor but not nearly enough for the whole set of needs. The material needs to be breathable, sweat-wicking, water-resistant, easily cleanable, and insulating. So let’s dive deeper and look into the characteristics of various materials manufacturers use to make a basketball backpack.

Polyester

100% polyester is the most widely used activewear and backpack fabric. Manufacturers spend millions of dollars to innovate and register patented meshes of polyester to achieve a wide range of purposes. It took the lion’s share of the activewear market because of its durability, water resistance, thermoplasticity, and repairability. The only downside is that if it gets wet on a rainy day, it feels a little sticky. There is seemingly no limit to the ways you can shape it or style it. We definitely recommend it as a number one choice in backpacks.

Nylon

Nylon is inexpensive, durable, water-resistant, and lightweight. It can come in bright colors, so it is available in great variety. The only drawback is the synthesis process from which it is produced. The process creates many grades of nylon, and it is hard to judge if the given nylon is premium quality or disposable.

Vinyl

Perfect for styling and combining with other materials, vinyl enhances durability, water resistance, and sustainability. Unfortunately, it is impossible to repair if damaged, and we recommend that you should avoid it when looking for a long-term solution to your needs.

Other materials

Leather and canvas are also sometimes used to make basketball bags. It is not very efficient at keeping out the foul smell of sweat and is also not stretchable. Neoprene is the most durable of all, but it increases manufacturing costs. Due to these reasons, these materials are going extinct in backpacks, and only a few styles are available on the market.

Categorize All Your Gear for Storage Organization

The most common organization used in the latest basketball backpacks is as below:

Main compartment

This space is used to put in your fresh clothes, gear, phone, laptop, and other things. It is not for shoes or the ball.

Shoe compartment

It should be large enough to carry size 14 to size 15 shoes to avoid folding the shoes to fit in. This compartment must be isolated and insulated from other compartments because the smell from sweaty shoes and socks can spread quickly all over the backpack.

Ball compartment

Our favorite ball compartment is a strong mesh fabric with a zipper top. It themes the bag naturally and leaves space in the main compartment. The ball compartment must be isolated from the rest of the backpack through thick material because what happened with the ball on the basketball court should stay with the basketball.

Back and shoulder straps

The padding needed in the back and shoulder straps depends on how long do you walk carrying your basketball gear and how much does it weigh. It is better to hunt for ergonomic back padding and shoulder straps to protect the precious energy of your shoulders that is required on the basketball court.

Summing it All Up with the Fun Part: Aesthetics

Minimalist designs, mute colors, and brand logos have taken activewear design by storm. It is unique to basketball gear that the manufacturers have to consider the customer’s needs for customization and personalization. Most basketball backpacks are available in a wide range of color combinations with well-thought-out places for team branding and artwork.