Worn & Wound
Review: the Matador 35L Global Travel Pack
Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to meet some of the team from Matador and was let in on a massive secret: Matador had plans to replace almost its entire line of soft goods. Unlike other manufacturers, this wouldn’t be a slow rollout or gradual discontinuation of lines; it was a hard stop, set for early August, almost an “end of an era,” if you will. Among the list of packs that were nearing their end was the GlobeRider line, which has become a regular in my rotation of bags. Thankfully, the Matador team had production samples on hand and was able to walk me through the changes and dispel my worries, and I’ve been putting one of these new models through its paces for about two months now. Back in June of 2025, I took Matador’s GlobeRider 35-liter on an almost two-week-long trip to Atlanta and Alaska and was genuinely impressed by the bag’s performance. In my initial review, I mentioned that while being larger than I needed, the Globerider never felt out of place, whether I was using it for EDC, bringing home groceries, or hauling around a hefty bit of camera kit. Since then, I’ve taken the GR35 on a weekend trip to Paris, used it countless times to haul gear and groceries throughout the city, and it’s earned itself a constant place in my small but packed gear closet. Having spent nearly two months with the new GTP, it has become clear to me that while this bag is something new, a significant amount of previous design DNA has remained. Most notably...
