We’ve always believed that everyday carry isn’t solely about what you carry—how you carry your gear matters too. After seeing thousands of everyday carry photos and pocket dumps from all over the globe for over 10 years, we knew the invaluable utility of keeping your gear organized with everything in its place. We also knew how important it was to keep things within arms reach in a way that wouldn’t weigh you down when you’re on the go.
With these ideas in mind, we partnered with Manhattan Portage to create the Atlas Sling: a hybrid gear organizer pouch/sling bag, built tough using brand-name materials and hardware produced by a company with decades of experience making internationally renowned bags and luggage under their belt. After a successful Indiegogo campaign for the initial run of the bag back in 2019 and listening to plenty of customer feedback, we went back to the drawing board to make the Atlas Sling an even better way to carry smarter.
We’re excited to announce the all-new Atlas Sling V2: built with the same design DNA that made the original Atlas Sling a success, but tweaked with feedback-driven optimizations resulting in a compact, yet even more versatile everyday carry solution.
Feedback-Driven Design: Atlas Sling V1 vs V2 Differences
While it isn’t immediately visible upon first glance, the new Atlas Sling brings with it a slew of new features, an optimized internal layout, increased overall capacity to help you carry your essentials, and more:
More volume to carry bulkier gear
You asked, and we listened! While the original Atlas Sling was designed to accommodate flatter EDC items like pocket knives, wallets, and pens, some users found things would get a bit cramped when carrying bulkier items like laptop chargers, power banks, or compact cameras. To accommodate these essentials, we expanded the “spine” of the new Atlas Sling V2 by a third to give a bit more depth to the bag while keeping the overall profile just as compact. The extra breathing room helps carry a fuller loadout without stressing the zipper or pressing against other items in the bag, making your essentials easier to retrieve when you need them. The expanded spine also helps accommodate up to three pens more easily.
More loops and padding where it counts
The left hand side notebook slip pocket now also features some padding to protect against more rigid gear pressing into it from the other side. The central loop on the left-side webbing grid has been expanded to twice the width, giving you some versatility to carry wider gear in addition to the double-width loops towards the bottom of the bag. It comes in handy when you want to distribute the weight of a wider item higher up into the bag for a more balanced load. Finally, the removal of the mesh pocket grants easier access to use the double-width loop for securing bulkier items on the right side.
Pass-through rear compartment with stowable strap and tuck-away handlebar straps for bike commuting
With the reworked rear pocket, this also gave us room for a pass-through design. Now you can simply unbuckle the shoulder strap and stash it behind the mesh pocket when you want to use the Atlas Sling V2 as a pouch organizer. Before, you would need to remove the strap altogether, which halved its utility if you wanted to use it as a sling bag later. While you could also stash the detached strap in one of the bag’s compartments, that took up precious cargo space, which is no longer an issue with this redesign. Also hidden away in this pass-through space are two self-adhering hook-and-loop strips which can be used to attach the Atlas Sling V2 to a bicycle or to attach other gear to the bag in a pinch.
Built to Outlast: Functional Fabrics and High-end Hardware
Along with changes to the Atlas Sling inside and out, it’s back and better than ever in brand new colors: Charcoal Grey and Olive Green, in addition to the original Black. The bag is still constructed from heavy duty 1680D CORDURA® Ballistic Nylon on the exterior, hi-vis 420D nylon in Manhattan Portage’s signature red color, and custom YKK brand hardware.
Heavy duty CORDURA nylon exterior: We use 1680D CORDURA® Ballistic Nylon for its toughness, abrasion resistance, and proven reliability in the field. Now available in three classic colors, there’s an Atlas Sling V2 to suit your style and setup.
Smooth, hi-vis nylon interior: The Atlas Sling V2 keeps its 420D nylon interior. The signature red color improves contrast and visibility of your gear for quick, at-a-glance identification. The lighter weight 420D nylon is still durable without adding unnecessary bulk, and the lower density makes for a smoother surface to avoid snags and friction when retrieving your gear.
Custom Japanese YKK zippers and hardware: Designed in NYC and made for urban carry, the Atlas Sling V2 features YKK-brand zippers with custom rectangular pull tabs engraved with Manhattan’s iconic city skyline as a nod to its roots. To enable the versatility of the Atlas Sling V2’s hybrid sling/pouch design, we rely on carefully chosen hardware from YKK. The strap’s anchoring clips and central quick release buckle all swivel to move comfortably with your body in any configuration and can withstand repeated use when transforming the bag from a pouch organizer to a sling.
Seatbelt webbing strap and modular mount system: The removable strap’s 1“ width helps evenly distribute most EDC loadouts comfortably, while its smooth seatbelt material reduces abrasion on your clothes as you sling the bag forward and back or adjust its length on the fly. The same webbing fixed to the front of the bag lets you mount MOLLE-compatible pouches or other lightweight gear, adding further modularity to the bag.
Carry Your Way: Pouch Organizer or Sling Bag
The combination of its compact profile, modular hardware and strap, as well as its low-profile internal organization gives the Atlas Sling V2 the flexibility to function as a pouch organizer in a larger bag, or as a standalone sling bag for managing your pocket overflow.
Atlas Sling V2 as a Crossbody Bag: With all the essentials we rely on every day, sometimes our pockets just aren’t enough. For the days we need to carry a little more, the Atlas Sling functions as a nimble, low-profile crossbody bag you can wear on your back or up front. The included adjustable, removable strap an off-set D-rings let you wear the bag in multiple ways. It’s optimized to be worn cinched high and tight for a secure fit to your back in an ergonomic vertical orientation. When accessing your gear, the quick-adjust D-ring on the front quickly loosens some slack into the strap, letting you sling the bag forward and have it rest comfortably near waist level in a convenient landscape orientation as you reach in for your gear.
Atlas Sling V2 as an EDC Pouch Organizer: When we’re packing even more, you can opt out of the strap and use its robust internal webbing grid to consolidate your gear as a pouch organizer, then slip it into your main bag for the day. And with the newly redesigned rear pass-through compartment, you don’t need to completely remove the strap to do so—just unclip it and stow the straps behind the mesh zip compartment in case you need to wear the bag on your person. The mesh back pocket also makes for a convenient quick-access pocket that you can identify at a glance.
Bonus: Atlas Sling V2 as a Bike Bag: Manhattan Portage also wanted to continue serving the bike commuter community, so they included tuck-away handlebar straps in the rear section of the bag for added cycling functionality. This new feature adds another dimension to how you can carry the Atlas Sling, especially if you bike to get around town often. The addition of self-adhering hook-and-loop strips to the rear section of the bag lets you secure the pouch to your bike handlebars, giving you easy access to your essentials when you’re riding around. If you don’t commute by bike, the loops are useful as additional attachment points for other lightweight gear, like a carabiner or keyring.
New Features, New Colors, Now in Stock
We’re excited to bring the Atlas Sling back to our community of fellow EDC enthusiasts with a new and improved design in classic Black and two new colors: Charcoal Grey and Olive Green. Manhattan Portage stands by their design and craftsmanship, and continues to offer their limited lifetime warranty on the new Atlas Sling V2.
You can order your Atlas Sling V2 from Manhattan Portage at the link below, available now. Everyday Carry readers can enjoy a 20% discount off the new Atlas Sling V2 by entering promo code EDC20 at checkout.
