Thinking back to this time, I still didn’t know about the ‘one bag travel’ movement. I had just watched ‘The Minimalists’ Netflix documentary and wanted everything I owned to fit into a backpack.

 

I got a job in September 2021 and in March 2022, I had decided that I needed a change in life. I had been living at home, strictly, for 2 years straight. My mom was battling cancer at the time too so it meant I wouldn’t go out often as I was scared I’d get her ill. Wanting a change, I decided to move countries. I had planned to move from the Uk, to Israel. There was a 6 month period where I had quit my job in March 2022 and my flight out the country was booked for September 2022.. In this time, I watched countless videos of other people who had moved abroad and the common theme I picked up on was: those who struggled brought the most stuff with them. My thought process was: I’m young and single, I want to meet loads of new people. Best way to do this is bring enough clothes for 1 week that could fit into a backpack and then do my washing once a week. Then rent loads of sublets from different people every 3-4 weeks so I can stay in different apartments, in different areas, making new and interesting friends.

 

This then led me to searching for the best travel backpack on YouTube and here is how I was inevitably opened up to the movement of ‘one bag travel’. I already understood the philosophy of one bag travel. However, until this point, I didn’t know all the intricacies that go into finding the best t-shirt for example. I just thought all t shirts are the same but then suddenly I learnt about different fabrics performing differently in different climates, and so on.

 

The first channel I became really obsessed with was Chase Reeves. It was more than just his style of reviewing products that I loved, it was his likeminded philosophy in travelling light. What watching Chase’s videos showed me was that there is travel gear designed for every aspect of one bag travel. For example, I didn’t know I needed the perfect travel underwear, until I watched Chase’s videos.

 

I had mapped out everything I needed to fit inside my one bag, now it came down to picking the perfect items to be inside my one bag, and the travel backpack that would carry it all together.

 

The bag I ended up using was: Osprey Daylite Expandable 26L + 6L (in the black color)

 

Clothes wise, here’s what I had planned and ended up buying:

 

**Tops:**

- 6 t-shirts - Uniqlo Airism Cotton T-Shirt (3x black/3x white)

- 3 non-iron buttoned shirts - Uniqlo Non-Iron Shirt (1x white/1x grey/1x blue)

- 1 zip-up hoodie - Rab nucleus hoodie in grey

- 1 down jacket - Rab Xenair Alpine Light Down Jacket

 

**Bottoms:**

- 2 pairs of pants/trousers with zipped pockets - Haglöfs rugged flex mountain pant (1x black/1x grey lite version)

- 2 pairs of shorts with zipped pockets (also used these for swimming) - Mammut Aenergy Light SO Shorts (1x black/1x grey)

 

**Underwear and Socks:**

- 7 boxers - Uniqlo airism boxers

- 1 pair of ankle socks (big mistake - will explain later) - cotton ankle socks

 

**Footwear:**

- 1 pair of barefoot sandals - FORCLAZ Bivouac Sandals - Waterproof - Rubber sole - MT500

- 1 pair of barefoot shoes - WHITIN Men's Barefoot Trail Running Shoes

 

**Accessories:**

- 1 flat cap - Stetson Texas Cotton Flat Cap with UV Protection 40+ 

 

Then everything I felt I needed in my bag included:

 

**Tech & Electronics:**

- 13-inch MacBook Air

- Over-ear wired earphones - Avantree Resolve - Wired Open-Ear Earbuds

- 10,000 mAh portable charger - Aukey

 

**Personal Care:**

- Toiletry bag (toothbrush/tweezers/shampoo, etc.)

- Beard trimmer (doubled as hair clippers to shave my head) – I wanted the most easy to maintain/minimalist haircut to simplify my life

- Travel towel - Matador Nano Dry Towel (Large)

- Blue light blocking glasses 

- Ear plugs

 

**Miscellaneous:**

- Notepad 

- Prayer Book

- Prayer Shawl

- 2 padlocks for the backpack zippers

 

It’s worth mentioning, at the time, my biggest focus was on weight. I wanted by bag to weigh under 7kg. In hindsight, my t-shirt choice could’ve been WAY lighter. I had heard about merino wool but just never decided to try it until 2023. But I wish I did sooner. As with everyone’s one bag journey, I watched a lot of content and then moulded, what I believed at the time, was the perfect one-bag setup.

 

I lived out of this exact one-bag setup for 7 months straight. I did 4 months in Tel Aviv, Israel and then lived 3 months in Greece on an island near Athens.

 

I ended up coming back to the UK after 7 months. That was when I started to research on improving the clothing setup I had. I didn’t buy new clothes when I came home so I was still using this clothing setup I had. But I had began researching how to dress more formally.

 

I realised when I was one bagging with my setup, the biggest thing I wish I had was more formal outfits. Whilst I loved the functionality of the zipped haglofs hiking trousers and whitin barefoot shoes that I could put in the washing machine to clean, when I would go out in Tel Aviv, I could not help but observe these dudes who were dressed super smart and thought they looked so cool. Nobody really educates you on the transition from teenager to adult with dressing more formally but I just picked it up as I’d go to work at the start-up I was working for and then out in the evening with friends, I kept spotting these well dressed guys and thought damn, I need to up my style game.

 

But before we move on, we need to talk about the 1 pair of ankle socks. Wow did I make a mistake. I’m laughing as I’m typing this. I thought that if I wore those Whitin barefoot shoes, because they had small, perforated holes in them, I thought my feet would air out naturally and I wouldn’t need socks. Boy was I wrong. There were times where I was walking for hours during the day and my feet smelt so bad. It was terrible. After the 7 months, I had to chuck the shoes out as they just smelt so bad even after washing them. The lesson I took from this is: wear socks with shoes, and if you wear merino socks with shoes then they will be amazing as absorbing the smell of your stinky feet whilst also preventing your shoes from getting smelly.

 

When I was back home, I found out about brands like Lululemon and bought a pair of second-hand ABC pants. This really opened up my eyes to being able to dress smart whilst retaining the functional element. It definitely made me evolve in how I saw one bag travel from a fashion point of view because I think the idea of having a one bag setup that allows you to always look incredibly smart whilst also retaining the functional element is such a powerful setup to have. 

 

I decided to try out merino wool clothing at this point too. I was researching different mens fashion YouTube channels and decided I wanted to replace all my t-shirts with polo shirts. I just felt this was an easy win to make my wardrobe already more formal. I found 100% merino wool polos on aliexpress for around $30 so I decided to go for them. The merino wool clothing I found in the UK was all super smart and ribbed, whilst I wanted the style that Western Rise and Wool and Prince was offering which was more on the Athleisure side. Luckily I found some of that style of aliexpress for a fraction of the price to experiment with.

 

After being home for around 4 months, I moved abroad back out to Greece for a business opportunity. This time, I restructured my setup and experimented using a 20-inch carry on suitcase as my one bag. I had a small backpack with a luggage pass-through sleeve I used to carry my tech and toiletries. But all my clothes went into the 20-inch suitcase. Here was the setup: 

 

I got the 20-inch suitcase from aliexpress and it was an aluminium material one that was lockable. I used the Cabin Max Manhattan as the backpack of choice. I paid approximately $90 for the aluminium suitcase and $40 for the backpack.

 

**Tops:**

- 6 short sleeve merino wool polo shirts - 4x I bought from Aliexpress (100% merino wool) + 2x I bought from Rohan (52% Merino 35% Lyocell 13% Polyamide)

- 2x short sleeve cotton polos - bought second hand - brand: Charles Tyrwhitt

- 1 non-iron buttoned shirts - Uniqlo Non-Iron Shirt (1x white)

- 1 jacket - Orlebar Brown Terrence Merino Wool Jacket (bought it second-hand)

 

**Bottoms:**

- 1 pairs of pants/trousers  - Lululemon slim ABC pant in Navy (bought it second-hand)

- 2 pairs of shorts with zipped pockets (also used these for swimming) - Comilaka Mens Running Gym Shorts (from Amazon for $15)

 

**Underwear and Socks:**

- 7 boxers - 100% merino wool boxers bought from Aliexpress

- 7 pair of socks - 100% merino wool ankle socks bought from Aliexpress

 

**Footwear:**

- 1 pair of everyday shoes - EasyMoc Merrimack Boat Sneaker

- 1 pair of minimalist loafers - Easymoc slip on loafers

- 1 pair of barefoot shoes for gym - Vivo Barefoot Primus Trail Knit

 

**Accessories:**

- 1 flat cap - Stetson Texas Cotton Flat Cap with UV Protection 40+ 

 

All the Tech & Electronics/Personal Care/Miscellaneous stuff stayed the same as the first trip except for the 2 padlocks for the backpack zippers.

 

—

 

The business opportunity in Greece fell short after around 6 weeks and I ended up back in the UK. I’m conscious that it may seem like the business opportunity lasted 6 weeks but I was working with the company for 2 months in the UK remotely, before heading out to Greece for 6 weeks.

 

I learnt a lot from my second time living in Greece. Possibly the biggest thing I learnt, was the performance of different fabrics in hot weather. Everyday was scorching hot and the days when I had to wear the two cotton polo shirts I brought, I felt so disgusting because of how thick they felt on me and how sticky they made feel. Contrast that with the lightweight Rohan merino wool polos, they felt so free and airy. I genuinely could not believe the difference in performance and the 100% merino wool polos I bought from Aliexpress performed somewhere in between as they were slightly heavier GSM in weight than the Rohan polos. I firmly believe this gave me a strong idea of the performance element of constructing a one bag setup. Because I experienced first hand, what it was like to use two different fabrics that performed so wildly different in hot weather.

 

I also learnt that I preferred having a travel backpack, like on my 7-month one bag adventure, than a 20-inch carry on suitcase. I have yet to experiment with one bagging with a duffle bag instead but the only reason I’d consider a duffle over a backpack is I think it looks cooler. But purely from a functional standpoint, nothing beats having a backpack where you can put both straps on your back and carry it for ages without needing to put it down.

 

The one item in that second one bag setup that caused a huge one bag fashion evolution for me was the Orlebar Brown Terrence Merino Wool Jacket. I found the orlebar brown jacket by complete fluke. I was looking for a merino wool jacket to bring as a warm layer in the evenings if it got cold in the winter. And when I typed in merino wool jacket on eBay, someone was selling this Orlebar Brown Terrence Merino Wool Jacket and the title included ‘RRP £599’. I immediately became intrigued and went onto their website to check if this was true. Yes, it was. I’d heard of Gucci and Louis Vuitton before, but never Orlebar Brown. I became fascinated by their smart clothing but also the quality that they put into their items. I became so eager to try out this second-hand jacket which was listed at £150, but I was not sure if it would fit me. I convinced the seller to let me return it if it didn’t fit but I was convinced it would. And wow, I can’t explain the feeling when I first put it on. The sleeves are 100% heavyweight merino wool and the construction is top class. I felt so good wearing it and immediately decided to keep it.

 

———————

 

After the opportunity in Greece, I kept thinking that even though there are so many brands selling products that could be used for one bag travel, no brand had perfectly nailed every type of product. Because I had tested out different gear and had a vision for what I believed to be the best products for one bag travel, I made the decision that I’m going to create, what I believe to be, the best products for one bag travel. So not only the best travel backpack, but everything that goes inside the travel backpack.

 

It started with this vision and then as I’ve been working on this backpack for over a year, the vision has grown to so much more where we could create a community that helped spread the benefits of having more, with less. And reducing the number of people that waste their money on cheap-quality consumerist goods that bring to value to their lives.

 

Because this post is all about where the idea of Almond Oak began, I’m not going to go into my entire story of entrepreneurship as that would be another massive article in its own respect. But to shed some background, I bought and sold designer streetwear fashion like supreme and air Jordan’s throughout my teenage years. I didn’t make a ton of money from it, but rather I got to have a constant rotation of wearing the latest ‘cool’ clothes whilst making a small bit of profit on the side. Then from 2021-2024, I had explored several online businesses, some of them having a small amount of success but none of them really making me feel like this is what I should be spending my time on.

 

For example, I ran a marketing agency that was creating TikTok clips for long form podcasts that were on YouTube. Sure, you can make some money doing that, but I don’t want to contribute to this short-form content epidemic where the majority of these videos bring you no value and just suck dopamine out of your body. 

 

My biggest desire, is that I want to bring value to the world. And some people do that through medicine by becoming a doctor, or education by becoming a teacher. But my idea is to create the best possible products in each category of one bag travel, that not only helps existing one bag travellers, travel better. But rather can also open up the wider public to the idea of owning less items that are of better quality and focus more on things that truly matter in life. 

 

This is why I don’t want to release 5 different versions of the travel backpack. I want to release what I believe is the best travel backpack and then create the best travel jacket, and then the next product, and so on.

 

Once I’ve released all the best products I plan to create (which I estimate to be around 15 items), then I want to focus on spreading the message of one bag travel. Helping people give it a go so that they can experience how they can have more, with less. I also want to connect other one bag travellers together to share experiences with one another. Go on group trips. Explore, travel and live life.

 

Of course, I plan to spread the message of one bag travel as I’m launching each product for Almond Oak. But the message I’m trying to convey is that my goal with this brand is not to continue to release more products for more profit. It’s to release the perfect product for each category, and once that’s done. That’s it. Then just continue to spread the idea of one bag travel. And I believe that once people experience one bag travel, it will naturally permeate through more areas of their life. They may decide that they don’t need all these apps on their phone that distracts them from being present. They may decide they don’t need so much ‘stuff’ in their house and decide to declutter. They may decide to spend less money on consumerist goods that bring them no long term value other than that 1-second dopamine spike and they place the order for it.

 

I hope I’ve made my vision for Almond Oak clear. And I hope you can see that I’m trying to bring value to the world in my own way. If the travel backpack and future products I release don’t resonate with you but you still believe in the vision, you can still support by coming to one bag meetups or even by emailing me to say hi. 

 

It’s worth adding: I’m not a big fan of social media at all. I deleted all of my social media back in 2021 as I think it’s the worst thing that’s happened to modern society. But I can also appreciate that it’s the most powerful way in reaching people who share the same vision as you and connecting with them, wherever we live in the world. For this reason, I've created my social media accounts back up to help support with growing Almond Oak and I also intend to record videos/podcasts in the future too so you can get to know me more and what I am about.

 

I’m always up for connecting and meeting new people too so if any of my story resonates then please do click on the ‘just say hi’ and send me a message (or here: dylan[at]almondoak[dot]com) - I’m not sharing my email only because it gets scraped by bots and then I end up receiving a ton of spam emails. But if you fill out the ‘just say hi’ form then we can have a chat via email :)

 

If you’ve made it this far, thank you so much for reading my story.

 

I hope you can help support my dream in making the vision for Almond Oak a reality.

 

-Dylan @ Almond Oak