An elegant hard-shell crossbody
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The Away Stadium Bag is everything a stadium bag should be: sturdy, practical, easy to carry, and capable of protecting your cargo. But it’s also everything that most of these bags aren’t: stylish, chic, and versatile beyond the stadium.
This mini crossbody bag features hard-shell casing similar to that of Away’s signature luggage. It’s sturdy, practical, and easy to carry for stadium events, travel, and more.
Available with five strap colors, the Away Stadium Bag is made from the same hard-shell polycarbonate that the company uses for its popular luggage. The Stadium Bag has a smooth zipper opening and a thick crossbody strap that extends to 53 inches. I was able to carry much more than its 5-by-3-by-7-inch size suggests, including a phone, a card holder, keys, sunglasses, and a lip balm.
The Away Stadium Bag easily fits a digital camera along with other essentials. Ruthie Darling/NYT Wirecutter
Because of this bag’s hard exterior, it can get noisy as the contents rattle around and hit the casing, but the sound didn’t bother me, and it probably wouldn’t be an issue in loud crowds. The bag will show wear and tear, much like its luggage counterparts, but in the two weeks I tested it (and smacked it around), it acquired no major scratches or denting.
Perhaps most importantly, it can work for a variety of other purposes too. By simply unhooking the straps, you can easily transform it into a travel case for toiletries, makeup, skin-care items, or other essentials that are prone to spillage, so it’s a perfect companion for out-of-town events. I was able to pack my usual travel skin-care and makeup routine in this bag with some room to spare. And once you’re home, you can use it as an everyday case for makeup or commuting essentials.
A budget bag that looks fancier than it is
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The combination of size, price, and design is what makes the Wrangler Clear Cross Body Stadium Bag a real standout. As one tester described it, this bag resembles a school lunch box, with its rectangular shape and utilitarian, on-the-go size. But its sleek details and modern straps make it a chic lunch box, one that you actually want to carry around.
Available in nine colors, this lunch-box-like stadium bag is classic and chic, yet it doesn’t sacrifice on practicality or price.
The bag’s polyurethane-leather trim and sides make it look more sophisticated than your average clear bag. A few other testers and I also appreciated the subdued branding on this bag. Though the top zipper closure was a tad narrow, it was one of the smoothest among the models we tested.
The Wrangler Stadium Bag fits my 14-ounce Stanley Cup and a digital camera. Ruthie Darling/NYT Wirecutter
Capacity is what truly sets this bag apart from the other options. At 9 by 3 by 6.5 inches, it was able to accommodate a 14-ounce (7.24-inch-tall) Stanley tumbler with room to spare for keys, a card holder, a lip balm, and even a disposable camera. And even when full, the bag never felt bulky, whether I wore it on my shoulder or across my chest, no matter how much weight I added. That was largely due to the wide and soft straps, which did not pinch or pull on my body.
Ruthie Darling/NYT Wirecutter
Much like the Away Stadium Bag, this Wrangler model can double as a toiletries bag for travel (if you remove the straps) or as an everyday-cargo holder inside a backpack or a large work tote. It’s not the biggest stadium-bag pick here, yet I found that it could hold twice as many items as my other favorites.
A classic, cute fanny pack
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A good ol’ fanny pack is a staple for any concert, festival, or game day, and JanSport’s Clear Waistpack is a classic you can rely on.
It’s just a no-frills fanny pack that happens to meet stadium security policies and is versatile enough for hands-free fun beyond game day.
At 12.5 by 6 by 3 inches, this fanny pack is technically half an inch longer than stadium-bag policy suggestions, but online reviews confirm that it’s not a dealbreaker for going past security. Its size and silhouette are its best attributes. Even when it’s filled to the brim, it retains a flat profile that’s comfortable to wear; this also makes it easy to style as a crossbody bag, which I found particularly useful when biking. Testers also liked the adjustable strap, which extends to 42 inches, as it fits a wide range of bodies comfortably, both across the chest and around the waist and hips.
This bag can be worn across the chest or hips. Ruthie Darling/NYT Wirecutter
The fanny pack holds my keys, sunscreen, and an Instax camera without feeling bulky. Ruthie Darling/NYT Wirecutter
At $20, this waist bag is the type of affordable, no-second-thoughts purchase you can make just a few days before a concert or a soccer match (though the cost of faster shipping directly from JanSport does add up). The only downside of this bag is the color selection, which is quite limited, so if you’re seeking a specific colorway, you may have to look elsewhere.
A luxe clear handbag with a lock feature
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The Coach Stadium Swinger Bag is priced more like a handbag than a piece of plastic, but it has the features and design to justify its considerable price.
This is the best looks-like-an-actual-handbag stadium bag we could find. Its versatile design, along with its lock feature, leather trim, and two different-size straps, justifies the price.
This bag comes with two different straps: a short, shoulder-ready strap and a longer, adjustable crossbody strap. And switching between the two is easy, as testers found the process to be the smoothest clip-on-and-off across all the bags. It’s also well-sized, at 9.25 by 5.5 by 2.75 inches, for both stadium activities and everyday life, fitting on-the-go items such as a phone, a battery pack, an earbuds case, and a small wallet with some room to spare.
The turnlock feature sets this bag apart. Ruthie Darling/NYT Wirecutter
The pièce de résistance, however, is the turnlock feature, located on the side of the bag, which secures the zipper in place for extra protection. It gave me peace of mind when I was walking through big crowds.
Ruthie Darling/NYT Wirecutter
The bag is trimmed with leather, which enhances the look and the overall durability of the bag. However, this means you shouldn’t soak it or submerge it in water (for cleaning or Taylor Swift rain-show purposes), as you can do with other options. In addition, the opening is rather small, so you may have to get clever in stuffing it with essentials, but that wasn’t a dealbreaker for us.
