The best ski boot bags in 2024, tried and tested
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Whether you’re a weekend warrior who routinely schleps their ski gear to the local hill day after day or a jet-setter prepping for an epic ski vacation, one thing’s for sure: You’re going to want a sturdy ski boot bag to keep your stuff safe and organized along the way.
The good news is that there are dozens of companies offering ski boot bags in a variety of shapes, sizes and feature sets at a wide range of price points. The bad news? Sorting through them all to find one that’s actually suitable for your needs can be a total snoozefest.
That’s why we set out to test the best ski and snowboard boot bags on the market this year. We scoured online review sites, browsed top brands and checked out Amazon’s immense database to see what folks were enjoying, then we ordered 13 of the best name-brand and under-the-radar ski boot bags and put them through the wringer in a series of controlled at-home tests. We took the best of the bunch out skiing in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains and assessed how they performed in the field when we were chilly and wearing gloves. After all that testing, here are the three best ski boot bags for every type of skier (and budget).
Dakine Boot Locker DLX 70L
Best ski boot bag
This ski boot bag has a ton of room to stash all your gear, and it is incredibly durable. Designed to function as a duffel bag or backpack, the Dakine Boot Locker DLX 70L has great organization and some useful features typically exclusive to more expensive bags. At under $100, we think this is the best bag for most people.
Thule RoundTrip 80L
Best splurge ski boot bag
Designed for one person to haul a mountain of gear yet large enough to organize the bare essentials for two skiers, Thule’s RoundTrip 80L excelled in every one of our tests, from abrasive scrapes to shoving it full of winter clothing multiple times. It’s pricey, but it’s padded and full featured, and it boasts loads of thoughtful pockets too.
Thule RoundTrip 45L
Best carry-on ski boot bag
Full of awesome features — drain holes, backpack straps, a fleece goggle holder and a waterproof step pad — as well as airplane-specific ones like holes for a TSA-approved security lock, Thule’s RoundTrip 45L is the ideal ski boot bag for those traveling afar to shred. Bonus points for actually being comfortable to carry too.
Best ski boot bag: Dakine Boot Locker DLX 70L
$85 at Amazon or $110 at Dakine
At first glance, we weren’t sure if we were going to like Dakine’s hybrid duffel/backpack boot bag design, but this 70-liter marvel won us over with its excellent volume, great price point and fantastic waterproofing.
Though its compartments aren’t laid out quite as well as our splurge winner (boots are stored in the Dakine’s separate rear waterproof section, which is a smidge more awkward to open and cannot fit two sets of boots like the Thule can), Dakine’s Boot Locker DLX boasts an impressive 70 liters of storage space, which is plenty to stash your goggles, helmet, shell, puffy and small extras like mittens or clean socks. We also loved that the bag came with a separate helmet-shaped zippered pocket that could keep my head protection and goggles separate from my clothing and wet boots. A small interior mesh pocket was also handy for my wallet and snacks.
I was further impressed by the Boot Locker’s padding and durability, especially when compared to other bags priced around $100. In fact, its fabric held up as well as the more expensive bags we tested. Stitched with sturdy 600-denier polyester, this duffel performed better in the rock wall scrape and ski pole stab abrasion tests than the other budget options on our list. It also comes equipped with two lightly padded backpack straps for those who prefer to haul their gear on their backs rather than with handles.
And unlike the cheaper bags we tested, Dakine uses a more vertically stacked bag design, which is much more comfortable to wear as a backpack than its too wide counterparts because it centers the heaviest of your cargo — your boots and helmet — on top of your hips and shoulders (like a backpacking pack), which helps you stay balanced when walking around on ice and snow. I appreciated this because I’m often walking a couple of blocks to get to the lifts at my local hill.
Though you won’t find bougie extras like fleece-lined pockets or drain holes in this boot bag, it does provide one pretty awesome premium feature that came in handy when I toted it up to Eldora for a day: a zip-out waterproof step pad for changing in the parking lot that only the Thule, Dakine, Burton and Backcountry bags had. Say goodbye to cold, wet feet on the dirty snow when you’re changing your boots.
I also loved that, unlike most of the bags, the Boot Locker had a large, helmet-specific pocket to the side of its clothing storage area that made grabbing my head shield and goggles a cinch when I hopped out of my van.
The things we didn’t love so much about this bag? It lacks drain holes for melted snow, and it has only four pockets. Sure, its waterproof boot area will keep your other valuables dry, and the pockets it does provide are ample enough to store loads of extra clothing and gear, but I’d have loved to see one or two more useful extras at this $100 price point.
With a large 70 liters of storage space, an incredibly waterproof boot compartment that doubles as a step pad, as well as a helmet-specific pocket, Dakine’s ultra-durable Boot Locker DLX wowed us with its user-friendliness and comfortable carry, especially for its affordable $100 price tag. Just don’t expect premium features like drain holes or fleece-lined goggle pockets.
Best splurge ski boot bag: Thule RoundTrip 80L
$170 at Amazon and Thule
The first thing that stood out to me about Thule’s incredible 80-liter RoundTrip was its epic size. It’s large enough to stash a set of ski boots and a whole mess of additional clothing and gear. (During testing, I managed to shove in a helmet, mittens, base layers, insulated bibs, a huge down puffy, a waterproof shell, ski socks and goggles, and I could have easily fit in another large jacket.) This was the largest of all the bags I tested — second was the 70-liter Dakine Boot Locker — and it easily fit the most gear while providing awesome pockets to help keep me organized. I was impressed because, at $170, this was one of the more expensive bags I tested, but it’s large enough to store a long trip’s worth of ski clothes, organize literally everything you’ll need in the trunk of your car or haul boots and jackets for two people, if necessary. It was the only bag I tested that would comfortably fit two pairs of boots, plus a few small extras like goggles and clean socks.
This bag also excelled in my durability tests, in which I stabbed it 10 times with a ski pole and scraped it as hard as I could against a rock wall 10 times in the same spot to mimic what might occur in a rowdy car trunk full of gear. I was pleased to see that the bag looked as good as new after I tried my darnedest to mess it up. (Most bags performed quite well in these tests; the cheaper bags were the only ones that showed visible scuffs.)
This bag also had the best pocket design of all the ones we tested. With six zippered pockets and three elastic pouches, there were oodles of spots to store a variety of gear, from smaller fare like gloves and hand warmers to a fleece-lined area that could hold both my goggles and helmet, the only bag to provide this feature. A large, waterproof center area fit my clunkiest resort boots, a shell and a puffy with ease, and a large side pouch (opposite the helmet area) could store a change of street clothes or, in my case, a fluffy insulated bib and a pair of clean socks.
Where Thule’s fabulous ski boot bags really excel, however, is in their little extras that you aren’t likely to find elsewhere on the market. The RoundTrip 80L has not only some thoughtful touches like drain holes for melted snow, fleece-lined pockets, mesh pouches and mitten-friendly zippers but also a waterproof, zip-out pad I could stand on to keep my feet dry when changing shoes and socks in the frigid parking lot of my local ski hill. Bravo, Thule.
Though Thule’s 80-liter RoundTrip offers stellar padding, great volume and thoughtfully placed pockets, it stands out above the herd with its awesome extras, including a waterproof step pad and great drain holes. Big enough to be a small bag for two skiers or a large bag for one, this is our favorite splurge-worthy ski boot bag of 2024.
Best carry-on ski boot bag: Thule RoundTrip 45L
$130 at Amazon and Thule
Sometimes you don’t want or need a massive 80-liter ski boot bag because you’re hoping to haul your precious boots in an airplane cabin or you’re cramming into a sedan with a gaggle of kids or buddies. When you aren’t trying to load up a full trip’s worth of winter clothing along with your boots, check out Thule’s well-padded 45-liter RoundTrip boot bag, which isn’t petite enough to be a personal item but will easily fit in the overhead compartments of most planes (the soft-sided bag measures 13 by 12 by 18.5 inches).
In my tests, the RoundTrip 45L was every bit as durable as its larger sibling, but it’s designed with compactness in mind. As such, it offers a fleece-lined goggle pocket, a waterproof compartment for your boots and a larger pocket with a curved zipper that can stow a helmet and jacket with ease. Using Thule’s pockets and organizational system was intuitive and easy as well. The waterproof compartment stashed my boots safely, while the curved zipper could fold around my helmet and assorted sundries. A smaller side pocket was great for storing a couple of protein bars.
One of the things I most loved about this bag was its preservation of many of Thule’s fabulous features — drain holes, a zip-out step pad for changing, a fleece-lined goggle area — while still maintaining its airplane-friendly, 45-liter size. For its compact volume, I found this to be the most full-featured, easiest-to-use bag of the 13 I tested. It was also the most comfortable backpack-style boot bag to carry of the bunch, offering adjustable, padded straps and a chest buckle so you can trek from the car to the slopes without feeling the burn.
Reasonably priced at $130 for a top-of-the-line brand, Thule’s RoundTrip 45L is the ideal carry-on ski boot bag and will help you safely haul your slope-side essentials.
Everything you need to know about ski boot bags
As you might have guessed, there’s a huge variety of features and design components to think about when researching the perfect ski boot bag to meet your specific needs. From pockets designed to keep expensive gear safe to heated compartments to warm your boots on the drive to the ski hill, here’s what to be aware of when shopping around.
First and foremost, ask yourself precisely what you intend on hauling around most days you’ll be heading out to ski. Are you driving a few hours to get to the resort, or do you live 30 minutes away and need just a dedicated space to organize your belongings? If you want to carry multiple jackets, a change of clothes and your ski or snowboard boots, look at bags that are 70 to 80 liters. Do you think you’ll likely take this boot bag on an airplane and carry it with you into the main cabin? If so, you’ll need a bag that’s no more than 50 liters and measures less than 22 by 14 by 9 inches so you can safely stash it in the overhead bin.
If you’ve got some extra cash to spend and enjoy ski racing or you live in an incredibly cold climate, splurging on a well-rated heated ski boot bag might be worth the extra dough. If this is you, check out Kulkea’s Thermal Trekker ($280), which offers excellent padding and pockets for your favorite winter items.
In terms of fabrics, the top brands all use abrasion-resistant polyester in a high thickness — 600 denier or so — so that the bags can survive being tossed around in car trunks with heavy gear weighing them down. Top brands like Dakine and Thule also tend to offer limited lifetime warranties that protect your purchase from manufacturer defects that you may encounter down the road. It’s also important to look at the bag’s boot-specific compartment to see if it offers ventilation and waterproofing for when you’re done shredding that fresh powder and don’t want to soak through your other clothing.
Last but certainly not least are the fun extra features that ski boot bag companies tack on to make their products stand out. In my opinion, this is what separates the great bags from the so-so bags, because having everything organized and ready to go is essential for those early-morning patrol runs. My favorite bags I tested for this article included special fleece-lined pockets for goggles and helmets, mitten-friendly zippers and drain holes for when the snow finally melts off my boots on the long drive home. My favorite feature of all time was found on all three of our category winners: a zip-out step pad to make changing back into your dry shoes in the chilly parking lot a breeze.
How we tested
Our editorial team came up with an extensive, multi-question rubric, complete with controlled at-home tests to suss out the most durable, full-featured and easy-to-organize ski boot bags on the market today.
We put a special focus on each bag’s volume, number of pockets, durability, carry comfort, price and special features, then ranked it based on its score in every category. I packed and unpacked each bag multiple times with real-world items that I frequently bring to the resort in the Rockies where I ski. For reference, when assessing a bag’s usable space, here’s what I attempted to stuff into it:
Dynafit Radical Pro Alpine Touring Boots (if the bag had room for two pairs of boots)
Here are the specific tests and rubric categories we used to assess the 13 ski boot bags we tested for this article:
Size
Volume: We assessed the listed volume for each of the ski boot bags tested.
Carry-on compliance: After looking at the stated volume, we looked at the bag’s size and malleability to see if it meets airline requirements and would fit in most overhead carry-on bins.
Pockets: We counted the number of pockets, elastic pouches and mesh stuff sacks for wet gear on each of the ski boot bags tested.
Clothing stuff test: Starting with the essentials — boots, jacket, goggles, helmet — we stuffed as many winter clothing layers as possible into each bag.
Durability
Abrasion scrape test: Every ski boot bag we tested was scuffed 10 times, as hard as we could manage, against a rough stone wall.
Ski pole test: Each bag was stabbed hard 10 different times with a ski pole.
Padding check: We evaluated each of the ski boot bags for both the padding they provided to the boots and gear contained therein.
General build quality: All zippers, seams, grommets and special elements were assessed for their quality and durability. The main zipper of each ski boot bag was zipped up and down rapidly 50 times.
Comfort
Straps: All carry straps and haul loops were assessed on the bags for their durability, padding and grip.
Padding: The padding provided where a user would touch or haul the bags was evaluated in the straps, hip belts and back panel areas.
Backpack carry: All the ski boot bags with backpack straps were stuffed to the limit and carried on a five-minute walk to assess how comfortably the heavy gear can be transported.
Extra features
Extra features: We assessed each bag to see how many features it had and how helpful the features actually were in the field. These included drain holes, fleece-lined goggle pockets, helmet carry pouches, key clips, heating elements and dedicated step pads.
Price
Online cost: We looked at the average cost of each ski boot bag, disregarding sale prices, and compared it with others on our list within the same size and features category. We weighed this category heavily in the testing rubric to help bring the best overall value bag to our readers.
Other ski boot bags we tested
Backcountry Ski & Snowboard Boot Bag
$199 $159 at Backcountry
This durable, comfortable-to-carry ski boot backpack was at the top of our list when it came to great pockets, waterproofing and extra features. Unfortunately, with its price tag of $199, we didn’t feel like it excelled enough to beat out the cheaper Thule RoundTrip 80L ($170). However, if you want to spend the extra money — or if you can find it on sale — the Backcountry bag is truly great due to its funky colors, fantastic organization and comfortable backpack carry.
Burton Gig Boot 48L Pack
$115 at Burton
A good friend specifically recommended Burton’s Gig Boot 48L Pack to me for this article, and I was a huge fan of its cool colorways, solid padding, external webbing and comfortable carry. It’s definitely worth looking at if your budget is around $100 and you’d prefer something smaller than Dakine’s 70-liter Boot Locker or want to save a few bucks on a solid carry-on-compatible bag.
Dakine Boot 50L Pack
$80 $60 at Backcountry
Though I appreciated the fun colors, step pad and carry-on-friendly size offered in this backpack-style bag, it wasn’t padded enough to win our airplane-friendly category against Thule’s RoundTrip 45L. I also found that its backpack straps were less comfortable than both the Thule and the other Dakine winner. However, at $80, it’s a decent bag at a great price point.
Athletico Ski Boot Bag
$45 $26 at Amazon
Listen, if all you want is an ultra-affordable boot bag to safely store in your trunk and organize your gear, you could do a lot worse than the Athletico Ski Boot Bag. With backpack straps, comfortable haul loops and decent pockets, it offers many of the same features of more expensive bags, but it’s wrapped in less durable fabric. That being said, it offers little in the way of padding, and we found the zippers to be a bit flimsy in our tests.
Athalon Everything Ski & Snowboard Boot Bag
$70 at Amazon
This awesome little ski boot bag by Athalon scored close to the Dakine Boot Locker in our tests, but Dakine’s stellar company warranty and more durable fabric nudged it ahead in our rubric. If you’re really itching to save $30, the Athalon Everything bag is a solid choice. It provides wearers with a decently comfortable carry, a bit of protective padding around their gear, great pockets and boot compartments with both vents and drain holes.
L.L.Bean Adventure Pro Ski Boot Backpack
$129 at L.L.Bean
L.L.Bean’s Adventure Pro Ski Boot Backpack serves up a killer number of pockets, durable fabric, a fleece goggle pouch and drain holes. Unfortunately, we didn’t find it as comfortable to haul around as its slimmer competitor, the RoundTrip 45L, which costs about the same.
Thule RoundTrip 60L
$170 at Thule and Amazon
If you’re looking for an awesome Thule ski boot bag but you prefer a large backpack style over the duffel that won our best splurge category, the RoundTrip 60L is worth a look. However, it lacks drain holes and fits only one pair of boots. Considering it’s the same price as its larger sibling, the RoundTrip 80L, it didn’t score quite high enough to win in our testing rubric.
Kulkea Boot Trekker Boot Bag 70L
$180 at Kulkea and Amazon
There was so much that I loved about this 70-liter bag by Kulkea — a fleece-lined goggle pouch, helmet carry, abrasion-resistant fabric and boot vents — but its higher price tag of $180 made it difficult to justify it as a winner against Thule’s RoundTrip 80L, which offered more comfortable haul straps and similar features that were more intuitive to use for $10 less.
Kulkea Thermal Trekker
$280 at Kulkea and Amazon
If money is no object, definitely check out Kulkea’s Thermal Trekker. It’s truly the Cadillac of ski boot bags on the market today. Made with a heating element that comes with both car and wall chargers, this nifty backpack warms your boots the morning before a big day in fresh powder. It also boasts a full set of premium features, such as boot vents, a hip belt, helmet carry and a fleece pocket. The only catch? Its high price tag of $280, which was over $100 more than our splurge pick for a niche bag best suited for racers.
High Sierra Trapezoid Boot Bag
From $61 at Amazon or $70 at High Sierra
Though this bag comes in several unique colorways (think Cosmos and Black Steam), its utter lack of padding, flimsy zippers and less durable fabric made it hard to justify its $70 price tag, especially when cheaper bags like the Athletico provided more padding and user-friendly features.
Note: The prices above reflect the retailers' listed price at the time of publication.
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