However, soft coolers are often smaller and meant to be carried by one person — potentially for longer distances. With this in mind, you’ll want to think carefully about igloo trailmate portability. Igloo’s Outdoor Pro Snapdown Backpack has a deep, wide main compartment with insulated walls, plus various pockets and even a handy built-in bottle opener.
We appreciated the adjustable padded shoulder straps and chest buckle. Most adults could carry it on a hike or at least down to the beach. The Outdoor Pro prioritizes function over form — which is to say, it’s not the most stylish option, but it’s undeniably practical.
So don’t plan on walking far with this softie or make sure your shoulders are covered for a little extra cushion. The 1-inch closed-cell high-density foam worked well to keep our igloo soft cooler food and beverages chilled while baking under the sun during a mid-summer music festival. We’re not surprised, given RovR makes one of the best hard-side coolers, hands down.
Icemule’s Boss Backpack Cooler is incredibly rugged and has some serious insulation. “The design reminds me of a single big backpack that people use for backpack travel,” is how one of our testers put it. Icemule uses proprietary fabrics, welded seams, and extra-padded straps to make this one heavy-duty yet comfy backpack. Our testers loved this pack’s comfort compared to other large backpack coolers, thanks mainly to the extra padding and chest and waist straps. Hard coolers are still the gold standard in cold retention, but soft coolers provide distinct benefits, such as portability made possible by their lighter weights and flexibility.
The Arctic Zone Titan Deep Freeze 60 proved to us that soft coolers can hang with their hard-shelled counterparts. Right off the bat, we liked the fact that the Titan Deep Freeze comes with a detachable rolling cart. These dry bag coolers did great in our submersion tests, and they float, making these a great option to take along on the kayak. The models that scored lower in our durability tests use light to mid-weight nylon or canvas with middle-of-the-road zippers and regular seam construction. The higher-end models feature heavy rubber or treated nylon, have heavy-duty zippers and components, reinforced and welded seams, and more robust designs and construction.
We were able to fit 24 cans in this soft-sided cooler and enough ice to keep them cold all day. After four hours on a hot, sunny afternoon, the ice had igloo soft cooler hardly melted, and the drinks were still nice and cold. It’s also leakproof, letting no water drip through the zipper or moisture penetrate the sides.