How to Make Backpack Zippers Lockable

I’ve written this tip before but I did not emphasize the importance of being able to lock your travel luggage. This tip shows in detail how to make a standard backpack zipper lockable. 

Most travel theft is “by opportunity,” meaning that if you give people the opportunity to steal from you there is a much greater chance of them doing so. It is my opinion that most travel thefts are not perpetrated by professionals, but rather by people taking advantage of an easy opportunity — such as an unattended money belt, a laptop left sitting out in a hostel, a debit card left on a restaurant table, or valuables left sitting out in a hotel room. Though I have to admit that many travelers often invite temptation by giving these easy opportunities en masse, and many have their possessions pilfered.

Lockable backpack zipper

A lock on a backpack does not prevent theft but it does deter it. An unattended,   strongly locked bag in a hotel room or hostel could easily be cut open with a dull table knife, but this is rarely done in relation to how often unlocked bags are pilfered in similar circumstances. It is much more common for a thief to look for the easiest target available and hit it as fast as possible. The trick to theft prevention is to make robbing you appear to be a challenge — most often a thief will just look for an easier target.

Many travel thefts are on the fly, and revolve around a “leave no trace” intention: the bag is opened up, its valuable contents stolen, and then are closed up tight — leaving everything appear as if it was not touched. This then often casts a vibe of doubt into the minds of the robbed: am I sure I really had that in the bag when I got here? How do I know that I didn’t loose it somewhere else? Anybody here could have taken it, there is nothing I can do. All too often I have observed travelers who have no idea where they were robbed. Somewhere between Antigua and Xela I lost my Ipod. If you leave your luggage easy to open people can rob you easily — you are making opportunities for theft and could be leading otherwise good individuals into temptation.

In nearly 13 years of travel I have not yet had my luggage pilfered. Either I’m lucky beyond probability or the locks on my backpacks work.

How to make a backpack zipper lockable

First of all, choose a backpack for travel that has a zipper enclosure. Above all, stay away from top loading backpacks. Not only are top loading backpacks cumbersome and annoying to use but most are unlockable. If you stay in hostels or ride buses with a top loader don’t get pissy when you make a donation to the local thieves’ union. I usually recommend Kelty Redwing backpacks or the Lowe Alpine TT Tour (this backpack comes with a build in lockable zipper) for travel. The problem with the Kelty is that its zippers are opened and closed with a thin piece of shoelace like cord. Even if you did put a lock through it someone could just untie the cord and get into your bag. To remedy this, Craig from Travelvice.com came up with the following method which I’ve had success with for many years.

The goal: to remove the cord on the zipper of the Kelty Redwing — or any other similarly made backpack — and insert a steel wire that can be secured and locked.

Materials

All of these materials can be found at a hardware store. If you’re a cheapskate like us, buy them from a store that has a no questions asked return policy, keep the receipt, and return them for a refund once you’ve finished the job. Some of the tools and materials that are needed to make one of these backpack locking mechanisms are not very common for the lay handyman, so you may want to print the photos from this page out and bring them to the hardware store.

Materials:

• A long enough length of steel wire to cut into enough sections to loop through all of a backpack’s zipper eyelets. If you have two zippers and four connector eyelets then I would recommend roughly 20 inches of steel wire.
• A heavy duty wire cutter or a heavy duty chisel that can be struck with a hammer to slice the wire.
• If you use a chisel to cut the wire you also need a hammer to hit it.
• A pair of heavy duty crimpers.
• One crimp for each steel loop you intend to connect to the zipper.
• Electrical tape.

Crimpers

Crimps

Steel wire

Directions

1. Clear the eyelet of the zipper’s closure pieces. If you are using a Kelty bag this means removing the shoelace like cord.
2. Cut sections of steel wire into five or six inch pieces.
3. Insert the sections of wire into the eyelets of the zipper’s closures.
4. Put a crimp over the ends of the wire and seal it with the crimpers.
5. Put electrical tape over the sharp ends of the wire.

Photos

Cut wire with chisel or heavy duty wire cutters

Put wire through eyelets on zipper, insert crimp, and close it

It's easier to do this with some help

Crimp

Lockable backpack zipper

Conclusion

Making your backpack zippers lockable and then always locking them when you leave your luggage in hotel/ hostel rooms and when unattended on buses is one of the prime ways of deterring theft when traveling. If you make a thief’s job as difficult as possible you will seldom find yourself locked in their sights.