Traveling with your beloved dog is always exciting, but as you start preparing, questions pile up, especially for long trips. You might find yourself thinking, “Why is choosing a bag this hard?”
Will my dog be able to travel safely?
Can I fit all the essentials when there’s so much stuff to pack?
Will I feel uncomfortable because of unwanted attention?
To help ease these worries, SSOOOK, a brand with extensive experience traveling with dogs, shares the key points of the SSOOOK Backpack that truly make a difference on the road. A bag designed for more comfortable and confident journeys.
The key to packing: easily-accessible storage
Once you travel with your dog, you quickly realize that one of the most important features of a dog carrier is storage space. The key to packing for a trip isn’t how much you can carry, but how quickly you can take things out.
When frequently used items, like wet wipes, treats, tissues, water, or poop bags, are buried deep inside the bag or scattered across multiple bags, you end up fumbling every time you need them.
The SSOOOK Backpack is designed with a spacious main compartment and a well-organized structure that makes packing neat and efficient.
The front pocket is divided into sections, making it easy to store and access items you use often, such as treats, tissues, cards, or a comb. The drawstring pouches on both sides securely hold water bottles, while the rear laptop compartment is perfect not only for working at a café with your dog, but also for safely storing documents and travel paperwork during international trips, keeping them flat and wrinkle-free.
A sense of stability you can trust— even in cafés and restaurants
After packing everything and setting off on a trip with your dog,
even in pet-friendly spaces, unfamiliar environments can make dogs feel anxious. In moments like these, what matters most is how well external stimuli are managed.
The SSOOOK Backpack features a dual-window structure that combines mesh panels with insulated panels, allowing you to adjust visibility and stimulation depending on the situation. By closing the front insulated panel and opening only the small side peek-through window, you can reduce outside stimuli while still keeping the space comfortable and well-ventilated. In fact, even slightly limiting a dog’s field of view in unfamiliar places often helps them calm down much faster.
During trips, there are also many moments when you need to place the bag on the floor in cafés or restaurants. The SSOOOK Backpack is designed with a stable, well-balanced trapezoidal structure (SSTS™), so it remains upright and doesn’t tip over easily when placed on the ground. This stable base allows you to use it with confidence in cafés and restaurants, and helps reduce anxiety even when you need to step away briefly, use the restroom, or pick up your drink.
Safety on the move is not optional — it’s essential
Unexpected situations often arise while traveling. Crowded places, sudden noises, and unfamiliar surroundings make dog carriers a crucial safety device that protects your dog while moving.
The SSOOOK Backpack is equipped with an internal safety leash, along with the SSOOOK Safe Auto-Lock Zipper (SSAZ™), providing an extra layer of protection to prevent dogs from suddenly jumping out while on the move. Thoughtful details like these, designed to reduce even unlikely risks in advance, can make a big difference when you’re traveling.
One bag, even as a car seat
If your trip includes driving, a car seat is another thing to consider. But adding a separate car seat to your travel gear can quickly become a burden.
The SSOOOK Backpack is designed to double as a car seat by using the dedicated car seat safety belt (SO-CA024). Without packing an additional car seat, you can still keep your dog secure during car rides. When used as a car seat, simply open the hidden expansion space on the side of the backpack to give your dog more room to lie down comfortably.
For trips involving rental cars or when you want to keep your luggage to a minimum, the ability to handle both transportation and rest with just one bag is one of the biggest advantages of the SSOOOK Backpack.
How the SSOOOK Backpack Was Made
The development of the SSOOOK backpack began in a completely different direction from any bag we had made before. In February 2023, this project started with a clear goal: to create a backpack that is uniquely SSOOOK, one that could not be achieved by simply scaling up a backpack designed for people.
The backpack had to allow dogs to travel while lying down or resting comfortably inside, while still providing enough support without placing excessive strain on the wearer’s back. This structure was fundamentally different from the design standards of conventional human backpacks, which is why the early stages of development required a significant amount of time just to align on the right direction.
From rigid wire structures and thick base panels to various reinforcement ideas, not a single suggestion was dismissed.
Every idea was turned into an actual prototype, tested in real situations, and revised again and again. After a year of this process, by the spring of 2024, internal testing was completed, and the product was close to release. At that point, we once again asked the SSOOOK members for their honest feedback.
As a result, faced with opinions that it was not yet satisfactory, SSOOOK made the decision to pause the launch and return to development. We concluded that the backpack had not yet fully achieved its most essential purpose: allowing dogs to travel comfortably while lying down or resting inside.
The development that followed became a series of careful, deliberate choices, balancing vertical and horizontal structure, creating a spacious interior while keeping the exterior visually compact, finding the right harmony between support and flexibility, and refusing to use rigid structures that we had decided to avoid from the beginning.
Every element had to work together: a flexible base that allows dogs to rest their weight comfortably, a structure that minimizes strain on the wearer’s back, and SSOOOK’s signature dual-window design with seasonal adaptability.
However, these requirements were difficult to reconcile with weight. In the end, SSOOOK chose not to pursue a bag that is simply “light,” but instead focused on finding the most balanced point between reliable support and reasonable weight.
After an additional six months of development, SSOOOK conducted 21 days of real-world testing and filming across four European countries during the winter of 2024.
The process revealed issues with exterior distortion and fine details, which required yet another five months of revisions. As a result, the SSOOOK Backpack was finally released in early 2025, later than the Front Bag.
Another unexpected reality soon became clear: this backpack was an exceptionally difficult product to mass-produce. The finishing process alone required highly skilled craftsmen, working with tools while wrapping their wrists in bandages and pain-relief patches just to complete each piece. This was precisely why, at the time of its first release, SSOOOK asked customers to “please purchase only if you truly need it.”
Nevertheless, some people looked beyond the question of weight and recognized the true value of this bag, and their support gave SSOOOK the courage to move forward once again.
Internally, there were many concerns that the high production cost would make the product difficult to sustain as a business, but we decided to proceed with production at the maximum level that operations would allow. As a result, in February 2026, SSOOOK reopened orders alongside the third production run of the SSOOOK Backpack.
For reference, in March 2026, we are also preparing to launch a lightweight mesh backpack that is approximately 30–40% lighter than the existing backpack. However, as seen with the Front Bag, we expect clear differences in usage purpose and preference between the fully covered double-window structure and the lightweight mesh design.
SSOOOK always acknowledges where we can do better, and we place our members’ opinions and real experiences at the very center of our decision-making as we strive to create better products. Through this SSOOOK Backpack restock preorder, we hope you can feel, even in the smallest way, the standards and mindset behind SSOOOK when creating this bag.
SSOOOK always creates products for those who truly understand and share the values of SSOOOK.
Kay, SSOOOK
