When it comes to swim gear, the backpack is your home base. It holds your fins, paddles, suits, snacks, post-practice hoodie, homework, goggles, and maybe a lucky cap or two. In short, it’s more than just a bag—it’s a mobile locker, a portable gear room, and sometimes your pillow between prelims and finals.
Swimmers live out of their backpacks, and bad ones can ruin your flow—broken zippers, soggy compartments, no room for a parka, and wet gear mixing with dry clothes. You know the pain. That’s why we set out to rank the best backpacks built for swimmers in 2025.
We looked at capacity, durability, comfort, organization, price, and swimmer-specific features like wet/dry separation and goggle cases. We talked to age-groupers, high school and D1 swimmers who’ve packed for their big taper swim meets.
And of course, Speedo leads the lane—but Arena, Sporti, and Dolfin each have their place depending on how you train, travel, and pack.
Let’s break down the best swim backpacks for this season, ranked and reviewed.
Note:SwimSwam is independently owned and operated. We are not owned by a nonprofit, governing body, or a retail company. Some brands listed here are swimswam ad partners. If you order via these affiliate links in this post, you help support our mission of unbiased, athlete-first journalistic swim coverage. Some brands listed here are swimswam ad partners.
