Most anti-theft features are designed to look secure, not to be secure.
The bag is described as anti-theft. It has a hidden zipper, a slash-resistant panel, an RFID-blocking pocket, and a TSA-recognized combination lock. You bought it because the description named threats that frightened you a little, and the bag promised to handle them.
Many of those features are theater.
Some of them work. Knowing which is which tells you how much the anti-theft label is worth, and what keeps your things safe.
The anti-theft category targets a set of fears. The pickpocket who unzips your bag from behind on the subway. The slasher who cuts through the fabric and removes a laptop. The RFID skimmer who reads your credit card from across a hotel lobby. The opportunistic thief who steals an unattended bag at a café.
Anti-theft is sold as one category. It is a collection of answers to different problems, some of which you face and some of which exist mostly in marketing.
The theft you are likely to meet is opportunistic, not technical. The phone in the side pocket of a bag at a café, while you go to the counter to refill your coffee. The wallet in a jacket draped over a chair back. The bag itself, left at the foot of a chair, picked up while you check your phone. The day-pack at the hotel, untouched in the lobby for two minutes.
These thefts share a feature: nobody had to defeat your bag's security. The bag was out of your reach for a moment, and that was enough.
The slasher cutting through fabric is a rare case. So is the skilled pickpocket working a zipped main compartment, even in cities known for pickpockets. The RFID skimmer exists in proof-of-concept and barely in the wild.
A bag whose main zipper sits on the side that touches your body, and opens only when the bag is off your back, shuts out the pickpocket-from-behind. While you wear the bag, nobody can reach that zipper. It needs no extra hardware. Front and back panel access has the trade-offs.
Zipper pulls that tuck behind a flap, clip to a loop, or pass through a small lockable tab make unnoticed opening harder. They will not stop a determined thief. They will stop the casual unzip. That is enough to redirect opportunism elsewhere. Hidden pockets and security features covers what each one does.
A habit does more than any label. Keep the wallet in the same internal pocket, the passport in the same dedicated pouch, and the phone in the same place when it is out of your hand. When each item has a fixed home, you notice a missing one within seconds. A bag with a clear home for each item makes that easy.
Slash-resistant fabric (usually a wire mesh or aramid layer between the outer and inner fabric) answers a knife attack that is rare. The layer adds weight and cost, and you carry both every day.
A lockable zipper stops the casual unzip, not a determined thief: a soft bag can be cut. Against the usual theft it does nothing, since the thief takes the whole bag. A checked bag wants a TSA-recognized lock, which screeners can open without cutting (what screeners look for). On a daily bag, you pay for it with a code or key you can forget.
RFID blocking costs little and does little. Skimming a card through a bag in a crowd is rare, and modern cards guard themselves. Don't pay more for it or pick a bag on it, and don't hold it against a bag that has it. Safety features and RFID has more.
Some bags marketed as anti-theft adopt a quasi-tactical look: webbing, hardware, paramilitary colorways. The intent is to signal seriousness. The signal a thief reads is that this bag holds things worth protecting, which is the opposite of what you want to say to anyone sizing up your bag.
Carry a bag that puts the main access against your body. Keep a fixed place for each valuable. Watch the bag in cafés, on trains, in airports. Together these cover the theft you are likely to meet.
Do not pay a premium for slash-resistant panels, RFID blocking, or lockable zippers unless your use case calls for them. For a daily carry, it does not.
Anti-theft is a concern. The features marketed against it are mostly the wrong response to it.
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