In short, if Doug Dyment’s onebag.com site is principles mostly in a vacuum – lots of generic tips but few specific recommendations – your travel bag reviews manage to take useful bags (I don’t think you’ve reviewed a truly “bad” bag yet) and spin off into the principles that we can adopt to your own needs and goals. I think that’s a much more fun approach, basically being a “consumerist” at heart.

I look forward to your “First Look” and follow up review on the Lightweight Duffel, which I picked up on sale last week. I’m a big fan of the Lightweight line from Patagonia (sad to say, or my wife would say sad to say, I own one of each of their bags in this Lightweight Travel line), and it seems that Patagonia is trying to take some “ultralight” principles from hiking mainstream, to travelers. Certainly they are importing the use of ultrathin, ultralight materials, which is at odds with their former line of generally overbuilt, overwight travel bags.

But it also appears that Patagonia may be a little confused about the ideal user for this bag – while they call it their “Lightweight Travel Duffel” the first sentence of the blurb on their web page says “Rope bag, gym bag, backpack or duffel, this compressible bag has multi-sport applications and stows away in its own pocket.”

Ok, so is this new duffel a TRAVEL duffel, or a SPORTS bag? I notice you identify it as a sports bag but see potential for travel use, but I’m not sure whether that’s because you generically view duffels as “sports bags” first and foremost (they sure have had a lot of use in that application) or because of something you see in this particular piece. It will be interesting to read your take on the subject.

I think it’s an interesting distinction because while I accept the use of ultralight materials for hiking and travel, where it pays to accept the responsibility for being a little careful in exchange for a significant reduction in weight, I have to question the durability of such materials for daily use in “knock-around” gymn bags that will get thrown into trunks and stuffed against potentially sharp or abrasive junk.

On the other hand, when I was at Patagonia a month or two ago, a lady and her friend were shopping for the Lightweight Tote and were discussing how it could be loaded up with “all her books and binders” or “used for shopping” – when I was just wondering if it would hold up as a flight bag carrying clothing which is a lot lighter and easier on a bag than BOOKSa nd BINDERS! So clearly Patagonia’s customers are out and about abusing the heck out of these light looking bags, and given that this is the 3rd or 4th year in the ultralight line, Patagonia must know what they are doing. I do note that the handle attachment points on the Lightweight Duffel (and on the Tote, which I bought) are robust to the extreme, despite the lightness of the material to which they are patched – the patch point has an inner webbing patch, uses “box” stitching with what looks like double stitching at the top and bottom of the box, and has double crescents (as an alternative to “x” stitching) in the “box.” So I don’t think the handles are going to pull away easily, even in the hands of bag abusers.

You’ll have to let us know whether you view this Lightweight Duffel as a pack that looks like a duffel, or as a duffel with convertible backpack straps for travelers – because so far as I can tell, not only does this Nduffel OT come with a traditional shoulder strap, it doesn’t even have attachment points for one.

(I’m of a mind that 2 out of 3 of the universal carrying methods – shoulder, back, or hand – should be enough, but I know some travelers want all three options.)

I just finished trial packing the Lightweight Tote for my next trip to SE Asia, back to Koh Samet, this time with my wife and kids. I was actually able to pack everything I need in that 1,500 or so c.i. mini-pack (it has tuck-away backpack straps too).

But now I have the Lightweight Duffel and have the same rush of excitement as being upgraded from Economy to Business – wow, all that room! At no extra price (weight)!

Except that now I’m just a little afraid to use the extra space, beacuse the much smaller Tote forced me to trim a lot of “luxury items” out of my potential carry-on…unless the Duffel will compress down for my transit, but open back up when I need room to stow my jacket and pullover.

Oh well, if travel were meant to be that easy, with no planning, millions of people would be doing it, right?

:-)

(I guess I provide an ecological balance to my wife, whose idea of packing is emptying her clothing drawers into a super size duffel to check-in. She’ll be right at home with all the other Asian travelers lined up with their gargantuan bags….)