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Picked up this backback as an emergancy replacement for an old PING duffle I was using after my morning shake decided to empty istelf all over the inside this morning, WHOOPS!
I decided to purchase a backpack and a seperate "wet" bag for my kickboard, pull buoy, etc.
Now to preface my review here I am an absolute bag snob. I used to skate, I used to and am now swimming, I ride motorcycles, I am into gadgets, and cameras, and video cameras, etc. etc. After acquiring the gear for all of these various activites I have learned what makes a good bag and what does not.
First and foremost for any bag purchase is comfort, position, and quality of the straps. If the strap breaks off then it doesnt matter how roomy or how many pockets a bag has. Thankfully this bag has you covered; an integrated grab handle, lightly gel cushioned straps with chest clips and a d-ring, a nylon waist strap with adjustable clip, and two seperate gel cushion for both the upper and lower back provide a comfortable and customizable fit for just about anyone. There is a "cellphone" holder integrated onto the chest straps but unless your rocking an oldschool nokia from the turn of the century then this pocket will most likely not fit your cell; especially any sort of smartphone or even a damn moto razor (to wide). I will most likely lobotomize this useless appendage as well as the waist strap which I appreciate but rarely use. One negative I can give the bag is the use of single stitching on the straps; from my days lugging around heavy skates I can tell you that double or even triple stitching is the way to go on backback straps but only time will tell if this will be a problem.
Secondary to the way a bag attaches to the user is the space and features it provides and here this bag falls terribly short. There is a divider in the main compartment but it cant fit a TYR kickboard so Im guessing its either for a laptop or just for seperation yet either of those features is unwarrented in a gym bag. The compartment for storing shoes comes up from the bottom via an externally accessible pocket and works as advertised however the goggles saver pouch and music player pockets described above do not. The pocket for the music player is a pocket inside a pocket with no grommet to feed your headphone cables through making it worthless, and why would you put an electric device into a pocket with wet goggles?? I would suggest using the cellphone pocket on the main straps but once again its to narrow for a modern ipoh touch, classic, iphone, zune, etc. although it might fit a nano. Hanging a suit from the caribiners would drag your garments across the floor behind you so, although they look useful for other things, I think the marketing department was more involved with their purposing then the engineering team. The last two pockets are on either side of the bag and can hold 2 bottle of water each however they are zippered pockets, why there is no drawstring style bottle holder is an absolute mystery to me.
All in all the bag is sufficiently large to dump your cheange of clothes into and force into a gym locker but I cant help but feel that TYR needs to release a version 3.0 to really make this bag worth it for your average swimmers day to day needs.
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TYR Alliance Team II Backpack
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