The Bottom Line
About Student Travel's Best Travel Shoulder Bag 2005 Pick
Pros
- Beyond heavy duty construction
- Elastic exterior water bottle pockets are handy on hikes and in airports
- Stainless snaps will never, ever rip out of fabric
- Padding provides excellent laptop protection
Cons
- None. Zero. Nothing. Okay, so it's a little heavy. Haul bags are.
Description
- Two exterior flap bellows pockets with loops, three interior sleeve pockets, four pen holders.
- Has a shoulder strap and uber-snap carry handles.
- Trademark "claw" tractor tire -- err, rubber shoulder piece -- is molded around shoulder strap.
- Body made of 1000 weight urethane-coated Cordura nylon fabric.
- Massive #10 YKK zippers can't do that zipper screw-up thing; hand-tied knots on zipper pulls.
- Tough #92 nylon thread. Seams are double stitched; double box stitched carry handles.
- Mega swivel hooks look like mini carabiners. Start the airlift.
- Four lb. closed cell foam padding -- this means heavy-duty walls, not heavy weight.
- Twelve colors: basics plus bright blue, red, yellow and purple.
- Dimensions: 9"x 6"x 12" (approved carry-on size). Capacity: 648 cubic inches.
Guide Review - Red Oxx "Gator" Shoulder Bag
On seeing the Red Oxx "Gator" travel shoulder bag, one tester said, "I could stand in this and be airlifted." We didn't try airlifting, but we did drag it around Wyoming and two other countries, up mountains and through airports: not a scratch. Red Oxx's original owner is a former paratrooper; their travel bags show the airborne influence -- feel free to sail the Gator off chicken bus roofs without qualm. It can handle worse.
For example, the shoulder strap passes through welded D-rings. Most manufacturers use bent metal for these sort of rings. These are welded, capisce? And the carry handles, which run all the way around the bag, are not ever going to come unstuck; if your travel takes you to Krypton and gravity is increased, the Gator's the right bag -- you can pack it with vast amounts of ludicrously heavy stuff. And the zipper pulls are hand-tied in monkey fist knots. Monkey fist knots are used for heaving sea cables. That's correct.
Even the luggage tag is heavy-duty, for crying out loud. And the hang tag doubles as an especially stiff beer coaster.
Get a Red Oxx bag and conquer the world one train station at a time with baggage that won't drag you down.