321
people found this helpful, as of 2023
ranked #76,390 most helpful
out of 571,544,897 reviews
★★★★★
Holy Cow! More stars please!
-----Update May 2015------
The cooler works just as good today as it did when I bought it. No problems at all with years of daily use. Absolutely love it.
------Original Review-------
There's a reason why this lunch bag gets stellar reviews.
I've been taking my lunch to work for years and I'm a self-proclaimed lunch bag connoisseur. I'm always on the lookout for a good product because a good, large lunch bag is so hard to find! Whenever I'm in a department store, camping/outdoor store, and even online, I'm always looking to replace my current bag which I just consider adequate. There are PLENTY of big bags out there that one can use, but the challenge is always trying to find a bag that is big enough and easy to use, without being too big to be impractical. EBags has struck gold by settling on a size that fits smack dab in the middle ground where there are so few competitors. It's big enough for a large lunch, and then some, but not so big that it's the bag you take to the lake for an afternoon with the family.
The one thing that I absolutely love about this bag is the size and the height. I carry my own water to work so that is why I need a large bag. It's VERY rare to find a lunch bag that can accommodate 2-32oz Nalgene bottles along with a sizable lunch. Also, I take real meals into work and not sandwiches, so I tend to use tupperware which can take up a substantial amount of room. With this bag I'm able to STAND 2-32oz Nalgene bottles up in the main compartment and have a square 4.2-cup Rubbermaid container of soup and a 3.2-cup container of rice (stacked on top of each other). Also in that compartment I put 2 Blue Ice packs. There is still a small amount of room in the main compartment after packing this, but not so much that everything is going to slide around inside. In the top compartment I put 3 ziploc bags containing pistachios, pretzels, and dates. Again, there is room left over in the top compartment for more. If you're interested, you can lay one 32oz Nalgene bottle in the top compartment and believe it or not, I can actually even squeeze it in the side zip-out drink holders (it's a REALLY tight fit though so I'm sure it'd violate the integrity of the product quite quickly). I put my spoon in the front compartment and there is plenty of room in there for other utensils.
For food containers, I've switched to using Kinetic Go Green GlassLock 1332 17-Ounce Square Glass Food-Storage Containers with Locking Lids and they fit in this bag perfectly. Not only do they stack nicely and are leakproof, but you can stack two of them and still have room to put a Blue Ice pack on the top of them. With two of these in the main compartment, I can still put in two Nalgene bottles on the other side. If you wanted to, you could actually fit 4 of these containers in the main compartment and it'd fill it up about 90%.
The zip-out liner is a god-send; it's like I was able to design this bag myself. The zippers, which are many a lunch bags downfall, are freaking incredible. Big and beefy with a heavy and strong zipper track make getting into and out of it so smooth and easy. It's like the zippers came off of some high-quality luggage. Ebags definitely knew what they were doing here.
The handles are very nice and I appreciate that they didn't sew that annoying velcro flap to the handles so you can velcro/hold them together. Although I removed the shoulder strap, there are quick releases for it so you can remove/add it with ease. The attachment buckles for the strap are also nice and beefy without being gaudy or distracting from the overall look.
There is a nice rubberized bottom to keep it durable and the overall quality is top-notch. This WILL last a long time for sure. After I ordered the black I thought I'd regret the color but that's not the case. It's very sharp, classy, and professional looking, and I appreciate that for the office environment I work in.
Overall, this is a freaking 10-star lunch bag. I've been on the lookout for YEARS for a bag that would fit my unique needs and this is without a doubt the best bag I've ever used/seen. I can't say enough about this bag and I can't believe it's priced so well.
Although I think this bag is excellent, I can always find something to improve upon, so here are my recommendations to eBags on how to improve this excellent bag.
--------------------- Recommended improvements for eBags ---------------------------
1. Sew the hand straps to the main body and not the lid. This will allow you to carry/move the container unzipped without things spilling out.
2. Change the location of the shoulder strap buckles. If you remove the shoulder strap, the buckles that are left can sometimes impede with zipper operation. This isn't really a problem when you have the strap attached because the weight of the strap pulls the buckle down, and out of the way of the zipper. You can fix this by either extending the main compartment upwards by 1/2 inch, or lowering the buckle.
3. Please put some type of rubber on the strap so that it doesn't slide off your shoulder when carrying it.
4. When filled to capacity, the lunch bag has a tendency to get wobbly. If you put some really small feet on the bag, it'd prevent this.
5. The eBags logs is quite big and well, NOT attractive.
February 2012 · Sports and Outdoors · verified purchase