I e-mailed Hillary a tad late last night and got a prompt response this morning with a tracking #. Turns out my bag was on the truck to be delivered today. It got here this afternoon and I immediately loaded it up for a quick first impression review. I unfortunately just got back from playing so the battle test review will have to come later.
First things first, this bag is gorgeous. I got the blue, like seemingly every other customer did. I won't bother with a picture unless you guys insist. The new logos look great, the color is awesome, and it just looks well-made. The rain fly color seems a tad lighter blue, with aqua-ish piping.
The first thing I did was test all the zippers and see what the pockets were like. All of the zippers are the bigger YKK zippers that open and close super-smoothly. Both long side pocket are pretty daggum big. I don't wear hoodies, but one of the side pockets swallowed a Nike 1/4 zip pullover and had more room to spare. A hoodie would fit with no problems. There are all kinds of pencil holders, cell phone pockets, key clip, etc in the side pockets. The top pocket has a felt lined compartment and a rain fly pocket.
The "go get it" pocket is something I've never had on a bag before. I'm gonna have to do some play-testing with it to see where to balance the use of it versus whether it interferes with the space of the main disc storage area. As of right now I have three putters and a mid in those slots and I don't think it will present any problems.
The main disc storage is also new to me- this is my first backpack style bag. In my excitement I took a huge stack of discs and just started stuffing it. When I was done I had 15 drivers, 6 mids, and 3 putters in the main space. That's 24 discs, and I in no way tried to group them or maximize any space, besides turning them all the same way. There is still quite a bit of space/play to add discs or just have an easy time pulling them out. Ok, I just decided to stuff it to the gills. I got 3 more drivers in the main space, one perpendicular to those still in the main space, and two in the outer little pocket with the main logo on it. So that is a total of 33 discs (counting the 4 in the "go get it" slot) if you desire that many discs. I like to have a lot of disc choices, and this bag succeeds in giving me more room than I need!
The bag is quite comfortable to carry using the handle, and the weight of all those discs is distributed pretty good. I've only walked around the house with it, but it seems like it will perform very well on a comfort level.
I can't wait to play a round with it. That will have to wait until Monday. I'll post a follow up after I get to use it.
