Photo courtesy of Road Warrior Luggage
Road Warrior’s latest duffel is a capacious, no-frills roller bag made of ballistic nylon. But it also shrinks down to less than six inches tall, so it can be slipped under your bed or hung in a closet. It’s an apartment-dweller’s dream.
To collapse the case, you open the bag and pull on the two interior cords. This reduces the bag down to about one third of its bulk. To expand it again, take hold of the exterior grips, give them a gentle tug, and the bag pops back to full size.
You can carry it like a traditional duffel, or just roll it; at the base is a lightweight aluminum frame with wheels and a telescoping handle.
It’s a big bag, measuring 30 inches tall, 15 inches across and 16 inches deep. When empty, it weighs a hefty (for luggage) 11-plus pounds. Fully stuffed to its 6,750-cubic-inch maximum, my bag weighed over 40 pounds — it’s a bit of a trade-off when the bag itself contributes 25 percent to the total weight of your luggage. Given the weight, it was actually fairly easy to peel it off a luggage carousel (it’s too large to serve as a carry-on, so it must be checked) thanks to the big, robust duffel straps. One other quibble, though: the duffel has garment sleeves and spacious pockets aplenty, but I did miss smaller pockets for incidentals.
The case I tested is the largest one Road Warrior Luggage makes, but the company offers six other wheelie bags — all of which feature its zipperless Micro-Pop collapsing system — ranging from 20 inches to 27 inches tall, as well as a 17-inch tote-style overnighter.
WIRED Tough, well-constructed nylon roller bag. Zipperless rip-cord system collapses the bag down for storage. Simply pull on the outside handles and it pops back up to full size. A welcome innovation for those in space-challenged homes.
TIRED Heavy. Plenty of storage inside and out, but no smaller pockets for phones, tickets, incidentals and accessories. Expensive: over $350 at most outlets.