I bought this item for my daughter who is in fourth grade, it was a big disappointment. The handle was to short, it ruined her shoes by when she stopped the backpack would roll into her heels, It is so expensive for a backpack. ll.bean huge disappointment. Oh and I forgot to mention something else, it fell apart in the middle of the school year and when she had to carry it home it was so heavy (I think it was because they made the wheels like weights). So yeah overall big disappointment. The zipper broke to.
I bought the bag to carry my laptop back and forth to work, since laptop bags are horrible on my back. It is fantastic - it holds my laptop and a ton of other stuff, but it has one thing which keeps it from being perfect: it is not waterproof. When it rains here in DC it rains hard, and I have to put a big plastic bag over it to keep the contents dry - effective but annoying. I also had to fold back the flap over the zipper to keep it from getting stuck all the time, and I second the call for a water bottle (or umbrella) holder on the outside.
I agree with some of the other reviews regarding the mesh water bottle holder on the outside panel, it is very useful. I had to resort to putting two water bottles in my son's lunch box to makeup for the missing compartment. Also, the handle-side of the main compartment is very rigid and hard to zip up and down. The zipper on the main compartment does not extend the full lenght of the bag which makes it harder to add and remove items from the bag. Finally, it seems that the straps and the wheels are in the same alinement to where the straps will get caught up in the wheels if you don't detach them and tuck them inside.The connection of the straps to the bag is very cumbersome to operate because the metal latch is hard open and close. Unfortunately, my son does not always have time to detach and reattach them and as a result the straps have become damaged. I had high expectations based on the reputation of the product but was sadly disappointed by its short comings.
We bought this rolling pack for my 10 year old son. We absolutely love it! We use it for as his carry on when we fly out somewhere on the plane, and it holds all of his casual clothes, his books, shoes, etc. for a week and a half trip. My other kids don't have this pack right now and their rolling bags didn't hold half as much as my son's LL Bean. Now my son uses it to haul his books around for school. We've been using it for about 5 months and it still looks brand new. I am very pleased with this product.
