The good:It holds your gear.The bad:It doesn't hold up to actual use. I checked this bag (at the gate, since the baggage handlers don't actually get their hands on your luggage that way) for one flight. When I picked my bag up at the end of that flight, I had 8 holes in the bag from pinkie sized on up to two fingers wide.While this may be attributable to some serious mishap on the baggage cart, I've had backpacks and other forms of luggage survive much more than one encounter with the airlines without anything close to this amount of damage. Calling BC tomorrow to get a refund.Based on my experiences with these 2 stoic duffels (see my review of the welded duffel), I will never purchase anything made by stoic again.

2/8/11 Update: Spoke with Jeremy @ Backcountry about my issues. He was really helpful, and wanted to make sure that I was happy with the Stoic brand. I'm getting 3 updated duffels to replace the ones that were damaged. Based on the customer service, I'm willing to give Stoic another shot, and hope the fabric has been beefed up a bit on the updated versions. I'll update again after a few weeks of use.

So first the good parts:
The large (83L) duffel is pretty roomy.

Welded seams look cool.

Now the bad:
Straight zipper makes it difficult to pack/unpack anything larger than a pair of pants.

If you attempt to pack this bag to capacity, there's no way to compress the contents so the zipper isn't stressed, giving me concerns about its longevity.

Bag material is not durable. At all. One flight (Boston to Miami) of a 4 flight round-trip and I had a dime sized hole in the bag (see picture). By the time I returned home, I had 10-14 noticeable chunks of the outer fabric missing, in addition to the hole from the first flight. Calling BC tomorrow for a refund.

Bottom line: this bag is a total waste of your time and money unless you only plan on keeping it inside to store your gear, and NEVER intend on taking it anywhere.

I own 3 SOG knives with the piston lock and S.A.T, and have never had an issue with the lock & blade safety being set up for a righty. My ring finger works the safety, and I can close the blade lock with my index finger. Pretty damn easy, and in my opinion, much safer/convenient since my thumb and other fingers are already gripping the knife while I'm manipulating the levers.

Great snowshoes for just about any condition. I've got the 25" which work great for most snow I've encountered, except for the 6' of crap snow I tried to slog through for 4 days in Santa Fe. However, I'm wicked glad I bought them when they first came out, as I don't like the new 3-strap binding over the 4-strap, and I'm not at all stoked that MSR reduced the aggressiveness of the perimeter crampons

Nice length: long enough to cover the tops of your boots, but not so long that you'll have a dragging hem to trip over.

Super stretchy material: really great for hiking/climbing, etc. since it doesn't restrict your movement at all.

Very waterproof: it just beads up and runs off regardless the length of exposure and type of precip.

However, it's cut really slim in the thigh. It's not a serious functionality issue as the fabric stretches so much, but it's a little tight to fit more than a thin baselayer under the pants. Again, not really an issue as I wouldn't use these pants to keep me warm at the end of the day anyway, but it did take a little while to get used to looking like an emo alpinist...