A Good/Bad Bag, High Quality but Some Big Flaws.
First, this bag was obviously designed with quality in mind. The cloth is tough with well sewn seams. Strong YKK zippers are used throughout.
Several years ago my husband bought a large Akona dive bag with lots of great features. It is huge! It has wide set wheels. It has hidden backpack straps for the macho and healthy. It had a "stealty" "overbag" with no markings of any kind to engender the curiosity of less than honest baggage handlers. It had cut outs in the bottom for the wheels so you could arrive at the airport in stealth mode.
The handles are well attached. The drag handle is under a tough zipper. The very nice regulator bag custom fits into one of the exterior pockets so you have a choice of keeping it with the main bag or carrying it yourself.
The overbag material is smooth and fairly tough. This should have helped it from being snagged as it went through the system. That was important as the main bag has lots of very square coners. In addition to the expected 4 corners, 2 exterior pockets created additional snag points.
When I say large I mean we got all of our dive gear in it, 2 sets of fins, 2 BCs, 2 boxed masks, 9"x11"x2 1/2" Tupperware equip. box for miscellaneous items, booties, dive skins, shorty wetsuits, mesh boat bags. Their was still space left over that we put some of our clothing in! (We hand carried the regs.)
All this seemed great. We had eliminated the need for the second dive bag! Travelling would be much easier.
The first problem occurred as we walked to the light rail station which would take us to the airport. After crossing a few curbs one of the wheels went out of kilter, rubbing against the inside of its housing. Obviously it then pulled unevely. We find, if we have time one can beat it back into place with the heel of the hand. That will work only until the next large obstacle is encountered.
The bag is huge. They need to create a wheel/carrier system that can handle the cargo of a huge bag. Or they need to make the bag smaller.
The second issue is at least one thing rips on every trip, including the maiden voyage. Usually they are minor rips, sometimes the outer bag, sometimes the main bag , too. The holes in the outer bag for the wheels to stick out is a major problem.
The area around the holes is poorly reinforced.
When TSA puts the bag back on it is reinstalled as quickly as possible. The holes are no longer tight to the bag, begging some snag in the system to catch it and rip it open.
Akona was very accomodating. The first time they were notified they sent a brand new overbag, no questions, no charge. This is what I expect from a high quality company when I buy an expensive item.
The new bag ended up with the same rips the next trip. Eventually, we went to an auto seat cover shop and had them sew heavy vinyl reinforcement in the area. These seemed to hold very well. They didn't rip when they got hooked on something. Unfortunately they held well enough that many bags piled up behind it creating other damage to the bag.
Conclusion: A potentially great bag, but impractical to use in its current configuration.
If I get a chance I'll attach pics later.
