Back at the beginning of the year I visited Keeley for some bats and whilst there I stumbled upon a duffle bag, which I‘d not seen in their online store before. The one which actually caught my eye first was in a different colour - think England colours with both light and dark blue panels and some red detailing. It looked very smart and a more youthful me, would certainly have chosen that. As it so happens, a junior club member later purchased one and I have a dodgy mobile phone shot included below. Tim did however mention that there was also white version in the container; after fetching one I un-wrapped it and immediately noticed a feature I’d been looking for, so what could I say other than “Yes please, I’ll take it”.
Roughly speaking, the bag including side pockets is 45cm x 45cm x 95cm and there’s 11 pockets in total – main, bat, shoe, front, x2 mesh, x2 small side, x2 large side and an internal valuables pocket.
As you can see, it’s a pleasing monochromatic colour scheme made from a good quality nylon material. The bag stands nicely upright with kit inside, something which the wheeled duffle bags struggle with. Around the back its straps are well shaped and offer suitable padding for carrying about, I’ve walked a couple of miles to my local ground and found them comfortable enough. On the front is a large pocket, this could contain a helmet at a squeeze but that does then intrude quite a lot into the main compartment. It doesn’t offer any protection either. I prefer to use it for clothing and can put two sets of whites and a sleeveless jumper here. The side pocket layout is - a mesh pocket at the bottom, which a tall/heavy water bottle can fall out of if not too careful. Next is a ¾ sized white pocket and then a full size grey pocket, I’ll comment on their useable space later on.
Keeping with exterior features, I do like the number of sturdy padded handles it has. They’re well placed around the bag and make manoeuvring the bag into/out of cars, or around tight changing room spaces rather easy. At the base of the bag there’s 5 feet sewn into a heavy weight waterproof material, these help the bag from sliding around on slippery floors and offer increased protection from general wear and tear.
Access to the main compartment is via the top panel, where you will also find a zipper for a separate bat compartment. I would say that the main area is large enough to accommodate both batting and keeping gear. It would have been nice to see a mesh pocket on the reverse side of the top flap for small things like medication blister packs or charger leads etc. This main compartment also features a sizable and slightly padded valuables zip pocket, which can be seen below. For me, the main plus point was the use of YKK zippers across the entire bag. Hurrah… Seeing this feature when I first opened up the packaging sold it to me straight away. Having experienced a cheap zipper fail on an H4L bag within 18 months, really frustrated me considering the cost of bags these days.
Last picture collage and here I’ve tried to show another way of stowing leg pads into the full length side pockets (1 per side), although I’d probably say that the pockets would be better suited for keeping/fielding leg pads. A side arm can fit into the outer ¾ length pockets and it’s these that I tend to store the smaller items like grips, tapes, balls, ball towels etc. The most important pocket for CBF users is divided into two padded sections; each section is large enough to hold two bats should there be a need, but I only really carry two bats which are both kept in additional Keeley padded bat covers. Last of all is the shoe compartment, probably the weakest area for the bag as it’s tight for those who have flippers for feet and there’s no cut-out areas to allow for air movement.
Price – no idea? I purchased the bag along with two bats and was given a really super deal for the whole lot. So I can’t give you an exact price but I’d happily pay circa £85-£110 for a duffle bag that can deliver what this does. A winter project will most likely involve punching some small metal eyelets into the shoe compartment door and solve my main bugbear.
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Topic: Review - Keeley Pro Division Duffle Bag (Read 1938 times)