Customer Reviews The North Face Borealis

I use this product for college and everyday life. While inside portions do the job, I am disappointed with the bottle holders that don't work and straps that broke after minimal usage.

I use this backpack for college. While the material quality and construction are very good, the design of the backpack is super annoying. Non-stop annoying. It's designed like a hiking backpack. As in, load up 50 lbs of gear in the morning, hike all day long, then unpack everything at night. So the pack is intentionally designed to create a high center of mass, close to your back. It tapers down the bottom. The external organizational pocket, which is too small, is located high up on the back. It has an complicated system of straps and elastic and cinch straps that are meant to pull the load tight together, pull it in towards your back, and keep it high. What this means is that the compartment you put your wallet, phone, pencils/pens, calculator, etc in flops around all over the place (and again, it's too small). Then, if you put anything smaller than a book in the main compartment, it drops down to the bottom. Your access to the bottom of the main compartment, however, is pinched off by the bottom of the external org compartment, which is pulled in tight against the back w/ straps, elastic, etc. Basically, you have to fight against the backpack to get anything out of the bottom. Another annoying thing - the organizational compartment, being so high and being constrained at the bottom, is constantly flopping around when you're trying to get stuff out of it. It's like a triangle sitting up on one edge. It wants to tip forward, pivoting on the over-strapped bottom edge. If you're packing and unpacking once a day, this might not be an issue. But when you're constantly getting things out all day long (calculator, pens, phone, wallet, keys, watch, etc) it's very annoying. Then, because of the tapered bottom, the high weight distribution, and the flopping organizational compartment, it's easy for the COG to get out past the bottom edge of the bag, and the whole thing tips over. Bottom-line, this backpack is designed for all-day hiking, which results in a backpack that is very annoying as a school-work backpack. Choose accordingly.

This is a very ugly gray color. It looks white in the picture, but it is not.

Cheaply made. Straps giving way already after 3 weeks. Don't know what the extra piece is that's suppose to be holding/connecting the strap to the bag but it's just a nightmare. Bag is big and awkward for no good reason. Can hardly fit anything. This bag just a big bulky oval thingy that can only fit paper comfortably. It has a strange look, strange shape and very bizarre feeling when you put more than something very flat in it. Would like a refund asap. Terrible cheaply made overpriced product! Stop it

Can't stand this bad. So slippery and awkward. The back part is too hard and the shape is very bizarre like long and wide at the same time. The bag does not stand up it's constantly sliding everywhere. Strange item. Will never buy again