Customer Reviews The North Face Router

I've had an older version of this bag for a few years now and the straps are still as stiff as when it arrived in the mail. They actually bruise my shoulders. It's unfortunate because it holds so much.

Purchased for a daily use/travel bag. Overally decent quality backpack, knocked it for goofy layout (main sections are difficult to access and don't unzip fully down the sides), and not external/open pouch to store things on the pack like many other backpacks.

It was heavier and bigger than I expected.

I use the Router backpack everyday. BUT Im not that happy with it: I kind of like the design but the side pockets should have a zippers so my stuff doesn't come out. I love the material was made except for the TNF logo that gets dirty easily. It says its a 40 L backpack but honestly doesnt fells like it. I have a 40 L Oakley back pack and the room insode the back pack its way better. The padding on the back may be great for students but for me its just in the way. I do can say that the backpack its very light and very comfortable to have on. And I wish the front pockets had a better design the L shape zipper its not that great. And the tiny front pocket can be use just for pen or pencils because its so small. The uppper front pocket its good. And to be honest I would rather buy another oakley backpack before buying another TNF. Most of the TNF backpack are just too small.

I wish there were more pockets available right away, as opposed to being nested in pockets.

Not the right fit for me. It needs about 2 more inches in depth. I wanted to love it and I liked it but not the best for every day carry for taller/bigger people. I need it to carry MacBook 1 iPad 1 notebook Small to medium size cables organizer with battery pack. Bose headphones Sunglasses. 32oz water bottle 1-3 pens Nintendo switch in slim case Miscellaneous snacks. North face message me and let's make a backpack that taller/bigger people can use daily and for travel.

Before the north face router daypack I used the north face surge (the old version) I have been a backpacker for many years and I have worked in designing combat gear for the army. This is my opinion on the router pack after a little more than a month of use. The router backpack is nearly identical to the new surge backpack with the main difference being the increase in size, from around 30L to 40L. The materials that went into this backpack are excellent and the newer generation seems to be lighter and stronger than the previous. In particular I would like to mention the shoulder straps which are very comfortable and make bearing heavy loads (+20lbs) much more comfortable. The waist strap in my opinion is not really a useful feature, I never used it and in my old back pack the buckle caused the backpack to erode at the base. The new top carrying strap is smaller, lighter and better located than in previous models as is the zipper design. By having a bi directional zipper that can be closed not directly at the top the bag ensures that the zipper won??t open itself from the weight of the content of the bag. The bag is now equipped with a semi hard lining in the bag designed for back support. While it does do its job, this is not a hiking pack. It will no supply the support if you place heavy hard irregular shaped object close to the back of the bag. The tablet pouch is very nice, I would prefer a more elastic material that could accommodate an ipad with a case, but for me that wasn??t a make or break feature anyway. What is a make or break feature however is the loss of the second side (bottle) pocket. In the older models this pocket was a dual layer fabric which could be accessed one from the top and one from the side. A beautiful innovation. The new pocket is a single and only on one side of the bag. On the other side is a pouch designed for a laptop charger or other small items. In older north face bags this was located in a zippered pocket under the bottom of the bag, thus keeping both side pockets. The side pockets are important because usually I used one for a water bottle and one for an umbrella when it was raining. If your water bottle is narrow enough you can have both on one side but this also takes away from the ability to balance the load of the bag equally across both shoulders. A good feature of the Router bag is the abundance of small zippered pockets, different from the older model but whether you like it or not is just a matter of taste. I do. A new innovation of the bag is a tapered bottom. This is designed to bring the weight closer to your back which it does well but it has a downside in that the bag can no longer be balanced standing up. Its default position is face down, which is very annoying if you want to access your things/ keep it clean Lastly I would like to address the size of the bag - a major issue. The bag is very big, but the extra size isn??t necessarily an advantage for school. I needed the extra space for textbooks, but the way the bag is designed, all the extra volume comes from having a taller/deeper compartment. This means that having books lined next to each other results in the same carrying capacity with more space on the top. Placing books on top of each other like that will likely result in damaging of the books. The added depth makes the bag seem useful for trekking or as an overnight pack, but when you take into account the flimsy back panel and lack of hydration pouch, it is really only ideal for an overnight bag or for traveling. It is my opinion that you should buy this bag for that and try the surge (which is significantly cheaper) if you want to use it for school/college.

The Router Backpack is a good backpack in theory. I like all of the pockets. It is well-constructed. However, it was not big enough for my high schooler. He was not able to fit his laptop & laptop accessories, plus a binder, plus his lunch, plus any smaller things he carries like a padlock, etc. The backpack is too narrow! Fitting a binder plus anything else in the main pockets is a challenge, because the backpack is too narrow. Also, the way the main pocket zippers are designed, they do not zip down all the way to the bottom of the backpack, barely half-way (zoom in to see what I mean), therefore, it is difficult to fit larger items in those pockets. This backpack has a lot of straps. A ridiculous amount. I'm sure those straps are useful to maybe hikers, or people using the backpack for something other than school. We cut most of them off because there were so many that my son would never use, they were in the way, and made him look like he had 10 tails coming out of his back.

I order the black one and they give the blue one

I used this bag to do some traveling hoping to fit everything but the design of the bottle holder on the sides is horrible does not allow the bag to actually open up. Making the straps on the sides pointless, if you put a bottle on the side pockets makes it hard to load the bag. Also if you put enough things in the bag to make it somewhat heavy, the thin straps on the bag put a strain on your shoulders not distributing the weight properly. Advertised as a 40L but i wouldnt say that accurate.

The Made-to-last Northface of the past is gone. In it's place is a company that makes products designed to a short time before needing to be replaced. I guess being a Buy It For Life company wasn't profitable enough for the VF Corp shareholders. Buy a different brand, a more responsible one that doesn't heap our landfills with sub-par products to pad their profit margin. I will never buy North Face again.

The quality of this bag from one generation to the next has fallen off a cliff. The fabric and stitching, the foam back padding and the finish is significantly different and of much lower quality than previous iterations.

The front bottom pouch is essentially an upside down pouch, very weird and not efficient. Also need at least one compartment to fully open, the bag has all slim pockets making it hard to get into.

Person who designed this backpack either never used any backpack in their life or did not know what they are doing Large side pockest should have some kind of elastic so the stuff does not fall out out them. Main compartment is really small. If you put something in frot pocket then you will have roubles to acces or remove stuff from main compartment. Same applies for top pockets. When backpack is fully stuffed it feels rigid and unatural to wear.

Pros - None Cons - No zippered organizational front pocket - Ripstop material is cheap and doesn't match the color of the backpack - No side buckle straps to hold water bottle in place - Etc.

Sad that the strap of this bag ripped at the seam and that North Face will not replace it because it was not purchased directly from them even though it is their product.

After about 3 months of use (high school student), one of the shoulder straps has started to separate from the bag. The only option NF offered was to ship it off to be evaluated for repair or replacement and that it could take 6-8 weeks. I had to buy another backpack while that is being done.

Ordered this Router to replace a Borealis which NF claims they could not repair. Out of the bag, the quality of the router seemed considerably less than that of my older Borealis. Less than three weeks later, the stitching started separating. Called customer service and the guy I talked to was rude. Not sure why NF cannot send me a replacement. Every time I do this review I get a follow up email to leave another review. My review has yet to show up on the NF website.

I order the black one and they give the blue one which I didn't like the color at all

They advertize this as a 41L bag. I could only fit 2 university books and no binders in there. This bag is TINY and useless for college/university. I am returning this, don't waste your money.