Customer Reviews The North Face Borealis

Okay, so I got this for college/high school, sports, and traveling. You can just imagine how much I have to carry. I was deciding on which bag to buy for months (Kipling, Hershel, Kanken) 1. You're spending a good amount for a bag like this. Its like my regular canvas bag but better quality and a STURDY feel. 2 the bad thing is it is TOO sturdy, the straps make me feel as if sandpaper is rubbing against my skin. It also feels like all the weight is being compressed on my shoulders. After using it my shoulders were sore and in pain for a long time. 3. Can I mention how adjustable this bag is? Its smaller than I thought but it is a nice light weight backpack. But for the purpose of its "secure" feeling the pockets are hard to reach when having it on, the pockets are just wierdly places and sometimes annoying. When I buy a bag, I value price for COMFORTABILITY, durability, space, organization, security, and features (most important to least). That is why I think this would be a PERFECT bag if the straps weren't so darn painful and if the pockets made more sense!!!! Trust me you do not want to be commuting with this, I don't even know how this would be good for hiking. The good thing is its function, quality (its stunning, and bulletproof). Another thing I liked is how beautiful it looks. For the Origin blue buyers it is not really blue...it looks like ash grey with a hint of baby blue.

I use this bag as my daily school bag, it's cute but not the most comfortable.

I purchased this backpack a few days ago and received it today. I was absolutely thrilled upon opening the package. I found a cute and stylish backpack, perfect for my upcoming year in school. I put in a handful of my supplies, 2 textbooks, 4 notebooks, 5 folders, surface pro, and other necessities that I would need for the upcoming school year. I put on my backpack and quite literally fell down. I am 5'7, and train over 25 hours per week as I am a competitive swimmer. I am not a weak person. I stood up again after regaining my balance and started to walk around. I took it off after a few minutes as my back was starting to ache (the pain has still not yet subsided). I took out all of my supplies and transferred it into my sister's Osprey Nova backpack to judge whether or not my backpack was the problem or my school supplies were. I picked up my sister's backpack with no trouble at all. I felt like I could keep the backpack on all day long! Furthermore, there was much more room in the pack for my additional supplies. I will be returning this backpack and purchasing the Osprey backpack, which will be a wise investment on my part. If you are a high school student or college student this is not a practical investment.

I wish they didn't get rid of the designs that were previously on the website, the backpack is greatly designed and very roomy, comfortable, and lightweight but there aren't any new styles that are different from what everybody else has!!!!!! I wish they would have a customization option:(

i used this backpack for school and overall it was just too small my lunch box could barely fit in it and when it did there was like a bulge of where it was .

I got the TNF BLACK HEATHER/PAMPLONA PURPLE of the WOMEN'S BOREALIS BACKPACK and I was very disappointed that the purple is much darker and less bright on the backpack than in the photo on the website.

I use the product for school and I hang it on my chair. I love this backpack but near the top of the strap it started fraying. It also does not have a lot of depth.

I am a high school student and I use this backpack everyday. It can carry all the things I need with room to spare. It is very easy to load and unload my belongings before and after class. The downside is, the side pockets break after a few daily uses. If you're cool with not having side pockets, but space this backpack is for you.

Ive been using it for a couple weeks in college and it really carries so much and doesnt even look like a turtle shell like most backpacks do. Iove all the organization pockets it has and the laptop fleece pocket. The only downside to this bag is that since im really short and the bag is so long that it sits a little awkwardly on my back.

I bought this backpack because The North Face is a great name and I always heard about the quality. The backpack is great, a little small, but overall a great day to day bag. But, if I try to carry even my laptop and maybe a textbook in it causes me pain to carry it to class. I used it for a trip where I was carrying it around all day and it just causes me pain no matter how I try to carry it. I adjust the straps, use the waist belt, but nothing helps. I still love the backpack, but I bought it to travel with and that is not an option.

This is a great backpack! I've used it for a while (no major trips -- just day to day when I go to school). However, I was disappointed to find that the front zipper is broken (the zip on the forward facing part of the bag) making that entire part of the bag unusable. I called NF and they said they would help swap out the bag if I brought it in! Hoping to get that done soon so that I can keep using it!

The bag size is as expected. The only complaint we have is the color of the bag, grey heather with kokomo green string, is a touch on the grayish shade, not as white as shown in the picture. We would have ordered a different color if we had known so we rate this 3 stars for the inaccurate picture of the product.

I haven't tried it out yet, but I am struck by how large and heavy it is. I was hoping it would under the seat in front of me on an average airline, but am not at all sure it will.

I use this backpack as a daily school backpack. I put a lunch, laptop, textbooks, binders and notebooks, pencil case, and that type of thing in it. It does the job, but I always end up carrying my textbooks or any things I need that don't fit in the bag, because not a lot does fit in it. The bag is deep- very deep, but there's not really any forward-backward room. If you want to put more than a couple notebooks in there, good luck finding space. Also, inside the middle pocket, there's a bunch of smaller pocket lining the back side of it, unfortunately, while small, they go way down deep all the way to the bottom of the backpack. If you were planning on putting pencils or gum in there, like I was, it's really hard to get to because you can't really get your hand to the bottom because there's no ability for the backpack to give you that forward-backward stretch (again) to fit down there. On the other hand, the backpack offers tons of great colors, has a really good feel when you're wearing it (especially after wearing it in for a couple weeks!!), and serves its purpose to a good extent. I can imagine for hiking and camping this backpack would be great as long as you don't want to fit too much in it, hopefully I'll try that out soon! Also, I love the two water bottle pocket on either side of the outside!

I bought this product expecting it to be a very large backpack, but much to my disappointment, it wasn't. I got this for my freshman year of high school. The description says it is 8 inches wide, but it definitely isn't that wide unless it stretches out over time. I can barely fit my binders in it, where as they fit easily in the Jansport Big Student backpack. But, this backpack had amazzzzzing support if that is what you are looking for. My advice: Go to a store where it sells this backpack, and try it on with your school supplies.

I have an older Recon that I use for work and love it. So when I was looking for a smaller backpack for hiking I decided on the Borealis (all women'smodels). The laptop sleeve can hold a water bladder perfectly, and the sunglass compartment is a nice feature. But what on earth did you do to the shoulder straps??? Why did you change the design??? The hard plastic makes it uncomfortable and inflexible - and the Borealis is much lighter than what I carry in the Recon!

I bought this bag to take with me to college, and my friends had told me that North Face backpacks lasted a long time. After getting the bag, I was obsessed with the color and the overall look, but there wasn't a lot of room inside for notebooks or anything. Even when I managed to get the notebooks in, the back back was extremely heavy. I love the look and the storage on the side but I wish everything was bigger. There's lots of pockets, but not lots of space.

Great looking backpack, but its very heavy.

I bought this back pack from recommendation of others. Although I am a generally small person and it fit me like I was wearing a turtle shell :). Although it is amazing quality and has a very nice laptop pocket I will be returning for the north face vault back pack, which seems to be better for smaller width people.

I bought the white and stellar blue backpack. The blue in the picture is really a dark purple and does not look like the picture.

Need more pockets and space but external look is very stylish.

I was excited to get a backpack that was advertised as perfect for school and for converting to a hiking backpack on the weekends. When I received it, I realized that the backpack itself was heavier and longer than I expected; the back is very stiff and the backpack is a few inches longer than my torso (I'm 5'6"). I enjoy the versatility of the backpack, and could fit what I needed for a short day hiking trip in the backpack, but I was wearing a tank top all day and the straps were not very comfortable against my skin and started rubbing immediately. The material of the backpack is high quality, but doesn't stretch out at all, so there isn't much room width-wise, meaning I can really only fit a laptop, binder, and maybe a couple of small books in it for school. Overall, the bag looks very nice, and I think it is a better backpack for school than for hiking or other strenuous outdoor activity.

I got this backpack in a cool grey and hot pink a couple years ago for college. Can hold a good notebook and essentials, but the added weight of the laptop in the sleeve can get pretty unbearable. Traveling and backpacking throughout Italy and Germany wasn't the greatest experience with this backpack either. Loading and unloading for TSA is a pain with the flimsy second compartment (plus it takes up the room from the main compartment, so adding anything in either one just takes up more room from the other). Not weather resistant (it will soak your laptop if you have it in your backpack during a rainstorm), unbalanced at the bottom (meaning you need to prop it up against something when putting it down otherwise it will fall over), and it can get pretty bulky with just the school essentials. Mine served its purpose and served it somewhat well, but after traveling abroad and having it rip on me, it's time to move on to another brand.

I really like the look of this product but the design is uncomfortable. The materials at the top of the stamps digs into my shoulders.

After my first semester of college, the padding that sits at the bottom of the computer slot came out of my backpack. A little disappointed about this considering I have yet to have it for even a year. Other than that I love how sturdy and light it is.