Customer Reviews The North Face Women's Surge

I use this for carrying my books and laptop around at college. The structure is great and it's very spacious. I docked one star because the bag isn't as comfortable as other reviews promised.

Very happy with my purchase but wish is was just a little bit larger

Use it for school.

I am a law student and needed to upgrade my North Face Slingshot I had gifted to me back in approx 2008, it still functioned but had seen better days (used for high school and parts of college). I wanted a backpack that was just as large to fit my large textbooks and 3 inch binder. While this bag has many pockets to keep you organized, compartments are not very large. I was lead to believe from the website this was the largest bag available (with the exception of hiking bags). I do love the coloring, style and comfort, but it does not fulfill its needs as well as the older models in terms of fitting large bulky books.

Plan to use it for second year of college on large campus.

I like the bag, it is stylish, compact, and very comfortable. My issue is that the zippers don't work well and they are very "rough." They snag, take a lot of force to close, and do not move smoothly. Its not enough to make me return the bag because I like everything else about it, but the zippers do not match the price and quality you'd expect.

I'm a law student, and wanted a bag that would better support my heavy load of textbooks without having to compromise my pride and buy a rolly bag. This backpack is great! It has super squishy shoulder straps and back support, and the chest strap and waist strap help distribute the weight of many textbooks across my body. The white and orange coloring is really cute, but I spilled coffee on it (my bad) and the white color took the stain :/ overall, a great and cute bag for someone with lots of heavy stuff to lug around!

I had to return this backpack as the laptop sleeve did not fit my laptop 15.6 Inch.

I love this backpack but i got the white one and i have cared it around school for 2 weeks and its already really dirty! but becides that its an amazing size and the zipper work fantastically.

I love this back pack the only thing I would change is the fact that it's square and not round.

Very roomy with great area for laptop. A lot of little pockets for keys, phone, etc. very comfortable to wear. Great Northface quality.

I love this backpack so much. There space for everything and anything, yet it still feels light on my back! The shoulder straps are amazing, and I love the laptop compartment - very helpful.

great backpack, light and durable. even when I put a ton of heavy stuff in it, it still felt light on my back. definitely the BEST backpack I've ever had!

The back pack is great and vey well built but the size specified in the details is incorrect. When I received the backpack I was disappointed to find out that it was smaller than described since I needed it for school.

Bought this as my replacement for my carry-on backpack for plane and other travel. It is too heavy for hiking in my opinion but as a bomb-proof organizer of essential carry-with-you travel stuff it excels. There is a pocket for everything and the handle on the face always comes in handy. Really good laptop carrier if that is important for you. I expect a couple of decades of great service like my last North Face.

I took this through France, Italy, and Greece. It got dirty and when I got home, it cleaned up beautifully! It has a nice fit, is easy to adjust, and has decent organization. The big negative for me is that it falls over forward when you set it down. Otherwise I would give it 5 stars! I love the front sleeve that held not only my Kindle, but also my iPad 2 (old school!). This is the pocket in the front organization pocket. There's also the laptop pocket, but I used it for separating out paperwork. One other negative is the depth of the water bottle pockets. You need to carbiner clip it in if you use a 24 oz. or larger bottle (mine was a Klean Kanteen). I did get a lot of compliments on it!

The problem that I have found with this pack is that it is advertised here as 31liters, but the pack itself says it is 26 liters.

I love how many pockets it has, and one special for my laptop! The only thing I really don't like is how hare it is to clean!

Good compartment, easy for organize. But heavyweight (to me), and I don't think this backpack fits 31L

I was looking for a large capacity backpack to use when traveling and bought this. My luggage didn't fit as much as I expected.

So here's the deal. I've had this backpack for less than a year, and I want to love it because it sounds so great on paper. Lots of organizational pockets, stylish design, TSA layout laptop sleeve (a serious perk), and a large capacity. HOWEVER. The straps and back on this backpack are so incredibly uncomfortable. I assume the straps are attached high up on the back panel in order to provide the most support possible, but that means it digs in constantly to your shoulders, and sticks out further than other backpacks I've owned. Not to mention the back wall is hard as a rock, making it painful to take on and off. On top of that, because the internal compartments are much taller than they are wide, it's actually fairly difficult to fit a good amount of books/change of clothes in here, because you are so limited width wise. Especially if you want to utilize the front organizational pockets, which are wonderful, but once you put things in them it reduces what large items you can actually add to the backpack. My guess is that for those who really use this pack for long hiking purposes it works well, but if you're looking for a school friendly backpack this is not the one.

Love the look of this bag. When I purchased it I was really hoping that this would be the end of my search for a functional everyday work bag. I have some HUGE (to me) and minor gripes about this bag. 1.) Spaces given to carry water bottles DO NOT accommodate a 40oz HydroFlask. Get with the times North Face. Every time I bend over my water bottle comes falling out. I'm sure this is fine for the Nalgene's that were carried on campus in the early '00s but not today. 2.) The two vertical pockets on the front of this bag are barely functional (especially if you want to pack the mid-range pocket). I find myself carrying a light winter hat and gloves here. I'd much prefer this bag to feature other (or deeper) cell phone/sun glass pocket above 3.) This bag felt full and heavy with a light rain coat, light fleece and my plastic lunch container in the main "deep" pocket. I was also carrying an iPad and a UERoll blue tooth speaker. Was really hoping to be able to fit more in this bag 4.) I straight up need/want more pockets to organize stuff inside the bag. I have older model TNF bags that offered great internal organization and I don't understand why they moved away from it. MORE POCKETS INSIDE THE BAG. BOTTOM LINE: I was really hoping for more from this bag. All together it's well put together and looks great. For a bag that claims to offer lots of space I personally found it lacking.

I am a high school student who is enrolled in mostly AP classes. This means that I am constantly lugging around four binders and multiple textbooks, notebooks, and my laptop. The backpack is great. The pockets hold everything that I need to carry, and so far, it has proved very durable. My one issue is the "lie flat pocket." The zipper is of a lesser quality than the main pocket, and the fact that it runs the entire length of the backpack makes it very difficult to close as has resulted in some awkward situations as I drop everything out of the backpack.

First of all this is a very well made pack but for me its base weight is too heavy and it's designed so that the shoulders bear all of the weight. The laptop compartment is to tight for anything but the slimmest laptops. The fleece lining is nice and the pockets are well thought out. However the waist strap is USELESS. to have it around the waist the pack sits to low (i'm 5'10") and it takes no weight of your shoulders at all. This pack is defiantly not designed to be worn for long periods of time but would be a great school bag or for carrying lap top and documents on planes, trains etc but not good value for money for this purpose. Cant recommend for any outdoor activity.

The compartments are too small/tight. I carry a 3 subject notebook, a slim folder & a paperback to read on my commute in one compartment & I can barely fit my hand into it to get things in & out. Same w/ the main from compartment w/ all of the pockets - the contents of my purse go in there (hand sanitizer, small iPhone charger, gum, Kleenex, compact, lip balm, sunglasses) & there is almost no room for my smaller than most wallet. Again, I can barely reach in to find things & take them out. So frustrating! And if I take my laptop to class in its compartment, there's no room for anything else in that one. Even more frustrating is that it doesn't keep my water bottle snug & it falls out constantly. Makes me crazy. Also, the thin straps that hang from the arm straps (which are uncomfortable) get caught on the desks at my college. I never thought a backpack could be so poorly designed & fraught with issues.