Customer Reviews Chrome Rostov

I love this bag! I previously owned one of the messenger bags (can't remember the size - medium?). I think this is a much more practical bag. I use it on a daily basis to carry my laptop, charger and various other items (clothes, keys, wallet, etc). It's also the only bag I use when I travel. If it doesn't fit in the bag, I don't need it!

I love this Backpack. It's my second favorite right next to the Chrome messenger bag I own. I use it daily and it carries my laptop, chargers, lunch and a change of clothes. Pro: -Holds a lot. All the essentials. -Can accommodate a 15" laptop -So comfortable! It's padded in all the right places I can wear this thing for hours. Con: -Not 100% waterproof. I have been riding/walking in the rain and had moisture come through the top portion near the Zipper and handle. Light rain is just fine. -could use a few more pockets. But the size and comfort of this bag far outweighs that.

I bought this bag to replace a Topo Designs Daypack, which was too slim to allow tupperwares to sit flat on the bottom. The Rostov has a big enough footprint to allow me to stack multiple tupperwares without any tipping over, which is the main reason I bought it. Admittedly, that's a pretty fringe use case, but on the off chance anyone else is looking for a laptop backpack that's good for transporting food containers, this is it. Unfortunately, the Rostov is let down by what I can only call a deranged design decision—the laptop sleeve billows outward like three inches. I've owned a lot of bags, and until this one I had always assumed laptop sleeves were a solved problem. Sew in a padded foam slot. Give it a velcro flap (or don't). This is the first laptop sleeve I've seen that appears to have been designed to transport a 17" gaming laptop and a full-size keyboard, mouse, and portable hard drive. If that's what you need to haul around in your laptop sleeve, then look no further. If it isn't and you have a normal 13-15" laptop, prepare for frustration. While walking with the bag on, my laptop slaps against my back 2 times per second. Adjusting the shoulder straps gives the laptop back-slaps more or less impact, but has no effect on their frequency. The only way to stop the slapping is to modify the laptop sleeve yourself. I ordered a bunch of heavy-duty binder clips and used 6 of them to pinch aside the excess material. The clips fall off almost every day. It sucks, and if daily laptop transportation is what you're after, this bag sucks too. If you don't ever need to use the laptop sleeve for a laptop (the sleeve could probably hold a towel for a weekend trip), then this is a four-star bag—it's comfortable, understated, and durable. I'd give it five stars if they fixed the laptop sleeve, used better zippers, and gave it better weatherproofing.

Man, this bag is: okay. I mean it feels super solid and well made. Lot's of attention to detail and that kind of thing ... but after using it for a couple weeks, I'm already retiring it to my closet. It's just not comfortable. It's stiff in a weird way. And here's the bigger bummer for me: things get wet in the bag. Not through the front, but through the back topish area. When it rains or on one occasion when (on a hot day) when I sweat, the inside back area of the bag gets wet from the top down. So, I'd say I'm pretty ambivalent about the whole thing.