Customer Reviews The North Face Base Camp Duffel - Medium

Use the product for weekend trips. I like the look of the bag but the zippers are very unnecessarily hard to use.

Best travel duffel I have ever used. My only issue is the handles on the updated design. I am on my second bag, still in love, just wishing there were still the tight handles on each side (like in the other size bags) instead of the handles that meet in the middle on the current Medium design. The weight is distributed oddly and it's wildly inconvenient when trying to also carry other bags off a baggage claim carousel.

I bought this bag a few months ago, having used TNF backpacks for nearly 5 years now. bag looks great, despite being a bit heavy. My only real major concern is the carrying handle. It feels so cheap and uncomfortable. Im very surprised a detailed oriented company such as TNF would let this bag leave production overlooking this. It bothers me enough to where I'm contemplating returning the bag.

Iam doing a long trip through southeastasia and i bought this duffrlbag before. Its practical because you have easy acces to your clothing and you dont hsve to unpack everythibg like in a normal backpack. The big con is that is really not made for long distance walks. My shoulders hurts after 10minutes of carrying it. If they would have a extra waistbelt this bag would be perfect for travelling!

The bag is well made but poorly designed. Even people who rave about it note the problems with badly designed and placed straps. Sorry, this is an "Except for that Mrs. Lincoln" bag.

I have used this bag on every trip I have taken this summer, and it is still a great bag. It is generally water resistant, although the bottom fabric is less resistant. The main issue I have with this bag is the straps. The bag is quite large and reaches from the top of my neck past my back. When the bag is full, it holds weight well if you use the handles on any side, but the straps designed to allow you to carry it as a backpack, often fail. They fall out of the plastic adjustment piece because the cloth strap only has an individual line of string to secure it. If they provided better straps so that it could be easily transported through an airport/foreign environment as a backpack, I would be thrilled.

I don't like the new handles on these bags. I have several of the old style and was shocked when I got my new bag home and discovered the handles were gone.

I own two of these, a medium, and an xtra large, that I've used for years, for everything from gear hauling to motorcycle camping. They've survived falls, bike drops, and the TSA. So it was a no brainer to get another for my wife for a tandem motorcycle adventure- at least until I saw the new "improved" version. As others have pointed out, the removal of the side straps makes grabbing and carrying the bag awkward. The shoulder straps are a pain to remove and reattach, and are far more intrusive than the side straps ever were. And the new medium at least is smaller than the old version. So they took a near perfect bag and made it worse. I can only imagine the sales meeting at which this redesign was pitched. I bought a first gear roll top bag for 2/3 the price and won't go back. Ciao guys.

I can't lock the duffel with a padlock anymore!!! I didn't even check the zipper because that's one of the best features for traveling. Please fire the genius who decided to take them of. Thank you.

First of all, I got this because of the size and tough material. I've just looked at it online but I'm surprised that it is not the same as advertised on their video! The video has shown that the zippers have the wholes to put a padlock. Mine doesn't and is just an ordinary zipper without any hole to put the locks! Second, the design was of the handles was different! There used to be to handles with velcro that you use if you don't want to carry as backpack! I totally overlooked this when I was too excited to buy this. :(

GOOD

Solid bag and would be perfect if they would bring back the handles and make the backpack straps quick release.

I bought it for a scuba trip because I wanted so Etching without wheels that would be easy to catty around airports and small planes. It seems tough and rugged and while I didn't test it apart from some rain showers it seemed pretty water proof. Carrying it was a pain. I jammed it full. The back back straps weren't very comfortable. The small carry straps obviously worked but with it full and heavy weren't great either. It needs a long strap to hang over one should a la a messenger bag. I rigged one up. It could use more smaller pockets. I strapped a long cylindrical fly rod tube to the side with the straps that came with. It let wanting to slide out despite me tightening the straps to the hilt. It needs to include a pocket or something to put the end of whatever you've got strapped to the side in. It did come with a nice yellow (matched the color of the bag) mesh back to put stuff in instead of just having gear rollling around loose inside the bag. That was a nice bonus.

Love the bag and it looks great but it's not waterproof as I was led to believe from the website. Upon receiving the bag I decided to see if it's waterproof or water resistant, I set the bag in the bath tub with about an inch or two of water and let it sit for two hours. I placed a towel inside the bag before leaving and when I came back the towel was soaked. For being a rubber bag it was not as waterproof as I was led to believe.

Bought this bag after speaking with friends that owned one for 8 years. Apparently a lot has changed over last decade because the 2019 version is no where near the same quality as the older ones. The brand new bag I bought arrived fresh with crooked and loose stitching at the ends of the bag. The outside material was discolored and creased in serval spots where you could feel the material was thin and ready to give way to being torn, or punctured. The best part was the end caps of the bag were sewn on crooked and uneven. The carry handles on the ends of the bag were also sewn on in a misplaced fashion. The bag when filled looked like it was built extremely poor with very little attention to detail. The sad part is the looks were 100% spot on. After going over the bag I called customer service. They very friendly, and helpful. I sent the bag back, and the gentleman over nighties me a new one. Thinking I must have just gotten a lemon (I mean those things happen right? No big deal) I was excited to see the new arrive. To my dismay, the new bag was in the same condition as the first. Customer service was once again great. Im sending the bag back today, and they be overnighting me a new one. Fingers crossed this crafted much better.

Didn't catch that the new design if this bag: lacks side strap handles, no locking zipper, and fewer lash loops. Will return it and look elsewhere.

For such a durable looking bag, it struck me it's unable to withstand the lightest drizzle. Tied on the back of my motorcycle, my clothes were soaked after the first rain drops. Northface could have used a lighter material given any water resistance is not present. (Small and medium in use, both have the same issue) Sure it can be transported up a mountain via a yak - on very sunny days.

I bought this as a weekend bag. It's great, however... it would be nice if it had a shoulder strap... The backpack straps are great but are not convenient when you just need to pick up the bag quickly and are too big to sling just on your shoulder because they don't stay together. I felt a little mislead after receiving the bag as I had seen someone else with one and it had a shoulder strap. So I'm not sure what happened to this line of bags that don't have one.

I love my back, bur was dissapointed to find out, that tre shoulderstrap has ben omdigtes in tre updated version. :-(

Loved the old one and went to buy new. Love the addition of compartments, and of course materials look great. However the knuckleheads took away the hand straps to carry the bag! That means that when its heavy and you want to just pick it up quickly, you dont have a way! Moreover, when you want to just carry something not "inside" the bag but on top, the hand straps were a great way to keep stuff secure enough. Now you have none of that. Seriously, TNF: bring back the old straps!!!

The inside of the bag has turned into a sticky mess. After sending the bag to TNF for warranty, they sent it back to me saying it wasn't covered under their warranty as it's not a manufacturers defect. What?! This seems exactly like a manufactures defect. They didn't even bother trying to fix it. They said nothing could be done with my bag. I guess they don't know what a patch is. Don't waste your time with this bag or North Face. They're obviously not the environmentally responsible company they claim to be. Spend the extra cash on a Patagonia, at least they stand behind their product.

Basically used this as a lunch bag for work. Advertised to be very durable, but that was not my experience. Kinda bummed, it's the only tnf product that hasn't held up for me. Customer service (Canada) was pretty lame.

I bought the base camp because I had read good reviews. Unfortunately, The North Face quality has gone down hill. After my second use, the straps began ripping apart from the padding and a hole opened up in the bag. I was traveling while the rips happened, and I contacted North Face customer support, hopeful that they would help. Unfortunately, they were completely unhelpful and offered up no solutions whatsoever. This will be my last North Face purchase. I was really hopeful about this bag because of the features, but the build quality on these things is just terrible. Purchase at your own risk, and be prepared to buy a replacement bag while traveling, as I had to do.

I am currently travelling across Europe and this bag hasn't even held up on my first few days. The seams have torn and the webbing material that is used for the handles has completely ripped the bag fabric away so there is a huge hole in the bag! Brand new. Pretty poor quality. The real kicker though is that after repeated attempts to contact TNF I have not even gotten an email back from a customer service member. So poor. I will not be counting on north face in the future for this reason. There are plenty of other companies that will help when you have an issue with their product in the field and I will be shopping with them in the future!

I was excited to buy this product as Northface normally makes very reliable and durable products. I went on one trip with it and had only 44lbs inside (it was weighed at the airport). As I was taking the bag to the baggage check in, the seam that connects the top of the shoulder strap to the bag completely came apart. Extremely disappointed and frustrated that I paid that amount of money on a bag that couldn't even make it on one trip.