Blindsave Bag review

First, I want to highlight that this is no advertisement for Blindsave. The post is only a review about the bag and my personal experience and opinion since the Blindsave Goalie Camp 2019.
Facts about the Bag:

• 80 x 40 x 40 cm
• Wheel-case and backpack at once
• Three handles (front, top and side)
• One large main compartment with a flexible partitioning system
• One compartment with mesh
• Three additional pockets for other stuff
• Integrated suitcase tape to decrease pressure on zippers

Introduction

Many of you have been looking forward to the launch of the Blindsave goalie bag. Currently the pre-order process has started and soon, a few of you will be able to hold the new goalie bag in your hands. For all who are undecided yet, this post might help you. I (Lars) will describe you about my experience with the bag and the advantage and disadvantages that I’ve experienced with the bag during my first period of use.

When did I get to the goalie bag?

I bought the Goalie Bag on Sunday (4 Jul 2019) at the last day of the Blindsave Camp. Until then, I have used a normal travel bag to carry my goalie stuff from A to B for three years. For goalie camps of several days this means that I carried one duffel bag (for goalie bag), one hand luggage bag (regular clothes) and one backpack. All my regular clothes are stored in the hand luggage bag as I do not like to mix my goalie equipment with fresh clothes, especially when I trained in the goalie stuff for three entire days.

How was your first trip with the back?

After I bought the bag, I moved all my equipment into the new goalie bag and was surprised how much space I had left. The total weight was around 14kg and there was still plenty of free space and even some small unused pockets.
However, the first stress test happened already at Riga Airport. My flight to Spain was by a different airline compared to my flight to Riga and this airline had stricter regulations for cabin luggage. In other words:

• Outward flight: No weighting of my hand luggage
• Return flight: Max. 8kg in total for backpack and hand luggage combined

Unfortunately, the total weight of my cabin luggage was 14.8kg, which means I had 5.8kg (82%) overloaded. My cabin luggage contained all my normal clothes plus electronic devices like tablet, speakers, headphones and power bank and a book in my backpack.
Now, the big repacking and compressed packing began. Shoes, almost all electronic devices (expect headphones) plus half of my clothes moved into the goalie bag. After 10 minutes and the eyes of many other passengers, the goalie bag was completely filled up the first time. All spaces and pockets were used, and I got back to the luggage desk of the airline for a second weighting. The baggage claim was accepted. The first journey began.

How much experience do you already have with the bag?

It is offseason, which means I did not travel too much to floorball games or tournaments in the last weeks. However, I already used the back for four different types of carrying. They are the following:

• Carrying goalie stuff plus normal clothes from the Blindsave Goalie Camp 2019 to the Floorball International Camp 2019 to San Lorenzo Spain and finally back to Germany
• Non floorball journey by train through Germany to the border of Denmark
• Usage for general floorball training
• Carrying goalie stuff plus regular clothes to the Czech Open 2019 in Prague

Does the bag needs a lot of space in the locker room?

First, I think a floorball goalie always needs the biggest space in the locker room. Dependent of the size of the bag even more. The Blindsave bag gives you two possibilities to pack your stuff.

1. You prefer to put the bag on the floor and spread it out. This way you need plenty of space as you double the size of the back (80cm x 80cm)
2. The partition walls were used as a kind of shelf, so that the bag can now also be opened vertically. In other words, the bag become a small cupboard. The wheels and the sturdy knobs prevent it from tipping over.

How is the packing of the bag?

I think it is the first time of my goalie carrier that I really like to pack all my equipment in a structured way in the different pockets. My old travel bag had only one big pocket and it was more one big pile of clothes. My towel made the division of the pocket. This means fresh clothes, a towel above them and goalie equipment on top.
Now, in the Blindsave bag there is a second pocket with a zipper in the main compartment to store my clean clothes. In order to get an even better organisation of the floorball equipment in your bag, Blindsave supplies three separators, functioning as walls in the bag. The separators can be placed individually in the bag, staying in place with Velcro fastener to give everyone the optimum structure, matching your needs.
In addition the bag has four pockets on the outside of the bag. I use the biggest pocket on the bottom of the bag to store my shoes. This pocket is big enough to store not just the goalie shoes, but also a pair of running shoes and a pair flip flops. The second largest pocket on the outside I used for my small stuff, like finger tape, shower gel, energy bars and all the small stuff. I store my gloves and wristbands separate in a smaller pocket, a mesh pocket on the outside of the bag. The last and smallest pocket is used to store my keys, so they don’t go wondering around my bag.

How much goalie equipment do you get into the bag?

Let’s find it out :-)
The following list shows you all items that I put in the bag. As goalie pants and other stuff are really different in terms of stiffness and sizes, I add the size and the brand to each item. Please note that the naming of brands is no advertisement.
I am packing my Blindsave goalie bag with:

• 2x Unihoc Floorball goalie shoes (EU 43)
• 2x pair Sport socks (EU 39-43)
• 1x Blindsave knee protectors (L)
• 2x Blindsave knee pads (1x hard, 1x mixed padding)
• 1x Under Armour compression tights (L)
• 1x Salming short protection shorts (M)
• 1x Salming jockstrap (M)
• 2x Blindsave goalie pants (M)
• 2x Under Armour short sleeve compression shirt (M)
• 1x Blindsave Rebound control protection vest (M)
• 1x Unihoc helmet
• 1x Blindsave Elbow protection (S-M)
• 1x Blindsave elbow protection preliminary model (S-M)
• 2x Blindsave Jerseys (M, L)
• 2x Blindsave gloves
• 2x Blindsave wristbands with rebound control
• 1x Mini microfiber towel for gloves
• 1x Small towel for the game
• 1x Big towel for the shower after the game
• 1x Drinking bottle (1L)
• 3x Cereal bars
• 2x packages of Vitamin and magnesium
• 2x rolls of sports tape

The whole packing worked really well and I followed my packing procedure that I explained in one of my answers above. All the equipment fitted into the bag at the first time. I did not repacked anything.

What are the advantages of the bag?

I really like the structure of the bag. The system how and where you can store your stuff. Especially the flexible distribution system in the main pocket is awesome and helps me a lot to get dressed up out of a tidied up goalie bag. Belts inside the main pocket help fixate your stuff, that when you use the bag as “cupboard” in your locker room, that not everything will fall out. Furthermore, the combination of wheel case and back pack is amazing. On one side the wheel case is welcome on long distances on the airport or train station. But also the back pack for short walks or rides by bike to the sports hall is comfortable and easy to use. I do however advice to make sure that the carrying back pack straps are stowed in the designated pocket (this pocket is not listed in the pockets above) before using the bag as wheel case, otherwise they will drag over the floor.
In terms of space, this bag has the perfect size for me. One goalie suit, additional running equipment, fresh clothes and some hand-eye coordination equipment fits into it easily.

What are the disadvantages of the bag?

Where I like the distribution of the bag on the one hand, this unfortunately has a disadvantage on the other side. The seam of the inner pocket close to the outer zipper is the weak spot of the bag to my opinion. When you pack the bag a little fuller, the zipper is tense on this point. This tension is visible to the bare eye. In order to relieve the zipper and the tension on this place in the seam, you can use the belt, which is fastened at the same spot.
Another point to consider is the carrying straps. Although it happened only twice, I want to mention it. One carry strap contains out of the carrying strap, a carbine hook and a kind of ball joint that connects the two parts. When connected correctly, the weakest part of this construction, the ball joint detaches and your bag will fall. This might occur faster with a fully loaded bag, than a lighter one but it is a weaker spot to the construction. Please notice that the ball joint did not break, I just concluded it is not designed for such short power impact in lifting heavy weights up. One click and the ball joint was back in position and I pulled up the goalie bag it bit easier. However, it is something to keep my eye on and be aware off.

Conclusion

I hope this post helped you to get an insight about the new bag. My last trip, to Czech Open 2019, showed me that buying of the bag was a good decision. As the sport halls of this tournament are spread all over Prague, I had to carry my things with the train, metro, bus and on foot over smooth roads, but also on stone roads and stairs. Therefore, the combination of wheel-case and backpack was perfect. In addition, the large main compartment with a flexible partitioning system ensured a fast and orderly change of clothes, without any stress after arrival to the sport hall. Of course, this requires a good packing in the morning, but I recommend investing these few minutes in the morning for the packing of the bag as they pay off during the day. And as the saying goes: “The game starts before the game begins”. After the game, equipment was easily repacked into the bag and I was fast able to move on.
Overall, I really like the bag and it is an amazing goalie bag for floorball goalies and maybe useful even for other kind of sports. The size, the carrying comfort and the flexibility of storing equipment makes it to a perfect goalie bag for ME and I am looking forward to carry my goalie equipment to the games next season.
However, I also want to point out that I do not have any reference bag of other floorball brands to say that this is the best floorball goalie bag on the market at the moment. This isn't what I want either. Furthermore, I want to highlight again that this is no advertisement for Blindsave. The post is only a review about the bag and my personal experience and opinion since the Blindsave Goalie Camp 2019. It might be that another goalie bag fits better to you, but you have to make your own experience. If you want to share your experience with us about the new Blindsave bag or other bags, do not hesitate to contact us. One last point, I think brands always want to improve their products and likes an honest review, whereas I contacted Blindsave and reported them the two disadvantages.