The initial purchase
Like many others, I first learned of the Red Oxx Air Boss travel bag from Doug Dyment at OneBag.com. I initially dismissed my need for a $225 dollar bag due to price alone. Not all was lost though, as the insight gained from OneBag.com was priceless.
Two to three weeks away from a planned business trip, I finally decided to place the order. One Air Boss, one Travel Basket, and a few extra Monkey’s Fist Zip Knots. The package arrived days later.
Upon opening the package and inspecting the Air Boss for the first time, I knew I had just purchased an excellent bag. The quality of the Air Boss is superb. If the average rolling suitcase is like a Honda Civic, the Air Boss is like a BMW M3 (or [insert quality car here]). From the durable canvas material that constitutes the majority of the bag to the zippers and the wonderful zip knots, it’s immediately obvious that this is an extremely well-made bag.
And then the business trip was cancelled. I was actually a little sad I wasn’t going to get to the chance to put the bag through its paces. So I did like anyone else would do and scheduled a vacation.
Alright, so the vacation had been planned (mostly) in advance. Just a simple trip from Dallas to Boston to visit with friends for a week. Packing a bag for business is much easier for me than packing for vacation, so I knew this was going to be an even better test for the Air Boss.
The first trip, the night before leaving, and the packing test
I worked for UPS at a customer counter for about a year in college. In that job, I discovered a strange love: packing. The night before leaving, I spent a ridiculous amount of time (2 hours) seeing just how much the Air Boss could fit comfortably. I paired it down, and I admit, I still overpacked by a bit, but here is what I ultimately shoved in the bag:
- 1 pair of exercise shorts
- 1 pair of swimming trunks
- 1 pair of jeans (w/belt)
- 2 pairs of shoes (1 were flip-flops)
- 2 pairs of shorts (both w/belts)
- 3 polo shirts
- 5 t-shirts
- 7 pairs of underwear
- 3 undershirts
- 6 pairs of long socks
- 3 pairs of ankle socks
- 1 qt. size bag of liquids
- hairbrush and miscellaneous small personal items
- iphone and ipod shuffle chargers
- 1 large paper-back book
I think I may have even packed in a few other small items, but regardless, that’s a lot of clothes for a single carry-on bag. I originally had a few more polo shirts packed, but decided I didn’t need them. (Crazy, but pretty much everything else was used except for some of the socks and swim trunks.)
You can pack Godzilla in the Air Boss, but how does it perform?
The Air Boss packed tightly with normal clothes isn’t that heavy. Weight is subjective, but the weight with the above contents didn’t bother me. The bag itself doesn’t weigh much at all, so it’s what you put in it that matters.
The shoulder strap shows no mercy in its gripping strength. This has both positive and negative factors. The positive — the bag has an extremely slim chance of falling off your shoulder. It’s just not going to happen. The negative — shifting the bag requires you to lift the weight of the bag from your shoulder before moving the strap.
One of the best quotes I found when searching for reviews for the Air Boss:
Your outer garment will be missing a sleeve before your bag hits the ground.
It’s true. Okay, maybe not. But it’s damn-near close.
One thing I was just slightly worried about from my over-packing of the bag was whether or not it was going to fit in the carry-on space provided on the MD-80 American was using to take us to Boston. We boarded a little late because American began boarding right on time and I was away emptying my body of fluids before the flight. That means that we had to wait longer than normal for people to put their stuff into the overhead bins.
One guy absolutely could not fit his bag into the overhead bins. It just wasn’t going to work. No way. After minutes of watching his futile attempts, the lovely and patient flight attendant told him to take the bag back to his seat so they could deal with it later. Finally, I got my chance. No hassle, no fuss — the Air Boss slid right into place with tons of room to spare. Okay, not tons, but it definitely slid in better than anything I’ve used in the past (and there WAS room to spare). Fears begone.
I didn’t travel with a single bag as OneBag.com taught me. Another bag also recently grabbed my interest: the Crumpler Six Million Dollar Home camera bag. I wasn’t about to go stuffing my camera and lenses into the middle compartment of the Air Boss anyway. It’s just not made for that (the bottom part of the bag is just canvas, no padding).
We arrived at Boston Logan from DFW International Airport a little early. Our friend was there to receive us and take us back to his and his wife’s apartment. No car, more adventure. We took a bus to the train station and rode a few trains to the final stop. After that, it was a quarter-mile walk to their apartment.
Trains, planes, and automobiles, and the Air Boss performed without a hitch. It was even more comfortable after I started putting the strap over the Crumpler strap. I sure was glad to have a bag light and small enough to carry on my shoulders and not have to wheel something around all day. Luckily, my friend was nice enough to wheel and carry around Sarah’s (my wife) bag.
Pictures!
The Red Oxx Air Boss
The opposite side of the Air Boss in Mariner Color
Claw Shoulder Strap
Monkey’s Fist Zip Knot
Air Boss Packing
More Air Boss Packing
Even more Air Boss Packing
Me, shouldering the Red Oxx Air Boss in Boston
In closing
Sarah and I both ordered a few other bags (the tri-fold and nomad shave kits) for the trip before we left. Unfortunately, they were both out of stock and we didn’t receive them in time (missed them by a few hours actually, they arrived the day of our flight out to Boston). Oh well — next time (I’ve been using the nomad shave kit around the house, living in tight quarters at the moment, and it’s working out very nicely).
Next time I’ll try not to pack so much. And the cool thing about the Air Boss is that it will actually reward you for a lighter, slimmer load. Pack a single pair of underwear in a rolling suitcase and you’ve still got the same sized heavy rolling suitcase. Pack the same in the Air Boss and you’ve got a much more manageable bag. Needless to say, I really like the bag.
