Briggs & Riley Weekender Bag, Black, BL256-4, Baseline

Easily tears down. Very weak stitching. After just a couple of uses the slip-through back panel separated from the main exterior in the corner. Out of curiosity I tried to pull it further to see how bad the stitching is and it easily went off. I was surprised how effortlessly it did so. Shoulder strap d rings scratch easily and show the underlying metal. Thread of the seam below one of the d rings was so weak that the whole seam tore apart. Side flaps don’t cinch together as photos show. The clasps are too small, they can only cinch one of two. Bottom padding and the shoulder strap are good.

Doesn’t hold it’s shape, but the lack of structure makes it lighter and easier to store. The handle straps go behind/into the shell all the way to the floor, which means they will last long and not rip loose at the points where they join the bag. Other buyers have complained that the clips in the grommets on the ends/sides of the bag don’t easily clip into the grommets in the flaps at the ends of the top zipper. I have bought a black Black Diamond LiteWire carabiner and clip the two grommets (at either end of the zipper) to each other (on top of/over the bag) rather than down the sides. However, if you get a bag and have this reported problem (clipping the end grommets to grommets on the side), it’s an easy fix to buy two carabiners to connect them. The Black Diamond carabiners come in many colors and look sharp, it will look like they came with the bag.

Update: Worked well as a second piece of checked luggage, for two different people (i.e., two of these duffle bags), on a long international trip which required three flights each way to reach a remote destination. During that same trip, a large hardsided piece of luggage was cracked (different brand), so I know at some point the luggage was handled roughly. I will likely typically use these duffle bags as back-up luggage (i.e., flat packed luggage, inside a primary suitcases most of the time, unless otherwise needed). Regardless, the two bags purchased easily handled being heavily packed checked luggage. Happy with this purchase. Original: Initially ordered a different Briggs & Riley duffel bag, but it would have not folded flat enough for easy packing, to be used as a back-up duffel bag when traveling (i.e., for a return flight, when an additional piece of luggage was desired). I have not yet used the duffel bags, but they appears to be well made, the duffels easily slides over the handles of my rolling luggage as well these duffels could be packed and used as additional luggage when returning from a trip.

The bag was a Christmas gift to my friend. It was to complete a larger piece of Briggs and Riley luggage that I gave him last year. He advised that he likes the new piece too. I actually thought the carry-on bag had more structure to it. It does not have the structure I wanted but he’s happy with it.

I recently saw this item which I had purchased as a gift, sent directly to the recipient in Sept 2023. I was very disappointed as there was no structure in the bag as pictured. It carried more like a hanging bag than a travel duffle. I would be happy if there could be an insert for the bottom to hold its shape.

Love the space.