SkyRoll Carry-On Luggage
Literally an 'outside the box' approach
to garment storage
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The SkyRoll carry-on
roll aboard suitcase is notable for the wrap-around suit
carrier that is wrapped around the outside of the inner
suitcase.
With a capacity for
three suits, it can carry a lot of clothing, and SkyRoll
claims it reduces wrinkling and creasing.
The design changes
needed to allow for a wrap-around suit carrier have,
however, meant some compromises to the usability of the bag
as a whole.
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This bag offers an innovative
concept - an external suit carrier that is wrapped around the
roll-aboard case.
The wrap-around external suit
carrier offers uncertain advantages over an internal suit
carrier, and imposes limitations on how the case is designed and
its size.
If you perceive the value in
the wrap around suit carrier, you'll be pleased with this
product. But if you're happy enough with an internal suit
carrier, then you'll probably consider the other design
compromises necessitated in this product make it less appealing
than a regular bag.
Price
and availability |
$199 list price on
the
manufacturer's website.
Some retailers carry the bag as well. |
Warranty |
Per their website,
the bag comes with a lifetime warranty against
manufacturing defects. In other words, airline
damage and other issues are not covered. |
Official size |
22" x 14" x
9" (45"
total) with loaded garment bag |
Measured maximum
external size |
24.5" x 14.5" x
10" (49" total)
Appreciably larger than the claimed size, these dimensions
are with the external garment bag empty.
The instructions with the bag claimed the garment bag
could hold three suits (plus other small bits and pieces
like ties and socks). I put one suit, one jacket,
and two shirts in the bag, rolled it around the case,
and measured the dimensions again.
To my surprise
they were only slightly larger - 24.5" x 15.5" x
10.25" (50.25" total). Yes, you almost
get 'something for nothing' with adding your outerwear
clothing to the bag this way. But, even with only
this minimal growth in overall bag dimensions, it is starting to get
noticeably oversized - good luck getting that through a
luggage sizing template, and onto a
plane. |
Measured internal
size |
18" x 11.5" x 7"
The long dimension (18") can shrink or grow a bit
depending on how large a supplementary storage area is -
it shares a common internal wall with the main storage
area, so as one grows, the other shrinks. |
Expandability |
No. |
Weight |
8 lbs claimed.
This appears to be for the case only, adding the wrap
around bag increased the weight to 9.6lbs. |
Construction |
The bag is made from
1200 denier water resistant ballistic polyester.
When the bag is wrapped around the case, the edges of
the bag are the exposed 'wear' parts on the upper part
of the case/bag combo. There is an extra piece of
ribbon folded over the bag edges to increase its life
and wear resistance, but that is all.
The lower part of the bag/case combo is well protected
by protruding parts from the case itself.
If being used without the wrap-around bag, the bottom of
the case remains well protected but the top gives the
impression of being the most likely first wear/failure
point on the case. The zips are exposed and
there's no extra strengthening of the corners.
The interior of the case and its frame seem particularly
strongly constructed. This is just as well,
because everything is riveted, making 'field repairs' (eg
replacing broken wheels or handles) close to impossible.
Both compartments are lined.
Overall, this presents as a well constructed bag
internally, but it is disappointing that no 'field
repairs' are possible and the top edges of the bag seem
vulnerable to wear and damage. |
Color choices |
Black only. |
Handles |
The bag has a carry
handle on the top of the bag. There is also a
'pull' type handle on the bottom to help when stowing
the unit with either end facing out in an airplane
overhead bin. It does
not have a traditional handle on one of the long sides.
This would of course be difficult to arrange with the
wrap around bag. |
Towing Handle
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The towing handle extends with a bit of a curve on it.
SkyRoll say this enables you to keep the bag itself more
upright, and so have less perceived weight at the end of
your handle. This is probably correct, although not to
a major extent.
The handle has two extension lengths, 36" and 39.5".
One design problem is that when the handle is shut, it
is difficult to get at it to extend it. It
recesses snugly into a gap between the bag and the case, and
it is difficult to get your fingers down and around the
handle to then pull it out again. SkyRoll advise
that this has been corrected in more recent production
models.
Telescoping design with three sections. It is
mounted outside of the case, and has a protective piece
of fabric over it. When the bag is wrapped around,
it is of course then fully protected. |
Wheels |
Two wheels that
roll with a little resistance, each measuring about 2.7" by 0.8".
Half of each wheel is protected inside the
bag structure. The wheel structures, while
standing proud of the bag, seem strongly constructed. |
Stair skids |
No. |
Outside
compartments |
There are outside
compartments on the bag - see below.
The case itself has
a distinctive design by having a 'top' compartment at
the top of the case. Two zips run around three
sides of the top of the case, creating a hinge on the
back long side. You open the lid, and inside there
is a somewhat adjustable depth compartment that can go
down as far as about 6" (but each extra inch of top
compartment space means an inch less of main compartment
space).
Set into the inside
of the lid are spaces to hold credit cards or business
cards, cell phones, calculators, and other small items.
It is doubtful many of us will use these spaces for such
things, but it is a nice extra touch to add them to the
bag.
There is also a
pouch compartment on the flap which opens to allow
access to the main inside compartment. This pouch
measures about 13" x 9" and has a zipper running across
the narrow dimension, about 10.5" from the bottom.
The pouch is nicely padded, but if you have the bag
wrapped around the case, this pouch will of course be
entirely blocked and inaccessible. |
Inside compartments
in base |
None.
It is relevant to note that, unlike most other
roll-aboard bags, this one does not have a full sized
opening lid. Typically, roll-aboard bags have zips
on three sides and the fourth side is a hinge, giving
you convenient open access to everything inside the bag.
With this bag, there is a three sided zip opening in the
middle of the lid. This opening measures about 14"
x 10", making it a little awkward to get to things in
the far corners if the bag is tightly packed. |
Inside compartments
in lid |
No. |
Suit carrier
included |
Yes - this is the
external wrap around bag, discussed below. |
Other Removable
holders inside |
No. |
Waterproof
compartment |
No. |
Packing Straps |
No. |
External carry
hook/strap |
No. |
ID holder |
No. |
Other features |
Yes - the wrap
around garment bag. SkyRoll say that this wrap
around bag eliminates the need to fold your clothes in
half or thirds as per a typical garment bag, but
instead, your clothes are, at the most, subjected to
some gentle wide radius 90 degree folds, thereby
reducing the wrinkles and fold lines you might otherwise
get in your clothes.
They also say that the combined case and suit carrier
enable you to take two carry on items onto the plane
instead of one. This is true, but you do get a
smaller case, and the combined size of both is over all
airlines' official size limits (but these are rarely
enforced).
This is a longer but also narrower than normal bag.
It measures 47.5" x 20.75" - a garment bag that goes
inside a regular suitcase would typically measure about
44" x 23.5" and one that goes inside a roll-aboard would
measure about 38.5" x 21.5".
It has two zips that run around three sides of the
exterior, hinging on one of the long sides.
Opening up the bag shows a simple lie-flat space to
place clothing on. There is no hook for hangars
(indeed they recommend against using hangars due to the
bag being rolled around the outside of a suitcase rather
than being folded flat inside a suitcase), and there are
no other internal compartments or things on the inside.
On the exterior there is a pouch measuring about 19.25"
x 14" on one side with a zip running along the long
dimension; this is on the side that will become the
'outside' of the bag once it has been rolled around the
suitcase. On the other side - eventually to be the
'inside side' there are two mesh pockets, one measuring
18.75" x 8" and the other 18.75" x 11.5". Both
have zips along one long side.
A booklet that came with the suitcase suggests the bag can hold
three suits, plus ties and other small items. I
tested a unit by placing only one lightweight suit, a
jacket, and two long sleeve cotton shirts in it, and not
adding anything extra in the way of ties, socks,
underwear, etc. The
first impression was how narrow the bag was, requiring
me to have to scrunch in the items to fit. The
second impression was the lack of structure for how to
place the items (not on hangers) flat and loose into the
bag. It was not as easy as with a regular
tri-folding suiter insert that comes with some carry-on
and regular suitcases.
After placing the items as evenly as possible and
zipping it up, I then rolled it around the carry-on as
per the instructions. It had two snap clips to
attach one end to the carry-on, and then three more with
adjustable straps to secure the outer end to the bag
itself. There was also a thick velcro strip
running along one of the edges to secure the bag to the
case, but no velcro on the other edge.
The bag rolled up fairly neatly and tightly against the
case, with the outer large pouch ending up positioned on
the front of the bag and spilling around to one side (be
sure only to put soft things in this pouch). After
cinching the adjustable straps tight, there were 5" or
slightly longer pieces of spare webbing hanging loose
from each of these three straps, which looked to me like
a problem waiting to happen (getting jammed inside an
automatic luggage handling system). It took a bit
of thought the first few times to line up the bag around
the right way and with the correct side up, to mate it
properly with the main suitcase, but once you get the
method mastered, it becomes relatively simple.
It seems fair to accept SkyRoll's claim that the bag is
capable of holding three suits, based on my positive
results with something equivalent to two suits.
Is the external (rather than internal) garment bag a
good idea or a bad idea? Skyroll claims their
advantage is this garment bag eliminates the need to
fold suits and dresses, reduced wrinkling and creasing,
and a more compact piece of luggage.
Maybe it might do these things, but there are
trade-offs that you must be willing to compromise on.
For example, with the bag wrapped around the case,
there's no way you can convenient access the case.
There is a small 'top loading' compartment that you can
access, but if you wanted to access the main
compartment, you have to first take the bag off (and
then put it back on again afterwards). This takes
a fair amount of space to do properly, and isn't
something I'd enjoy doing at security when asked to open
the bag up. A regular
carry-on gives you the option - do I use all the space
for 'stuff' or do I use much of the space to put suits,
etc, into the carry-on, and possibly in or not in the
provided internal suit holder. But the SkyRoll has
no such duality. The size of the carry-on is
permanently reduced.
One omission with this bag was any way to hang it up
inside a hotel room closet. You have to take the
clothes out of the carrier, put them on hangars and hang
them up, then reverse the process when packing to leave
again. Particularly for a business traveler
changing hotels every day or two, this adds to the
hassle factor of packing and unpacking.
It is, however, an interesting concept and literally an
'outside the box' approach to luggage design. |
Review methodology
Please note that weights and
measurements are approximate. Measurements in particular
are surprisingly subjective, and almost no bag/case has even
measurements across every part of the bag.
External measurements are
usually taken at the largest possible part - like an airline
would do if trying to negatively prove your bag was illegally
oversized.
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Originally published
12 Oct 2007, last update
30 May 2021
You may freely reproduce or distribute this article for noncommercial purposes as long as you give credit to me as original writer.
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