The Patagonia Freewheeler bag is for the professional traveler who needs the
durability, ease, and perfect space for a week (or more) of traveling to your favorite fishing destination. So
strong and sturdy that one could even use this rolling luggage as a seat in line at the airport. With two separate compartments,
stuff your waders, boots, and jackets in the bottom compartment and leave the rest for clothes, toiletries, and souvenirs.
Leland on Specifications:
The Patagonia Freewheeler is a wheeled bag spacious and well thoughtout for the angler with two compartments: one compartment and wading boots and waders in another and separated by a floating baffle. The end zippered compartment and internal mesh toiletry pocket keeps those smaller items organized and easily accessible. The tough
molded bottom pan stand up to brutal airport treatment, while smooth-rolling 80-mm wheels steered by a 2-position retractable handle get you where you're going. Haul handles are located at both ends as well as external compression straps to cinch the load. This bag is made from 100% recycled polyester 1,200 denier and coated with a polyurethane coating and a water repellent) finish.
Specifications:
- Main compartment holds a week's worth of clothes; fully lined lower compartment separates boots and gear from clothing; floating baffle allows the load to expand into either compartment; zippered end compartment for easy-access items; interior mesh pocket for toiletries
- Light-colored lining makes contents easy to find
- Smooth-rolling 80-mm wheels provide plenty of clearance
- Molded bottom pan resists abrasion and protects contents; impact-resistant skidplates
- 2-position retractable handle makes steering easy; haul handles at either end; external compression straps; stowable business card holder
- Batten supports on sides keep bag standing and collapse for easy storage
- 11-oz 1,200-denier 100% recycled polyester. Lining: 3.3-oz 200-denier polyester. Bottom: molded foam and ballistics nylon. With a polyurethane coating and a Deluge DWR (durable water repellent) finish
- 4422 g (9 lbs 12 oz)
Leland on Luggage:
Like all responsible outdoor recreators, the people at Patagonia place a premium on keeping things dry -- an especially important (not to say difficult) task when water is as integral to a sport as it is to fly fishing. For waterproof construction, Patagonia uses polyurethane-coated nylon -- fully impermeable, utterly bombpoof, and guaranteed to perform, season after season, on, in and around the water.
For boat-based anglers, the Patagonia Great Divider is a boat chest par excellence, offering impact protection as well as splashproofness. The same product in a smaller size, the Sub Divider, makes a fantastic shoulder-slung SLR case for wading anglers, and does the same great job in a boat bottom. For those who fish where heavy weather is common, Patagonia's Stormfront Pack is an outstanding design for a waterproof daypack and features a removable shoulder harness and hydration compatibility.
As fly fishing luggage and gear bags go, these are some of the absolute finest around.
Leland on Patagonia:
One of the most admired and emulated firms in the outdoor marketplace, Patagonia is also one of the stalwarts in the fly fishing industry. From its humble beginnings as Yvon Chouinard's piton forging business to its ascendancy as one of the major houses in outdoor apparel and equipment, Patagonia has been marked by the same commitment to well-designed, well-made product, the same dedication to corporate social responsibility, and the same finger-on-the-pulse outdoor culture -- for almost forty years now.
Chouinard, still the company's head and something of an enlightened monarch, is well known as an alpinist and a surfer, but is also an avid fly fisherman. Atlantics, cutthroats, permit: he knows what he likes for fish as well as for gear, and he maintains a hand in the processes of product design to this day. Patagonia is a founding partner of '1% for the Planet', a league of environmentally progressive businesses, and the firm demonstrates its engagement with environmental stewardship in other ways as well. To minimize the inevitable ecological costs of manufacturing, Patagonia uses recycled-content fabrics where possible and -- more to the point, perhaps -- makes products that will perform at a high level for years without the need for a replacement.
Patagonia on the Freewheeler Bag:
This multifunctional, wheeled gear bag is built for travel and made of recycled fabric.
This sturdy wheeled bag holds a week's worth of clothes in one compartment and boots or dirty gear in another, the two separated by a floating baffle. The zippered, easy-access end compartment and internal mesh toiletry pocket fight the forces of chaos to keep you organized. A light-colored lining makes it easy to see what you have stashed inside. Structurally, impact-resistant skidplates and the tough-as-nails molded bottom pan stand up to brutal treatment, while smooth-rolling 80-mm wheels steered by a 2-position retractable handle get you where you're going. With haul handles at both ends, external compression straps to cinch the load and/or attach bulky items, and batten supports on the sides that keep the bag standing upright (but collapse for easy storage). Made from tough 1,200-denier 100% recycled polyester with a polyurethane coating and a Deluge® DWR (durable water repellent) finish; with a molded foam and ballistics nylon bottom
Patagonia on Patagonia:
Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.
–Patagonia's Mission Statement
Patagonia grew out of a small company that made tools for climbers. Alpinism remains at the heart of a worldwide business that still makes clothes for climbing – as well as for skiing, snowboarding, surfing, fly fishing, paddling and trail running. These are all silent sports. None requires a motor; none delivers the cheers of a crowd. In each sport, reward comes in the form of hard-won grace and moments of connection between us and nature.
Our values reflect those of a business started by a band of climbers and surfers, and the minimalist style they promoted. The approach we take towards product design demonstrates a bias for simplicity and utility.
For us at Patagonia, a love of wild and beautiful places demands participation in the fight to save them, and to help reverse the steep decline in the overall environmental health of our planet. We donate our time, services and at least 1% of our sales to hundreds of grassroots environmental groups all over the world who work to help reverse the tide.
We know that our business activity – from lighting stores to dyeing shirts – creates pollution as a by-product. So we work steadily to reduce those harms. We use recycled polyester in many of our clothes and only organic, rather than pesticide-intensive, cotton.
Staying true to our core values during thirty-plus years in business has helped us create a company we're proud to run and work for. And our focus on making the best products possible has brought us success in the marketplace.
