Kiefer Team Backpack Review

Kiefer Team Backpack Review

The friendly people at Kiefer contacted me about reviewing some of their products. 

According to their website, Kiefer was founded in 1947.   Kiefer focuses on teaching and providing products to swimmers at all skill levels.  For 65 years they have been dedicated to providing great products to their customers. 

Let me start this review off with the legalese.  I do not work for or am sponsored by Kiefer.  They contacted me to do an honest review of one of their products.  And an honest review of the product I will provide.



Kiefer Team Backpack (Front)
IMAGE SOURCE

 
The product they asked me to review was the Kiefer Team Backpack.    This swim bag was designed to store all your swim gear.  It is the type of bag that you would see at a high school swim competition.  But don’t let that description fool you.  This is a great bag and for the sale price of $29.95 IT’S A STEAL!!

Kiefer Team Backpack (Back)
IMAGE SOURCE

 
This bag is very well designed.  The dimensions of the bag are 19” tall 13” wide and 10” tall.  It is very lightweight.   It is made out a water resistant material.  The material, zippers and stitching are very good quality.  The bag comes in two colors, navy blue and black. The bag is also self standing (which is very convenient).

There are well thought out and placed zippers, pockets and organizers everywhere on this bag.  There is an approximately 6”x4” pocket in the upper left that is designed to hold a phone or mp3 player.  This pocket also has an ear phone port. 

Side of bag

 
Both sides of the bag have a 7”x9” zippered pocket that opens up very wide.  Each of these large and deep pockets have an external mesh pocket attached to them that is held closed by an elastic strap. 

The bottom of the bag has an 8”x12” zippered wet pocket item area to store your wet swim suit.

A long zipper on the top of the bag completely opens up the top of the bag to expose the inside of the bag.  This is a great feature because it allows you to see and find everything in the bag.   My one complain about this zipper is that sometime if you open it up all the way it can be a little difficult to get the zipper restarted  (but this is a minor issue and I am being nitpicky).
 

Inside of the bag

The interior of the bag also are also loaded with pockets, compartments and mesh areas.  The sides of the bag have two VERY large and deep mesh compartments.  There is non-mesh compartment in the back of the bag that has elastic at the top.   There is also a removable key ring clip to hold your keys (which is a really cool/unexpected feature).

Backside of flap with zippered mesh pocket

The entire backside of the bag flap is a mesh pocket that closes with a zipper.  The flap has room on it to add a team logo.  Unfortunately, mine came with a “US Masters Swimming” team logo on it.  But then again mine was a free sample bag.  I would assume yours would come with no logo on it.
 

Handle and straps

 
Another cool feature is the large, easy grip, hard handle.  I love handles on bags.  It makes them easy to carry and move.
   

Front Straps

There are two straps on the front of the bag.  I am not a “swim meet type” swimmer so maybe I am missing their purpose.  I would assume they are used to strap down a towel.  Either way, to me they are way too short to serve any good purpose.  The straps would be more useful if they were double the current length.

The padded straps are of good quality but not very well padded.  I would like to see more padded sawn into them.  The straps do not make the bag uncomfortable to carry but some extra padding would have been nice.

If this bag was slightly larger I would say it would make an AWESOME transition triathlon bag!!  You could still use it for one but it maybe a little too small.  Then again I am a pack rat so maybe it would be good for you.

To me, this bag is too nice to be a pool side bag.  I would not want to ruin the bag with all the water and chlorine. 

This is an AWESOME bag for transporting all your swim, running, triathlon, etc gear.  I used it this weekend to transport all my run stuff, changed of clothes, shoes, etc for the Space Coast Marathon and I loved it.  Even with all this stuff in the bag there was still room for more stuff.  All the pockets and compartments made it very easy to find and get to everything in the bag. 
 
Pros

• The price!! At $29.95 it’s a no brainer purchase
• Quality material, stitching and zippers
• Massive amount of well thought out mesh, zippered and elastic compartments
• Lightweight
• Nice wet pocket for wet swim suits
• It’s a self standing bag
• Nice removable key ring in the inside of the bag
• It's a cool looking, versitile bag

Cons

• Straps could a little thicker and more padded
• The top zipper that opens  to expose the inside of the bag can sometimes be hard to restart
• The straps on the front of the bag should be longer to increase their usefulness
• More colors other than navy blue and black would be nice
• Mine came with a “US Masters Swimming” team logo on the flap.  But then again mine was a free sample bag.  I would assume yours would come with no logo on it.

Overall I would HIGHLY recommend this bag to anyone.  The quality of the bag and $29.95 price make it a steal.

The bag can be front here on the Kiefer website .