They were kind enough to ship me a sample so that I could try it out, and try it out I did. The High Sierra 7142 Cross-Sport Duffel is really sweet. If you play sports like basketball or football, it actually has an exterior, detachable pouch that you can use to hook up a big ball or helmet to the bag. It has a special section for, ahem, wet shoes or clothes so that they don't come into contact with dry items. There's a handy exterior water bottle pocket. If you work out on a treadmill or other such equipment and want a place to carry your CD or MP3 player, there's a pocket for that as well. There's even a roll-out mat that you can use for working out, changing your shoes, or sitting on wet grass.

I own a bunch of High Sierra products. Maybe I've been fortunate with them, but every one of them is great and I've never had any problem with any of them. I definitely can't say that about bags that I've purchased from other companies over the years. It got to the point with some of those other bags that I was expected the zippers to self-destruct before I even got home from the store. Not with my High Sierra bags though. They're built tough and built to last so even if you're as hard on your bags as I am, you'll be happy with your 7142.