eBags Crew Cooler II Soft Sided Insulated Lunch Box - For Work

-----Update May 2015------The cooler works just as good today as it did when I bought it. No problems at all with years of daily use. Absolutely love it.------Original Review-------There's a reason why this lunch bag gets stellar reviews.I've been taking my lunch to work for years and I'm a self-proclaimed lunch bag connoisseur. I'm always on the lookout for a good product because a good, large lunch bag is so hard to find! Whenever I'm in a department store, camping/outdoor store, and even online, I'm always looking to replace my current bag which I just consider adequate. There are PLENTY of big bags out there that one can use, but the challenge is always trying to find a bag that is big enough and easy to use, without being too big to be impractical. EBags has struck gold by settling on a size that fits smack dab in the middle ground where there are so few competitors. It's big enough for a large lunch, and then some, but not so big that it's the bag you take to the lake for an afternoon with the family.The one thing that I absolutely love about this bag is the size and the height. I carry my own water to work so that is why I need a large bag. It's VERY rare to find a lunch bag that can accommodate 2-32oz Nalgene bottles along with a sizable lunch. Also, I take real meals into work and not sandwiches, so I tend to use tupperware which can take up a substantial amount of room. With this bag I'm able to STAND 2-32oz Nalgene bottles up in the main compartment and have a square 4.2-cup Rubbermaid container of soup and a 3.2-cup container of rice (stacked on top of each other). Also in that compartment I put 2 Blue Ice packs. There is still a small amount of room in the main compartment after packing this, but not so much that everything is going to slide around inside. In the top compartment I put 3 ziploc bags containing pistachios, pretzels, and dates. Again, there is room left over in the top compartment for more. If you're interested, you can lay one 32oz Nalgene bottle in the top compartment and believe it or not, I can actually even squeeze it in the side zip-out drink holders (it's a REALLY tight fit though so I'm sure it'd violate the integrity of the product quite quickly). I put my spoon in the front compartment and there is plenty of room in there for other utensils.For food containers, I've switched to using Kinetic Go Green GlassLock 1332 17-Ounce Square Glass Food-Storage Containers with Locking Lids and they fit in this bag perfectly. Not only do they stack nicely and are leakproof, but you can stack two of them and still have room to put a Blue Ice pack on the top of them. With two of these in the main compartment, I can still put in two Nalgene bottles on the other side. If you wanted to, you could actually fit 4 of these containers in the main compartment and it'd fill it up about 90%.The zip-out liner is a god-send; it's like I was able to design this bag myself. The zippers, which are many a lunch bags downfall, are freaking incredible. Big and beefy with a heavy and strong zipper track make getting into and out of it so smooth and easy. It's like the zippers came off of some high-quality luggage. Ebags definitely knew what they were doing here.The handles are very nice and I appreciate that they didn't sew that annoying velcro flap to the handles so you can velcro/hold them together. Although I removed the shoulder strap, there are quick releases for it so you can remove/add it with ease. The attachment buckles for the strap are also nice and beefy without being gaudy or distracting from the overall look.There is a nice rubberized bottom to keep it durable and the overall quality is top-notch. This WILL last a long time for sure. After I ordered the black I thought I'd regret the color but that's not the case. It's very sharp, classy, and professional looking, and I appreciate that for the office environment I work in.Overall, this is a freaking 10-star lunch bag. I've been on the lookout for YEARS for a bag that would fit my unique needs and this is without a doubt the best bag I've ever used/seen. I can't say enough about this bag and I can't believe it's priced so well.Although I think this bag is excellent, I can always find something to improve upon, so here are my recommendations to eBags on how to improve this excellent bag.--------------------- Recommended improvements for eBags ---------------------------1. Sew the hand straps to the main body and not the lid. This will allow you to carry/move the container unzipped without things spilling out.2. Change the location of the shoulder strap buckles. If you remove the shoulder strap, the buckles that are left can sometimes impede with zipper operation. This isn't really a problem when you have the strap attached because the weight of the strap pulls the buckle down, and out of the way of the zipper. You can fix this by either extending the main compartment upwards by 1/2 inch, or lowering the buckle.3. Please put some type of rubber on the strap so that it doesn't slide off your shoulder when carrying it.4. When filled to capacity, the lunch bag has a tendency to get wobbly. If you put some really small feet on the bag, it'd prevent this.5. The eBags logs is quite big and well, NOT attractive.

Seems like a quality lunch bag. A bit pricey however description says that it is made in the USA so I don't mind paying a little more. However, upon further inspection I come to find that it IS made in China. Ebags obviously doesn't mind lying to us so keep that in mind before you purchase it.

I'm away from my house from 5:30am-8pm most days Mon-Fri, so I bought this cooler bag to pack my food for the day.I had (what I thought at the time was) a brilliant of consolidating the "necessary items" from my purse into this, to minimize how much crap I had to carry to and fro. Needless to say, being a woman, that idea failed miserably because there's always that "one more thing" I need to have in my purse. I like to think someday I'll be able to grab a wallet and cell phone and have all I'll ever need in life. But that day is not imminent.And this bag, let me tell you. "Big bag syndrome". The bigger the bag, the more things find their way into it. This bag is my little soldier. The abuse it takes is almost comical, and I kid you not every single day I'm just waiting for that shoulder strap to break under the weight it carries.Every day it carries at LEAST 3-4 cans of diet soda, a liter of water, full bottle of mustard, 2 turkey sandwiches, 2-3 apples, rubbermaid container of hardboiled eggs, 4 slim freezy-cooly-squares, and a rubbermaid container with 1-2 Kcups, mini-moos, and splenda (the coffee creamer I used to bring in and keep in the fridge somehow was never around when I wanted to use it).My car keys live on the side pocket. Keys to other things on the other side pocket. 4-6 protein bars and probably the same amount of Fiber One cereal bars live in the top compartment, along with my pill/vitamin case and other miscellaneous paperwork I fold up and think "...deal with that later"Front compartment holds unnamed quantities of packs of gum, sugar-free candy, lip balms, individually wrapped Ghiardhelli intense dark chocolate squares. All things necessary for survival, really.It's gotten to the point where my coworkers have started making comments and teasing me. "What do you HAVE in that thing??" I like my coworkers so I don't mind the ribbing. I tell them "A cinder block". At this point it might as well be!But I still need my purse. I won't take away a star for that. That's all me.This bag is ridiculous. I'm obsessive and I toiled probably a lot longer than what most "normal" people would, in my quest for the perfect large size cooler lunch bag. Easily, this was the win. And for a price well below all of the trendy meal-prep-compartment-type cooler bags that are apparently "the thing" to have these days.Dont buy into that mainstream bs. This bag is diesel and will hold your entire life.

i love it!!!I'm a flight attendant so i pack a lot! And this is just the perfect size, i can bring food for a 4 day trip!! I couldn't be happier.*the bag itself is a little heavy. 😁

My big fear with ordering this bag was that it would be too big. Turns out it was just right. There are several pockets for carrying condiments and eating instruments as well as the main compartment, which is good for storing food, sodas or whatever you choose. The outer padding is super thick and the bag/liner inside is very thick and durable too. The zippers are very heavy Duty, and maybe a little stiff at first, but they will loosen up with use. As for the temperature maintaining capability of this bag, I can put a six pack of sodas and a couple of sandwiches inside, then surround them with synthetic ice packs. Then the bag will maintain a very cool temperature for an entire 10-hour day. If you are thinking to compare this bag to those you might find at a local department store at a third of the price, think again. I've owned 4 previous bags of that type and they all give out within a few months. However this bag is made to last and is of excellent quality. -Well worth the price. I cannot recommend enough!

I use it as a carrier for lunch. Overall I love it. The width is OK. I fit a ton of thermos can, so at most I can get 5. Here a picture of how much space you can fit. I am using cereal ( non-family size, medium). I'll post a picture.