DD loves her bag (she has the cow print and has named her "Bessie") but I think they work best for people with smallish feet. DD has been cursed with my mongo feet and her skates barely fit in the bag, no matter what angle she puts them at! That said, having a seat with you where ever you go has been worth the price of the bag as it seems that at test sessions and competitions there is NEVER enough room for the kids to sit. This way she never has to worry about sitting at the opposite end from her friends - they all gather around in a pile with their Zuca bags. And I did make her pay for some of it herself as I think it is expensive, but she did need a new bag after going up a size and a half in her new skates, poor kid, and not having a prayer of fitting these clodhoppers into the bag she had since she started skating.

Love the bag and it's holding up well for me. I also drag it in and out of the car, the gym, etc., with no probs. One thing I do differently, however, is to put my skates in the mesh pockets on the outside of the bag and everything else on the inside. This allows the skates to dry without having to take them out of the bag and leaves me plenty of room on the inside for all of the other junk I'm lugging around. Just be careful not to snag the mesh with the hooks on the skates........

I got one for my birthday frm DH. LOVE IT!

I generally don't carry much clothing, but my skates and DS's bike hemlet (for his skating lessons) fit in there nicely. Plus gloves, CDs, blade guards and some other stuff.

I'm one who really can't load up the pockets and I'll totally forget what's in there, LOL! Just know that about myself, so I only pack what I need for that particular trip to the rink.

Mine is the "Storm" insert, which is an iridescent blue.

thanks e/o for all the feedback! are there any stores in nyc or long island that carry zuca bags? (I know of plenty of online stores). who has the best selection??
thanks!

I don't personally know of any store in NYC that carry them(I live in UT... lol), but if you go to the Zuca website you can do a search and call the stores to see what they carry.

I did do a search on their site, but I don't know if it will show the results or not. If the link does not show the results, you can do your own search. :-)

http://www.zuca.com/locator/results_...statesearch=Go

Angie

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skating mom to 3 angels on earth and 1 in heaven

I have looked at Zuca bags online, and wondered what the fuss is about.
Up to now I have had the Transpack Large bag, and it has done pretty well. I love the mesh skate pockets at the side, which fit my clodhoppers. DD has the smaller Transpack, which fits all her stuff just fine.

I have replaced my Transpack recently with a wheely duffle bag, and am glad I did. Can't say that it holds any more, but it does make everything visible with the top open. And being able to wheel it from the car park into the rink is wonderful. Given that this bag wasn't an expensive one, I don't expect it to last forever, but I am sold.

One thing I want to ask about Zucas, it looks to me like yourr skates sit in the bag with everything else rather than separate pockets, and that you'd have to unpack everything to get at stuff on the bottom, am I right?

Guess that's fine if you just need to grab a couple of things to take rinkside with you once you're changed. Me, my bag is there on the bench over the barrier, I can just reach over to grab my ipod, tissues, drink bottle etc. (we don't have a change room or lockers that would hold a bag.)

Don't y'all find having to take everything out of the Zuca bag annoying? Or having to have your skates in with everything else? Just curious...

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Katz

Saved by Synchro!
I was over it, now I'm into it again !

I don't find that there's much in the bag that winds up underneath the skates that I have to take out BEFORE I remove the skates--everything else is in a pouch somewhere. I'm usually taking tissues, water, the USFS test book and my lesson notebook out with me to the boards and those are all in side pockets somewhere.
Zuca actually now also offers a stuff bag which attaches to the top so you can keep extra stuff in it. I just ordered one.

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You miss 100% of the shots you never take.--Wayne Gretzky

I don't know if they fixed this in later models, but in my DD's zuca the bag has come unattached from the frame on top, and collapses in on everything. This is very annoying, and doesn't seem to be too fixable. She has had the bag a little over a year. I also feel that the bag is too small. The skate guards are always wet when you take them off, and there is noplace to put them so they don't get something else, usually the skates, wet. YMMV but we wouldn't get one again.

okay, its cute, and DD loves the flashy wheels.

Go to Home Depot/craft store/Walmart or similar and get some of the self-sticking velcro patches or the strips of the velcro tape - the heavy-duty kind. Stick one to the bag and then crazy glue the other one to the bag frame. That should fix it.

I carry my skate guards in the outside mesh pouch. I've also stuck them in a giant gallon ziplock bag and stuck them in the outside zip pouch with the zipper open.

GOTTA GET THE STUFF BAG!! Awesome suggestion. Forgot they started making those!

I have a rolling duffel I got at WalMart for $20 2 years ago and it holds everything and more and I love it.

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Champagne in 2005, 2008, 2009 - who's next out of the pre-bronze club...?

Wang chung!

At the PSA conference they gave out terrycloth bags, slightly longer than skate guards, with a pull closure. I use it to dry off my blades and then carry the guards in them. It would not be at all difficult to make them--I'm surprised I haven't seen them sold anywhere before.

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You miss 100% of the shots you never take.--Wayne Gretzky

I use a small heavy duty rolling suitcase. It has a bunch of compartments for guards, screwdrivers, laces, tape, tights, CDs, rulebook, practice clothes, my mondor jacket, work clothes and shoes for days I'm skating before work, etc. It also could fit 2 pair of skates if I ever went back to switching for dance and free. Yet it's small enough to fit on a plane or at the very least, gate check when I travel.

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2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

I had a rolling bag I got for my 5 year anniversary at a previous employer that gave out after 3 years and I did the same as Mel - a rolling bag from Wal Mart for ~ $20 that I also use to pack in for ANs. I love it!

I've thought about getting one but I didn't think it was likely I could safely sit on it (I'm 230 lbs). Plus I now am schlepping two pairs of skates around (FS and patch) so I have those in separate bags from my skating bag. The skate bag stays in the car all the time, the skates come in with me so they can air out and aren't in a hot car.

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Gordon Zaft
http://sk8rboi.blogspot.com
School figures are skating's equivalent of the Latin Mass.

Around here (NE Massachusetts, SE New Hampshire) no one over the age of 12 would be caught dead with a Zuca bag, LOL! Isn't it funny how things are so different in different regions?

My 17 year old daughter has a Riedell skate bag that has lasted for quite a few years, and she loves how the front zips on a diagonal so the skates are easy to get in and out.

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blades, gary, Lucy, Emily, take care of Aiden and Sami. Sami is my sweetest heart, and always will be, forever. RIP Cubby Boy, my hero dog.

Here too. Zuca are considered to be "so LAST YEAR" because everyone started buying them, and the novelty factor wore off. And, like you said, for the "little kids". The serious skaters don't use them; they use, duffel bags. UnderArmour becoming increasingly popular, and of course, LuLuLemon. But, for a while, the pressure on parents to buy them, and the fancier the better, was really heavy: and parents who kvetched about paying more than $100 for a pair of skates would pay for a Zuca, to the tune of $149 or more! couldn't figure that one out ...

My bag was great BUT...make sure you check the screws on the bottom plate at the front and sides. Besides my self, there are 4 other people in my club who have lost the screws. The plate will break off at the front corners. Yes they are guaranted but apparently if the screws become loose and it breaks it is your responsibility. (no replacement or refund) The bags on the sides tear easily too!!

That's a really interesting guarantee given that they wouldn't cover the fact that the back of my bag developed holes at the seam within a month saying that it's my responsibility for not using it properly (it's a bag I put stuff in it, isn't that what it's designed for?!).
I wonder if all companies have such a cavalier attitude to customer service?

I'm still trying to work out what the ideal skating bag would be, as they never have enough space, and I hated my old one when I carried it on my shoulder it used to dig in. It would also help if I didn't skate at a rink which was down two flights of stairs. Lugging things up and down the stairs is a right hassle as the lifts are too slow.

I bought a footy rucksack from Argos, which was great - plenty of room for skates, change of clothes, etc, and an outside pocket for water. Was great for carting skates around when I used public transport. These days I have a large laptop-type bag that I bought when Arding & Hobbs closed down; it's less roomy, but very light, and usually I can manage without another bag. But it's getting a bit ancient now. Husband's has died, and he has a bag we bought in a random luggage shop in central London which can be pulled or carried, but he's very sore on bags and it's already getting tatty.

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

Ha ha same here. And the more rhinestones glued on and keychains hanging off the zippers, the cooler you are.

It was pretty funny, at a synchro competition last year, I got stuck going down a very crowded hallway alongside some prelim or juvenile team from somewhere, they had their skates on but were also moving skate bags (I think they had been in the wrong locker room). Every single one of them not only had the Zuca with light-up wheels, they also had the flashing light skate guards. I felt like I was at a dance club.

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2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

I want those strap on wheelie shoe things with the flashing lights. We've an enormous long slope that the kids wheelie down leaving the rink. And I think it would be quite "cool" as a big person to go out with flashing lights on my feet and the flashing bag behind. It only works because there are only two of us at the rink who have flashing wheels on our skate bags. Once zuca's become common in the UK I'll have to find another skate bag.

Ditto.. dd's guards are in the mesh pockets on the side...

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skating mom to 3 angels on earth and 1 in heaven