Patagonia Black Hole Duffel Bag Review

The Patagonia Black Hole Duffel Bag is a flexible but rugged adventure-ready duffel. In fact, it’s been a popular best-selling adventure duffel for almost two decades — but Patagonia just updated the materials with 100% recycled thermoplastic polyurethane.

What does the update mean? Are the core features the same or have they changed? Is the Patagonia Black Hole Duffel still a great bag?

Patagonia continues to offer its Black Hole Duffel in four sizes: 40L, 55L, 70L and a whopping 100L. The colors have changed, and more importantly, so has the sheen. The new Patagonia Black Hole Duffels have ditched the shiny TPU with a complete matte finish. Is it better?

For Man Makes Fire, I use and test gear bags and backpacks for all sorts of outdoor activities. This includes packing for camping, fishing, hunting, the beach, and road trips. The Patagonia Black Hole Duffel works for all of these uses, but it’s also a great general-purpose travel bag. I’m a big fan and have been using the previous “shiny” generation for several years.

Let’s take a closer look at the new Black Hole Duffel fabric and the features:

Table of Contents:

• New Black Hole Duffel Fabric Explained
• Black Hole Duffel Feature Review
• Black Hole Duffel Alternative Options
• Black Hole Duffel FAQ

The New Black Hole Duffel Fabric Explained

The biggest change to the new Patagonia Black Hole Duffels is a shift to using 100% recycled thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU). TPU is a laminate applied to a fabric to make it stronger, more durable and weather-resistant. Patagonia reports that for every 1,000 yards of TPU produced, 75 pounds go to waste as a result of the manufacturing process. For its new Black Hole Duffels, Patagonia says it’s now purchasing the TPU “waste” direct from the factories that make it so Patagonia can recycle it.

The use of recycled TPC is a key reason the new Black Hole Duffels have the new matte-finish vs the older shiny finish. Hold up, you might be thinking: Wasn’t Patagonia already using 100% recycled fabric? Yes, sort of: Previous generation Black Hole Duffels used 100% recycled polyester ripstop fabric . . . but the TPU-film laminate was not from recycled material. Of course, now both the polyester ripstop base fabric and the TPU laminate are from 100% recycled materials.

 

New Repair Process

One great thing about Patagonia is the company’s willingness to repair its clothing and gear. If your previous generation Black Hole Duffel somehow managed to suffer a hole, Patagonia could patch the hole. For new Black Hole Duffels, Patagonia’s repair center in Reno, Nevada is now stocked with whole bag section replacements. Now Patagonia repair tech’s can replace entire panels with a new one.

The only drawback is that your replacement panel may or may not match the color of the original; however, if you’re sending in your bag for repair, you’re probably the kind of person who would appreciate a different color and maybe even consider it a win for the world.

Shop the NEW line of Black Hole Duffel Bags at Patagonia and get FREE Shipping!

Patagonia Black Hole Duffel Feature Review

When it comes to usability, this is the section that will help you learn if the Patagonia Black Hole Duffel series is right for you:

All the Black Hole Duffel size options have sturdy nylon grab handles at each end. These are great for pulling the bag out of vehicles or just moving them around. You also get standard duffel-bag carrying straps, which have a snap-together wrap to keep them together and provide comfort on your hands. So far so good. Patagonia also includes removable backpack straps, which I now consider a critical benefit for any travel and adventure duffel bag.

Obviously backpack straps will help you carry heavier loads, but they also free up your hands. On one trip to Hawaii a few years ago, I purposely checked an overly large REI Big Haul Duffel on the plane just so I could load it up with snorkel and beach gear in Hawaii . . . and haul it all to the beach using it as a backpack. Adventure duffels with backpack straps are great for all sorts of travel situations.

One competitive feature of the Patagonia Black Hole Duffel is how easily the backpack straps can be removed if you don’t need them. Some competitive packs, like The North Face Base Camp (see competitive options below), are harder to thread and remove. The Black Hole Duffel backpack straps clip in at the bottom and pop into D-rings at the top.

One drawback to the backpack strap design is that the standard carry handles on the Black Hole Duffel have nowhere to go in backpack mode. If you snap the handles together, they’ll rest against your back, which might not be comfortable with heavy loads. So you leave them unsnapped and hanging off the side of the bag. It’s not tidy, but seriously, the Black Hole Duffel is a bag first and a backpack second.

If your primary goal is to look good at the airport, you’ll want a different bag (try the sweet Black Hole MLC 45L travel bag if you like the idea of the Black Hole Duffel but want to up your game).

You might ask yourself why Patagonia doesn’t just put the backpack straps on the flat bottom of the bag instead? If you think about it, the bottom of bags tend to pick up dirt and debris, which you might not want resting against your back. Stio’s Basin XT Duffel uses this bottom-pack-strap design, and while it keeps the carry options trim and looking good, it means you need to pay attention to where you set the bag down if you plan to use it as a backpack.

Patagonia only gives you one exterior pocket, but it enters into a generous interior pocket that expands or contracts. You get a key-ring clip on the inside, and it’s easy to slip your phone into the pocket if you’re going through security. The primary zipper gives you a large opening to work with, and it’s burly and easy to use. I also appreciate the lightly padded bottom, which helps protect your gear from drops.

Like the new modern matte finish? Shop all the new Black Hole Duffel colors at Patagonia!

Rugged Recycled Materials

Patagonia works hard to to lessen its impact on people and the environment. As that shakes out in the Black Hole product line, Patagonia manufactures the Black Hole Duffel from a 100% recycled 900-denier polyester ripstop with a TPU-film laminate. The new for 2024 TPU laminate also comes from 100% recycled materials, and this recycled TPU is what gives the new models their matte finish. The fabric remains weather-resistant, abrasion-resistant and highly packable. Patagonia even lined the interior with a 100% recycled polyester. And it’s all bluesign approved.

The fabric walks the fence between being very rugged and being supple and light enough to be enjoyable to use. My default mode is to believe that thicker, more rugged materials are better, but that’s not always the case. Material that is too thick makes a bag harder to zip and harder to work with, plus it’s heavier.

For instance, The North Face uses a thicker material on its Base Camp Duffel, which is good, but the side effect is that the zipper isn’t quite as friendly in everyday use. If I expect to be throwing a bag out of vehicles into the dirt and onto the rocks, I’d error toward the Base Camp, but for more normal outdoor and travel use, I prefer the Black Hole Duffel.  

 

Black Hole Duffel Sizing

The 40L Black Hole Duffel is small enough to fit nearly all airline carry-on specifications. The 55L is slightly too big for most airline carry-on specifications, but some travelers have gotten away with it when it’s not full. Technically the dimensions exceed the general rule of 45 linear inches, depth + length + width, but again, some travelers have reported getting through.

Of course, you’ll definitely have to check the 70L and 100L for travel purposes. The overall shape is a very useable rectangle, which I prefer for packing over more rounded tube-shaped duffels.

While the 40L Black Hole Duffel does well as a dirt-simple carry-on bag, the aforementioned slightly larger 45-liter Black Hole MLC has a more traditional carry-on bag shape.

Shop the entire ‘Black Hole Bags’ series at Patagonia and get FREE Shipping!

Competitive Alternatives & Options

Many serious outdoor apparel and gear brands offer competitive rugged adventure duffel bags these days. The best blend high-quality materials and design to create bags that look good in airports but can still take a beating far off the beaten path. Here are several duffel bags that compete with the Patagonia Black Hole Duffel to consider:

REI Big Haul Duffel — The REI Big Haul Duffel competes very well with the Patagonia Black Hole Duffel in durability and even includes a couple of key competitive benefits. Remember the handles that don’t go anywhere very well in backpack mode on the Black Hole? REI’s latch system lets you easily remove the handles when you want the Big Haul to stay in backpack mode. In addition, the backpack straps tuck out of the way in their own sleeve on top when you don’t want to use them. And there’s one more utilitarian competitive advantage: The REI Big Haul Duffels include side compression straps. Any drawbacks? While the REI Big Haul is a good-looking bag, it’s not as strikingly handsome as the Patagonia Black Hole.

The North Face Base Camp Duffel — The North Face Base Camp Duffel’s biggest benefit is its legendary rugged construction made with 1,000-denier phthalate-free recycled PVC and 840-denier recycled ballistic nylon. The result is a burly bag. The biggest drawback is that the backpack straps are not as quickly and easily removable as the backpack straps on the Patagonia Black Hole Duffel. The primary opening is a little smaller, but you also get side compression straps and a handy spot for a luggage tag.

YETI Panga Duffel Bags — The primary benefit of the YETI Panga Duffel is that it is extremely rugged and completely waterproof. The drawback is that it costs about twice as much as the water-resistant Black Hole Duffel. (Check out our full YETI Panga Review here for more detail.)

Patagonia Black Hole MLC 45L — The Patagonia Black Hole MLC 45L is a travel-focused carry-on bag. The primary benefit is its carry-on friendly shape, but it’s also loaded with storage pockets. Made from similar fabric materials as the regular Black Hole Duffel, the MLC version changes up the carry design. You can carry it like a suitcase, use a padded one-shoulder strap, or pull the hidden backpack straps out of a stash pocket and shift to backpack mode — with a chest strap, too. So cool.

Patagonia Black Hole Duffel Recommendation:

All-in-all, the Patagonia Black Hole Duffel has a surprisingly simple yet sophisticated design. It looks great in person and the overall shape is surprisingly packable and user-friendly. The new-for-2024 versions share the same core design features as previous generations, but they now come in a modernized matte finish. Very highly recommended.

Get the Gear:

• Patagonia Black Hole Duffel — all size options
• Entire ‘Black Hole’ Bag Series Line — cubes, totes, backpacks, etc

Check shipping/pricing and availability options:

Backcountry | Patagonia | REI

 

Patagonia Black Hole Duffel FAQ

Shop the entire ‘Black Hole Bags’ series at Patagonia and get FREE Shipping!