Decent Hardware Park Bag Review

reviewing the decent hardware park bag

It’s been a while since my last longboard bag review, but that’s because there just aren’t so many longboard bags out there that can properly carry the massive boards we choose to ride.

I have previously reviewed the Sector 9 Field Bag, and while the bag is generally good (especially if you can score one at the US Pricing of about 67 USD), it has some quirks about it that just drive me mad.

I am kind of obsessive when it comes to buying stuff, I tend to do research for hours on end trying to figure out if I am really getting the best product I can possibly get, for whatever problem I am trying to solve.

So because of that obsessiveness, every now and then I’d peak around to see what was developing in the longboard carrying system scene, and there wasn’t too much happening to be honest.

Then I stumbled upon the Decent Hardware Park Bag…

TL;DR Video review for the Decent Hardware Park Bag

Getting my Park Bag On

In case you’re the type of person who likes to take in information via a video, here you can see my thoughts on this bag in the video above.


A little bit of a side story with myself and Decent Hardware

For those that don’t know, I actually started my longboard dancing adventure with the Bastl Boards Bolero. It’s a “smaller” longboard coming in at 109cm for overall length.

At the time I thought the thing was massive, and that I would never ever have the need to get another board. Boy was I wrong, but hey, that’s another story for another time.

Anyways, head to October 2018 when I took a longboard trip to Fuerteventura. I needed a bag to bring the Bolero, so the bag I purchased then was the 44” Decent Hardware Body Bag.

The bag was built very well, and the Bolero fit inside it beautifully. The only real flat with it, was it is kind of bulky. It could easily swallow three fully assembled Boleros in it, but this made carrying it kind of cumbersome.

That and none of my current boards fit into the Body Bag anymore…fail.

So when I found the slimmer Park Bag which could expand to 48 inches, I knew I had to get my hands on one to try it out!


At a glance, The Decent Hardware Park Bag

PROS:

Extremely well made. The Park Bag feels tough and durable, just like the Body Bag did. You really notice this right away, the bag just feels rugged.

Usable backpack straps. I think a lot of people are really going to love this feature. This bag features full backpack straps, and the straps hold the bag high enough so your legs have full range of motion when walking. The straps can also be tucked away when not in use.

Expandable. This part of the bag is awesome, but depending what you’re carrying the bag comes in at 38” but can expand all the way to 48”

Compression Straps. This is a nice little touch here that backpackers will appreciate, the bag has four compression straps that let you really synch it down to prevent stuff from moving all over the place inside of it.

Made in Bali with love. I love this about the company, but all their products are made in Bali, Indonesia. There’s even a little tag that comes on the bag telling you the products are not made in a sweat shop.

CONS:

Somewhat expensive. I awkwardly say somewhat here, because I feel the bag is worth what the company asks for – currently 164 USD on their site. You can even find it currently in some colors on Sickboards for 104€. Some riders may be turned off by the price, but like I said, I think it is worth every cent.

No clamshell design. For those unfamiliar with the term, a clam shell style bag is a bag you can completely open up to make use of every bit of space in there as efficiently as possible. Due to the expansion feature of the bag, the clamshell option is actually impossible to fulfill, but it still makes the bag a bit difficult to deal with.

Somewhat difficult to load big boards. Because there is no clam shell design, you can’t just set the board in the bag, close it, and go. You’ve got to vertically load the board, and kind of fiddle you way in the bag with the board which isn’t too easy.

Requires disassembling boards to hold two setups. If your wheelbases are too similar, you are not going to get two boards in here assembled, you will have to take the trucks off one board.

Handle not so useful when expanded. When the bag is extended to 48″ it is not so comfortable to carry using the handle grip. It’s centered for the 38″ mode of the bag, so when the bag is extended it is off balance.

Digging deeper into the capabilities of the Decent Hardware Park Bag

1. Talking about realistic size expectations

Longboards are well…long. So we need to know what we are getting into with this bag. Below are some pictures of my Bastl Boards Magier Walzer in the Park Bag.

The Bastl Boards Walzer measures 124 X 23cm.

bastl walzer tucked away in the decent hardware park bag
Nicely tucked away in the Park Bag

So here’s a shot of the board nicely tucked into the bag Take note where the opening ends. See how it kind of ends in the last third of the board? That’s what I mean with the lack of a clam shell opening. You have to kind of angle the board to get it into the bag, and with the grip tape this can be kind of difficult.

Perhaps the park bag is actually too small for the walzer?
Perhaps a bit too tight?

Back to the topic of real size expectations, the Park Bag measures 48” with the extension fully open. When you convert 48 inches to centimeters, you get 121.92cm…

So TECHNICALLY this Walzer should not fit in this bag, since the Walzer measures 124cm.

But as you can see in the picture, it does fit. The last 2cm are likely compensated by the fact that it is a bag, and cloth will stretch a little bit. And by the fact that I have shaved off some millimeters off the overall length of my Walzer over time.

All things considered, the Walzer is extremely tight in the bag, and I’m not certain I’d use this bag with the Walzer to actually travel. I’d be worried too much pressure in the bag from the board would cause the board to rip through.

So be mindful here! I For the best experience, I would make sure your board is under 121.92cm.

2. Nice Straightforward & Useful Design

The bags design just makes sense. If there was one thing I hated about the Sector 9 Field Bag, it’s that it just felt incomplete. There are so many things about that bag that just make you say…wtf?

This is not the case with the Park Bag. Check out some pics below to get a better feel of what you can expect from this well made bag.

actual useful backpack straps on the decent hardware park bag
I was happily impressed by the backpack straps on this bag.

A bit hard to see here with the black on black, but here are the backpack straps you can use. A lot of board bags try to jam backpack style straps on their boards, but in many cases they are just not functional.

This is not the case with the Park Bag. They work!

the decent hardware park bag literally has a silver lining
Literally with a silver lining.

That silver lining you see in the bag acts as like another layer of padding, and it feels much tougher than just normal cloth. I can image this was implemented here to stand up to the constant abuse from grip tape.

According to Decent Hardware, the material also has insulation properties, so it can eve keep drinks cold 🙂

Nice document, pen, and mobile storage on the park bag
It’s the little packing details that matter.

Here’s one of the pics up top, also with a nice protective layer over it. It’s the perfect spot to store documents, there is a nice mobile phone holder in there, and look, there is even a nice little pen holder built in.

Just overall a very well though through bag.

Summing it up, The Decent Hardware Park Bag, yay or nay?

If you own a longboard that is under 122cm long and you normally only travel with one board, definitely get this bag if you can afford it.

It is well made, it definitely has utility, and dare I say, it is even quite stylish. The only real flaws this bag has come when you are trying to deal with more than one board.

More than one board becomes a bit of a challenge. Like I said it is doable, it is just not as easy to do as it is with some other bags.

Even after a week of lugging around two big boards in this bag for a week in Barcelona, I gotta say I am very happy with the bag. For me, it’s really everything I want in a bag, the slim profile of the Sector 9 Field Bag but the durability of the Decent Hardware Body Bag.

If you’re in the market a longboard bag, I definitely recommend this guy.

About Shawn Segundo
Shawn is the founder of Longboard Dancing World and is also an avid longboard dancer. When he's not boarding or building this community, he can be found doing other marketing stuff professionally, or trying to find the best vegan cakes in Leipzig.

6 Comments

  1. Hi, thanks for your review. I’d like to ask if the bag is big enough for one longboard and clothes for two weeks. I consider buying it, because I need just one bag and one backpack for my journey and I want to take my longboard with me. Thanks for your reply.

    • Hey Sona, sorry for the late reply I was on holiday the last couple of days 🙂 But to answer your question, that is largely going to depend on your need of clothes. If it is just one board, there is still a ton of space left in the bag. I could easily do one month’s worth of clothes if I was just traveling with the longboard, a skate tool, and clothes. But I am fairly minimal, and that is not including skate protection. So sorry, this is kind of vague, but it is the best answer I can give lol.

  2. Hi Shawn! Excellent review. I have a Sector 9 Field Bag and used it a couple of times to flight with my Bhangra longboard, which is 123cm (48.5”) long. I also find the straps weird and uncomfortable to carry as a backpack. Would you recommend to switch to this Decent HW bag? Does it make a huge difference? Thanks!

    • Hey Dario,

      I also have the sector 9, and while I like the Decent Hardware more, I would not say it is worth the upgrade. I’ve started riding a Bhangra V2 and the size of these boards makes really any strap setup a pain to carry around. They’re just too big! I’d say keep using the Sector 9, if you can sell it or of if something on it breaks and you have a real reason for a real bag, then def grab the DH. I find the DH to be much better in quality than the DH, but like I said, as far as carry comfort, they both fail. Cheers!

  3. Hi Shawn,

    Thanks a lot for this really great article. I’m definitely going to buy this bag for my trip from Paris to Canada in July. I just wanted to know, when you boarded your plane to Spain, did you remove the trucks from your board or where you able to check in the board with the trucks still on? Did the trucks or the board suffer any damage? I’m planning on taking my Long Island Flex board (117cm or so) and I’m afraid of removing my trucks, but I’ll have to do it one day eventually! Haha.

    Thank you for your answer!

    • Hey Alicia,

      With one board, you’ll have no issues keeping the trucks on. For the spain trip, one board was fully assembled, and the other we had to take the trucks off. But the bag worked perfectly 🙂 No issues either way!

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