-MOST IMPORTANTLY (in a nutshell)- This is an awesome lunch box!! I just don't recommend getting it in a light color, especially if it's for a kid!! Also, know that this is a lunch bag, not a hard exterior-ed box, if you r good with that, then this is pretty perfect... (And please note- that the first 2 pics are taken with flash, the rest r without, and not all colors really showed up, as far as the chrome stuff, and note that the ice pack pictured did NOT come with the Adidas Excel 2 lunch bag, it is my personal ice sq. that I feel fits the bag perfectly) *Bought this for my 5th grader to start the school yr with..we chose this color bc he had just gotten a nice black and white camo under armour backpack and we wanted this particular box bc of it's functionality, but decided on the white/chrome colored one bc we really wanted to match the white/black theme and this seemed close and looked really cool in the pics..I just figured I could color the purple zipper - black for him, and it would be perfect..well, I took a black sharpie to it a few times, and of course it would eventually rub back off after some usage..I thought about using black nail polish, but by that point the whole bag was so dirty looking on the outside, it seemed pointless to worry about the zipper anymore (which I'm pretty sure the nail polish would've chipped pretty fast anyways)..the zippers r nice and thick and well constructed and we never had any issues there, also the buckle on the top of the bag is thick and well constructed and has had no issue (tho we don't use it often)...which btw, the bag did arrive perfectly, it was beautiful and there were no issues..it was so pretty and cool looking that I kinda wanted to steal it for myself..and in person, it did end up looking a bit more 'girly' than we thought it would..the chrome lines/adidas emblaming has a teal and definite purple color to it depending on how the light hits of course (and it was really pretty, but we weren't exactly going for 'pretty' for his bag)..but I colored the zipper black and it was fine enough for him to use without being worried about it or anything, so that was a plus.. -FUNCTIONALITY- Killer bag, in fact, the reason I'm here writing this today is bc I was back on here to look at getting a new one..this time we r def just going for black tho (more on that in the next section tho)..this bag has been perfect for my 5th grader, there is one month of school left, so it has lasted all yr without any tears or damage (minus superficial coloring on the outside) and I know that the new one will be just right..It is large, it fits EVERYTHING with room to spare, but it is not bulky and it doesn't take up a ton of space (I don't have to put it in his backpack's main compartment, I can fit it in the outer medium pocket, which is great, his main area is just for class stuff/books!! *I put all his cold items in the main large pouch (which has a name tag on it, which is always helpful) and since it's so tall you can really pile everything you could want in there)..and i put a thin medium sized square ice pack in the front ice zone pouch and it fits perfectly (I tried those thick like rectangle bars in it and it was just too bulky and heavy, also tried ice pouch and it was too big and freezes in odd shapes, def not square and didn't really work out, so thin hard square-ish shape is best i feel)- the ice pack that I included in the pics is what I consider the perfect size for it..it's really cool how it has the ice pack area built in, it really keeps everything cold and leftovers r still cool when he gets home, and since the ice has a separate pouch it helps keep condensation more off of the food..i think it's a brilliant idea, it keeps the block out of the way of the food, so he never has to even think of it, he just goes in his main part and grabs food, no grabbing ice packs and taking em out and losing them, or like his other lunch boxes would have the ice pack falling out of the little slip it was in whenever he would open up his box..he never thinks about it in this bag, and I have 2 main ice squares I use, I usually just switch em out real quick when I make his lunch and it's great, it's just there till I switch it out next time..it's like having cold food cuz of an ice pack, w/o having any ice in there.. *The bottom compartment is really cool too, bc it is where I put anything that doesn't need to be cold..I always have napkins and flatware in it, and I add his bag of chips and other things like nuts or jerky or whatever else doesn't need to b near the ice...and the bottom is a thicker material, more hard-ish, which is good to help things like chips to not get smushed..the rest of the bag is more flexible and light, but the bottom is harder, but not like completely hard..it isn't too hard that you can't smush it down in size if you really want to..I saw another reviewer of one of these adidas lunch bags say that they thought it would ruin it if you try to smush it up to fit into cubbies and what not..I DO NOT, personally, AGREE with that, I think it would b fine and once you take it out and want to 'un-smush' it, that you would be able to build it's shape back without a problem, cuz there have def been times he's come home after a day at school with a 20lb book bag (he has 3 diff core teachers plus the encore teachers etc., in 5th grade, and no locker, so yeah), and having thrown the bag around the bus home and everything, and his lunch bag is in the front outer pocket of his backpack, so yes it has gotten unintentionally smushed at times, and I had no issues at all popping the corners and everything back into place and standing it back up..it seems fine to handle whatev u do to it.. ***I should note tho, that the rest of the bag DOES get smushed more easily...I actually try to pack it to where I put harder or boxy things against the outer sides (inside the main compartment of the bag) and I put grapes and more smushable items either in between those things in like a lil safety fortress, or, what I'm more recently thinking has actually worked better is to put that stuff up at the top of the bag, sitting like in the middle but up on top of all the other items inside his main compartment..btw you can build food up HIGHER than where the zipper zips, bc the top of the bag above the zipper is tall, so u can store things all the way up high above where it zips and it still fits..but, ig, if I'm really thinking about it, if you are very active with the bag and are concerned with your stuff getting smushed in at all, then this honestly probably isn't your bag, u should prob have a totally hard exterior kind..most of my kid's stuff isn't really smushable, and the cpl things that are, I just place it strategically and it's fine for him by lunch time..tho if there's ever any left over grapes or whatev in a baggie, it will def b smushed up by the time it reaches me at the house, after being in that big bag that's mostly empty at this point, in a heavy backpack that gets thrown around a bus on the way home, yeah.. *The last 'compartment' on the bag is the very back, there is a mesh slot..I honestly don't use this much, sometimes I stow an xtra napkin in there, but I stopped doing that since the bottom compartment has plenty room for napkins plus everything else..but other than that, ig you could fit like some little snacks, maybe a small bag of nuts or something (I have a different area for his snack in his backpack, so I don't need to do this), def not much tho bc it is pretty closely sewn to the back (which it has to be, or whatev u put in it would fall out), so it needs to b pretty small and light..but overall we absolutely love the functionality of this bag, it really is pretty perfect for our needs and I know that it will still be perfect next yr in middle school (and if not, I'll update)..I'm pretty sure an average high-schooler could use this bag as well, and If I were in a job that I brought a lunch to work every
