Patagonia Black Hole Wheeled Duffel 40L Review

Endless queues of Japanese families streamed out of each ramen restaurant on either side of the tunnel. I felt like an elephant threading my way through the dense shoulder-to-shoulder crowd. Aside from a 4L travel backpack, I pulled a 40L Patagonia Black Hole Rolling Duffel, a leader among carry-on luggage.

I couldn’t imagine traveling through Tokyo’s chikagai — the underground shopping arcades of Tokyo’s Metro — shouldering a duffel. While I felt slightly claustrophobic, this rolling duffel was my saving grace.

Rolling the Black Hole, I’d walked from Tokyo Character Street — with toy, anime, and Pokémon storefronts — to Tokyo Ramen Street, a cluster of famous ramen shops. For a city of 14 million, the above-ground sidewalks of original downtown Tokyo felt relatively quiet and spacious. But below ground, the Tokyo Metro sees close to 6.84 million passengers daily — a bustling experience.

Durable and stealthy, Patagonia’s wheeled suitcase never malfunctioned or got caught in the criss-crossing people and ticket checkpoints. After exploring the city — including Japan’s zero-kilometer bridge, Nihonbashi — I hopped on the northbound Tōhoku Shinkansen bullet train. It was time to go hiking in Fukushima, a less populated prefecture in Japan’s Tōhoku region.

In short: The 40L Patagonia Black Hole Wheeled Duffel ($359) is a streamlined, stout roller suitcase with minimalist pockets. It has generously sized grab handles and a telescopic handle that’s comfortable to hold. Relatively lightweight (7 pounds, 12.2 ounces) and compact (21.75″ x 14.5″ x 11″), the Black Hole easily fits into the overhead bins on airplanes and trains. The duffel doesn’t have many pockets for organization, and it doesn’t collapse to fit beneath a standard bed frame. However, the laminated exterior material is resistant to moisture and abrasion. And the resilient, lockable zipper sliders have a weather flap.

Check out our other favorite carry-on selections in The Best Carry-On Luggage Buyer’s Guide.

Field Testing in Japan: A Classic — But With Wheels 

Raised in Colorado’s remote mountains, I haven’t traveled to every country, but I’ve enjoyed a handful of adventures and reporting that recently led to my selection as the 2025 North American Travel Journalist of the Year. The Adventure Travel Trade Association also selected me as one of three journalists worldwide to be a 2025 global media delegate exploring the outdoor gems of Japan’s Tōhoku region.

For a jam-packed week, I took two bags, which I rifled through each day for gear, from my rain jacket and a fresh pair of women’s travel pants to dry bags for ocean kayaking. The Patagonia Black Hole Wheeled Duffel was one of those bags. The non-wheeled sibling has achieved legendary status among travelers. After using this version for my busy international trip, I’d say it carries on that reputation.

Patagonia builds the Black Hole Rolling Duffel with the same glossy, bombproof TPU-coated fabric, and then adds a rugged chassis with smooth-rolling wheels grooved for traction and strong enough for uneven ground. The result? A carry-on that blends outdoor durability with travel functionality. 

Pliable, Weather-Resistant Exterior

What sets this carry-on apart is its pliable shell. The TPU-coated face fabric resists water and abrasion yet compresses enough to squeeze into tight overhead bins or adapt as your packing load shifts mid-trip. The exterior also has zipper flaps that shed rain. 

September can be a rainy time in Tōhoku. This suitcase’s weather resistance was an excellent shield during several rainstorms when I was transporting my luggage to and from a private charter bus twice daily. At times, the suitcase would sit in the downpour. Nothing inside ever got wet or damp. The underside of the bag has two sturdy skid plates, too, which I appreciated for easier sliding into overhead bins.

Spacious Interior, Minimal Organization

At first glance, the interior seems more spacious than most carry-ons in its class. Patagonia kept the details pared down: one large mesh zippered pocket inside the lid, one small outer pocket with a key clip, and a set of internal compression straps.

A zippered interior liner opens to the skeleton of the bag, allowing access to an included repair kit for a broken axle. I haven’t seen that in other luggage. After meeting a woman with a broken wheel on her large, hard-sided suitcase in the Tokyo Metro, I was grateful to have a smaller suitcase, tenacious wheels, and a wheel repair kit in the Black Hole.

That interior zippered zone (where the repair kit is stashed) could double as a secondary compartment for dirty laundry. It’s not the most convenient access on the bottom of the bag, so I didn’t use it for storage. Four daisy chains are on the exterior to clip or hang items while in transit.

Grab Handles & Telescope Handle

One of my favorite parts of the Black Hole is the generously sized grab handles along the bag’s sides. Between the wheels, the rigid, angular handle is 4.5 inches wide, providing a stable grab point that’s also tough for rolling over the ground. The underside is texturized while the top is smooth.

Two soft handles on the top and side stretch 8.5 inches long and are 1 inch wide. These grab points make pulling the luggage out of an overhead bin or out from underneath a bus that much smoother and faster. I’d like to see a fourth handle added to the bag’s other side, where the brand’s logo is.

I really appreciated how comfortable the telescopic handle was to hold. It’s not ergonomically shaped, but the entire underside is coated with a texturized rubber that’s soft and allows a bit of aeration. The retractable handle has two levels, too.

Critiques

The Black Hole Rolling Duffel’s stripped-down approach has trade-offs. With fewer built-in organizational tools and no firm exterior, the design offers less protection than hard-sided luggage. The flexible case means that items at the very top of the pack are more vulnerable to compression or impact.

As a conservative packer, I put breakable items in the center and surrounded them with clothes for extra padding — for instance, the jars of miso I bought from the Yamamo Miso and Soy Sauce Brewery.

On one hand, it’s nice to have a large zippered pocket in the lid. But I would’ve liked two zippered pockets to organize items like socks in one and cosmetics in the other. I don’t think it would occupy much space to add a few internal zippered pockets along the walls.

The wheels are super burly, and I have no complaints about the performance. But I noticed that the hub tends to collect hair.

The top of the bag is collapsible for storage in tight spaces. However, the underside with the rigid handle and wheels is fixed. As a result, the bag won’t fit underneath a standard bed, which is a drawback for storage. I have another larger Eddie Bauer roller bag with a firm handle on the base, and it’s collapsible, so even that fits beneath a bed for storage.

Conclusion: Who It’s For

For an international adventure, the 40L Patagonia Black Hole Wheeled Duffel is a confidence-inspiring, maneuverable carry-on bag that I was happy to have while hopping between several flights from North America to Japan.

During a week in Japan’s Tōhoku region, I traveled via bullet train and charter bus, plus walking and taking escalators throughout city centers like Tokyo and Sendai. While there are two larger sizes — 70L and 100L — the 40L Black Hole was a functional, compact choice for my twice-daily transfers. With a mix of rain and heat, plus crowded train stations, the Black Hole is a bit soiled after globetrotting, but the glossy exterior is easy to wipe clean.

The Black Hole is on the upper end of price tags among carry-on luggage. Though, based on thousands of travel miles, I found that the rugged materials justify the cost. It’s also unique to see the materials included for repairing a broken wheel axle (tools are needed).

Regardless of any tradeoffs, this rolling duffel’s reinforced base and sidewalls offer enough defense for typical travel use, and the rugged exterior showed no signs of wear and tear after nearly 2 weeks of international travel. With a comfortable telescopic handle and sleek aesthetic, the Black Hole Wheeled Duffel has become one of my favorite travel companions.