Granted, pocket preferences in a bag are subjective, and you may appreciate the Black Rhino's abundance of compartments in ways I didn't. But the bag's main failing is that I found it to be uncomfortable to wear. When I packed the backpack with a laptop and a couple textbooks, then strapped it on my shoulders, after only a short while the Black Rhino's straps started digging painfully into my shoulders. The problem wasn't that one shoulder pad was higher than the other, or that the weight of the bag wasn't distributed equally between my shoulders; rather, the strap padding is too stiff and awkwardly aligned.

Though I applaud the Black Rhino's environmentally friendly construction, I can't recommend it. The bag's design, with its large compartments and multiple pockets, invites you to weigh it down with lots of gear, but if you do--and even if you don't, in my testing--you can't comfortably carry the bag around. Which leaves me still looking forward to the day when I can have a backpack that's both earth-friendly and practical.