Part vehicle, part suitcase, the Zuca Sport is a piece of luggage like none you've probably ever seen
before. Picture a small vertical
sports locker on wheels that light up and you've got a good idea of what the ZUCA is all about.
This ZUCA Sport bag is for everyone who needs a sleek means of moving their stuff from place to place, especially in crowded locations where places to sit or stand are limited. Broadway actors, makeup artists, figure skaters, lawyers, fitness fanatics all come to mind.
Luggage You Can Sit On
One
of the ZUCA Sport's chief virtues, and one that explains a good deal of its design,
is that you can sit on it - up to a weight of 300 pounds!! Therefore it could be ideal for someone
who commutes to work. In New York
City, for example, someone who commutes on the subway may often
have trouble finding a seat. That
can be particularly aggravating when you're lugging a huge amount of stuff to
work, i.e. a laptop and a bunch of heavy documents. Also, you may find it
irritating when you want to use the time on public transit to read and there's
no seat. Well,
bring your Zuca and never fear, you'll be relieved of carrying the weight of
all your stuff (the smooth, Bugaboo-like wheels are also ideal for going up and
down subway steps and curbs) and have a comfy place to sit. Just wheel your Zuca on board, plonk yourself down on the seat,
whip out your copy of War and Peace or today's newspaper - and watch
everybody else die of envy. (The wheels even light up when they are rolling for extra cachet!)
I'm
not sure the company ever thought of the commuter when they designed it. The
bag was originally conceived when the 10-year-old daughter of the company's
founder experienced back pain and scoliosis from lugging schoolbooks
around.
Athletes will also find the Zuca extremely useful. For example, figure skaters who need a place to sit between their turns and put on their skates. Actually, anybody with heavy
sports equipment to schlep around would welcome one. I could also see someone with a mobile career
(video producer, makeup artist, stylist, real estate agent) using it.
Weekend Trips
The Zuca Sport
is also perfect for weekend trips in the car. My husband just used it for a long weekend trip and he was
able to store all his clothes for the weekend in it, including an extra pair of
shoes and a dopp kit in the convenient side pockets. If you fold your clothes small enough you could easily leave
them stacked in the case all weekend. There are tons of thoughtfully designed side and
interior pockets to store all your odds and ends, even a hanging key fob inside
the case to deal with the annoying problem of where to put your house keys when
you go somewhere else for a short trip. So you can deal with all the clutter of what you need to go away for a
few days and look fairly organized while you're doing it. The same goes for a trip to the health
club or pool.
NERD
NOTE: In November 2006, ZUCA launched a new carrier designed for small pets. Doubling as both a rolling carry-all and "car seat" for animals, the ZUZUCA carrier enables safe transport of animals in the car or on the street.
Style & Functionality
The ZUCA Sport bag
comes in a variety of colors and patterns, and you can even change the frame
color if you want. But if you are
going to use it for work you may want to stick to the plain black (their
literature calls it "obsidian"). The ZUCA Sport comes with directions about how to put
it together. It doesn't take long. Even I could do it by myself in about 15 minutes. And if I can do it you can do
it---easily. Although I did find
myself wondering why they don't just put it together for the consumer at the
factory. Possibly because the
company wants you to learn how to put it together yourself so you can take it
apart.
The water repelling "insert
bag," or where you stash your stuff, is completely washable and
replaceable. So you could
conceivably buy one and get another "insert bag" in another color-maybe you'd
like one for work and one for your weekend junkets.
Keep
in mind that the Sport is not designed for air travel - it should not be
checked because it doesn't have a cover that is designed to protect it if it
should go through the abuse of an airplane's baggage hold. Also, the company tells me that it
can't go in the overhead bins due to the wheels' large size. The company has a separate bag designed
for air travel called the Zuca Pro.
Final Thoughts
The ZUCA Sport can help you navigate extreme terrain from locker rooms and schools to urban walkways. With well-planned storage, smooth handling, and a built-in seat, the ZUCA is a stylish way to modernize yourself.
Don't you ever find yourself clutching a load of stuff while standing on a crowded train or plane and wish you had a place to stash everything while sitting comfortably on a portable seat? Then the ZUCA is for you.
The ZUCA Sport sells for ~$145--a reasonable amount for this innovative means of transporting your lifestyle-to-go.
This item is
available for purchase from Amazon.com
ZUCA, a Campbell, CA company, specializes in the design of life altering innovations for the active lifestyle. Founded by an entrepreneurial mom to find a solution to the heavy backpack problem, the core principals of the ZUCA products are function, quality and design, or as they say: fashion -- function -- fun!
For more information, check out: http://www.zuca.com
Rating:
Requirements:
Stuff you want to put in a suitcase on wheels
OtterBox
for iPod Mini On
the run, in the car, or at the gym, our iPods have gone with
us to the ends of the earth... except places near water. But
thanks to the OtterBox Mini you can now safely take your
iPod Mini near or even underwater.
The Torch Wicked Lasers named their new flashlight the TORCH... and for good reason. The "TORCH" is technically a flashlight. It looks like a flashlight. Operates like a flashlight. But this is no ordinary flashlight. The TORCH is so bright that its beam can ignite flammable objects as fast as fire.
Flip Mino Camcorder The super-portable, super-simple Flip Mino makes it easy to capture and share high-quality video anywhere and everywhere. And thanks to its flip-out USB arm and intuitive, built-in software, Mino lets you view, edit and upload your videos to popular video-sharing sites instantly.
Apogee Duet What if you could find a relatively inexpensive interface that could easily convert that analog signal to a higher quality digital output for all your apps? Well, the sleek, portable aluminum-cased Apogee Duet may just be the answer.
Radius Atomic Bass
Earbuds If you're looking for an inexpensive, lightweight pair of earbuds with fantastic bass, then Radius' Atomic Bass earbuds are the earbuds of your dreams.
JL421 Badonkadonk Land Cruiser You The JL421 Badonkadonk Land Cruiser (ba-donk-a-donk) is a custom made tank that looks like it was modeled after Jabba the Hut's Sail Barge from Return of the Jedi. Nicknamed the "Donk," the JL421 Land Cruiser made its debut in 2002 at the Burning Man festival in Nevada.
Nintendo Wii Nunchuck Controller Is a weak arm or physical stamina keeping you from taking your Nintendo Wii gaming experience to the next level? Perhaps you should look into getting the Nintendo Wii Nunchuck Controller. This accessory adds even more innovation to the next generation of gaming and does it all with less physical movement.
JBL
Creature II Speaker System What's
the point of downloading your favorite songs on iTunes if they sound
like crap on your computer's built-in speakers? The sound quality
and volume these little babies emit, much to the chagrin of my neighbors,
is truly phenomenal.
Apple TV Review You may have heard of that new Apple product, I believe it's called the, uhh, Apple TV. I understand that newspapers, other blogs, and your Aunt have already reviewed this thing, but I thought I'd add my two cents.
Mod
Your iPod Are
you a victim of the iPod's blossoming popularity? Feel like just another
pair of white headphones in the crowd? Maybe it's time you got
an iPod Mod.
H20
iPod Mini Case
H20 Audio has created a waterproof and impact
resistant case so that we can take our iPod Minis anywhere we
want… including the ocean free.
Digital
Picture Frames Why
give someone a single still framed picture when you can give them
an entire slide show? Most Digital Picture Frames can playback a
series of digital photos and videos on high-resolution screens.
JBL
Encounter Speakers In
a world of boring shelf speakers that are as fascinating
as the wires that connect them, the JBL Encounter draws people
towards it with its innovative tongue-in-cheek design and
then lavishes them with deep warm sound.
Wicked
Lasers Review What makes a Wicked Laser "wicked"? How impressive
is a military grade laser imported from China? Let's test it and find
out...
iTrip
Auto
Play your music through any car FM radio.
Email or 
feed.
Luggage You Can Sit On
ZUCA, a Campbell, CA company, specializes in the design of life altering innovations for the active lifestyle. Founded by an entrepreneurial mom to find a solution to the heavy backpack problem, the core principals of the ZUCA products are function, quality and design, or as they say: fashion -- function -- fun!
JVC HA-NC250 Noise Canceling Headphones
JBL
Encounter Speakers
Software
Otterbox
for iPod Video
On
the run, in the car, or at the gym, our iPods have gone with
us to the ends of the earth... except places near water. But
thanks to the OtterBox Mini you can now safely take your
iPod Mini near or even underwater.
Wicked Lasers named their new flashlight the TORCH... and for good reason. The "TORCH" is technically a flashlight. It looks like a flashlight. Operates like a flashlight. But this is no ordinary flashlight. The TORCH is so bright that its beam can ignite flammable objects as fast as fire. 
The super-portable, super-simple Flip Mino makes it easy to capture and share high-quality video anywhere and everywhere. And thanks to its flip-out USB arm and intuitive, built-in software, Mino lets you view, edit and upload your videos to popular video-sharing sites instantly.
What if you could find a relatively inexpensive interface that could easily convert that analog signal to a higher quality digital output for all your apps? Well, the sleek, portable aluminum-cased Apogee Duet may just be the answer.
If you're looking for an inexpensive, lightweight pair of earbuds with fantastic bass, then Radius' Atomic Bass earbuds are the earbuds of your dreams.
Is a weak arm or physical stamina keeping you from taking your Nintendo Wii gaming experience to the next level? Perhaps you should look into getting the Nintendo Wii Nunchuck Controller. This accessory adds even more innovation to the next generation of gaming and does it all with less physical movement.
What's
the point of downloading your favorite songs on iTunes if they sound
like crap on your computer's built-in speakers? The sound quality
and volume these little babies emit, much to the chagrin of my neighbors,
is truly phenomenal.
You may have heard of that new Apple product, I believe it's called the, uhh, Apple TV. I understand that newspapers, other blogs, and your Aunt have already reviewed this thing, but I thought I'd add my two cents.
Are
you a victim of the iPod's blossoming popularity? Feel like just another
pair of white headphones in the crowd? Maybe it's time you got
an iPod Mod.
H20 Audio has created a waterproof and impact
resistant case so that we can take our iPod Minis anywhere we
want… including the ocean free.
Why
give someone a single still framed picture when you can give them
an entire slide show? Most Digital Picture Frames can playback a
series of digital photos and videos on high-resolution screens.
