Revolution vs. Gorilla Boy - The Best Bag for the Buck?

The Small Bags

First, I’ll compare the smaller bags, since that is likely where most players will start when they decide to purchase a bag. As an honest recommendation, if you’re just getting started in the sport, and are not sure if you’ll play more than once or twice a month, I don’t know if a bag as high quality as a Revo or GB is exactly what you need. Cheaper bags such as the Innova Standard Bag or the DGA Starter Bag may suit your purposes just fine. If however, you’re just getting started and see yourself making a regular habit of disc golfing, or you’re already playing frequently and just want a small bag, I’d highly recommend going with a Revo or GB.

So then, assuming you want something that’ll last, and a small bag will suit your needs, lets look at the bags. Both bags advertise an 8-10 disc capacity, which will be a good fit, but, if you want you can get  11 in either of them snugly. My typical small bag setup consists of 9-11 discs: 2 putters, 3 midranges, and 4-6 drivers. Also, essential components to any bag I carry include a water bottle holder, and some sort of storage pocket–both bags come equipped with these. Also both bags are equipped with a frame of sorts, which is unusual in a smaller bag. Some may consider it overkill to have a frame in a small bag, but one distinct advantage is that the frames make it much more difficult to inadvertently tip your bag over when setting it down.

The Revolution Mini

The Revolution Mini retails for $45 + $9 shipping if you order from the Revolution website. The bag is made from 500 D Cordura, which is the lightest fabric of all the bags presented here, but it is plenty tough for its purpose. The “frame” in the Revo Mini isn’t a frame in the typical sense, it’s more of a cradle, a rectangular piece that fits in the bottom of the bag that keeps your discs off the ground and provides a level bottom for setting the bag down, yet leaves the sides of the bag “soft”. Since the sides are soft, you could feasibly cram more discs in the bag, or, it also could allow you to carry more midranges or putters than usual (since those discs take up more space than drivers.)

On one side of the Mini, there is a zippered pocket, open pocket, pencil pocket, and another smaller open pocket, suitable for carrying a scorecard or the like. On the front, a basic but functional putter pocket that holds 2 putters easily. There is padding on the back side, but no pocket. The padding is a nice touch, but not all that noticeable. The large zippered pocket is fairly roomy (~95 cu. in.), and is able to carry the essentials, though you can’t bring the kitchen sink with you. You can, however, fit several bottles of beer in there if you get creative with them (see the Bronson Ratings on page 6). One of my favorite, yet utterly simple features of Revo bags is the key clip strap. In the larger open pocket is a piece of nylon webbing with a key clip, which turns out to be extremely handy. Knowing exactly where your keys are and not having to worry about them falling out, even if you tip your bag over is a priceless commodity. One small drawback to this, on the Mini at least, is that if you have more than a couple keys on your keyring, the pocket is effectively blocked off. Since there’s not a specified mini marker pocket, this would probably be the best place to keep one, but much more than that and you’ll be aggravated at having to dig past your keys each time you want to grab something from the pocket.

On the other side of the Mini is a mesh pouch that Revo uses as their bottle holder. For being the gold standard of quality bags, this part of the bag seems chintzy to me. Even lesser quality bags have a real bottle holder on there. The mesh pocket does indeed hold a Nalgene sized bottle, but not snugly (if the bag tips over, your drink will likely be the first thing to go), and though the bag is tough, the mesh pocket is the one place I see notable wear.

Along with the mesh pocket, another design choice that I question is the pencil pocket. It is deeper than a golf pencil, so naturally, you end up losing your pencil in the depths, and either have to delicately coax it out, or give up and grab a new pencil. A solution is to put some sort of “stopper” in the bottom of the pocket so the pencil doesn’t fall, but again, for a top of the line bag, it seems like a strange decision to make the pocket so deep.

The bag comes with a simple, basic shoulder strap that does its job well enough, though there are attachments for backpack straps, or quads as they’re more colloquially known, if you so desire (personally, I think quads are a bit of overkill for a bag this size.) If you are able, I would recommend picking up what people in the disc golf world have dubbed the “fatty strap.” It comes standard with Revo’s larger bags, and due to the wider surface area, rides more comfortably. You can likely find somebody with an extra laying around that would be willing to trade or sell it cheaply, being as the majority of people that have the larger Revo bags opt for quads. One annoyance I’ve experienced, and heard of others having the same problem, is that the shoulder strap tends to squeak, skir-cunk-a-chunking along to the rhythm of your footsteps. Without the squeaking though, the bag rides very nicely and is comfortable for as long as you want to play.