SCORE
85
GRADE
B
Club Storage
94
Legs
86
Straps
89
Pockets/Storage
83
Rain Hood
92
Carrying Impressions
90
Style
80
Innovation
87
Cost/Value
85

The Nike Xtreme Element is bargain priced (at least for a premium brand bag), and gets the job done. It won’t impress anyone with any of its features, but you won’t be cursing your purchase decision either. Think Kate Jackson in “Charlie’s Angels”. Or, if you prefer the 2000 movie version, think “a bit better than Drew Barrymore”.
Retail price: $160
Availability: Discontinued; replaced by the Nike Extreme Sport Carry


94 / A

Club Storage
A 5-way top splits the club storage area of the Nike Xtreme Element into 5 sectors. There are two full-length dividers that run the length of the bag, so the club storage space is divided into three major sectors, with the 5-way top splitting two of the major sectors in half. For those who like throwing all of their woods into a single area, this is the perfect set-up. Nice and simple, just the way we like it.


86 / B

Legs
The legs on the Xtreme Element are skinnier than most, and while they are capped with rubber tips, they do not have the wide feet found on some competitors. As a result, even though they generally accomplish the task of propping the bag up, they don’t exactly inspire confidence – when setting the Xtreme Element down, we often found ourselves double-checking the stability of the bag before we would release the bag entirely.


89 / B+

Straps
Nike has extended its “Air” technology to the straps on the Xtreme Element, which have visible air bladders that provide extra cushioning on top of the regular padding. There are 4 adjustment points for the backpack-style straps. While the straps were plenty comfortable, we didn’t find a profound difference between these and the more traditional padded straps. One unique feature is that Nike’s “Revolving Strap System” allows the user to completely unclip one of the straps – handy for caddies who are hauling two bags at once.


83 / B-

Pockets/Storage
The Nike Xtreme Element features 7 total pockets.

The Xtreme Element includes traditional straps on the right side of the bag for holding an umbrella and a ring for attaching a towel. There is no dedicated pocket for a pencil/pen, but there are four small tee holders.
A curved metal exoskeleton running down the spine of the bag drives the unique layout of the bag. In the end, it will store your stuff, but because of the unconventional pocket placement, you’ll have to do some experimentation with where you put things.


92 / A-

Rain Hood
The rain hood included with the Nike Element Xtreme is nicely done. The hood snaps to four buttons around the perimeter of the bag, and a strap is passed under the two legs, then threaded through a buckle to attach back to itself with Velcro. The snaps are extremely easy to secure, but for some reason, Nike made the strap almost exactly the same width as the buckle through which it must be threaded, requiring the user to show some needle-threading skills (not something you want to deal with if caught in a sudden rain shower). If the strap was an eight of an inch narrower, this would be a breeze.


90 / A-

Carrying Impressions
We generally enjoyed carrying the Nike Xtreme Element through our test rounds.


80 / B-

Style
Oy vey – in our opinion, the Nike Xtreme Element was the homeliest bag we tested. Some combination of the color schemes and the design just didn’t float our boat. The bag comes in three color combinations:


87 / B+

Innovation
As mentioned above, a curved metal bar runs down the spine of the Nike Xtreme Element. We’re not sure if it’s a lightweight solution to providing a little bit of shape to the bag, or if it’s purely cosmetic – in any event, it isn’t really a detriment. We give a few extra points just for trying something different.


85 / B

Cost/Value
The Xtreme Element is a simple lightweight carry bag. At $160, it tied for the least expensive bag we tested, but is relatively bare bones in terms of its feature set. This is a case where low price doesn’t necessarily mean the best value. While it gets the job done, we think there are more intriguing offerings at slightly higher price points.


One Response

  1. Just purchased one for my son.  We feel we got a great  value at $79.00.  The Grey and Blue color scheme (personally I preferred the red/black myself) was great as the blue matches his school colors.

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