No shoes, no home? You still need a good bag for your arcade stick while you travel.
Splitframe’s FS carriers are a staple for wandering world warriors that need to protect their fight stick, and there have been a few different versions on the market — most recently including the Shadaloo Psycho Transporter XL (for those really big sticks), and the Evo-branded Championship Transporter. However, a leveled-up version of the latter design is available from Arcade Shock, complete with a Street Fighter V theme suited to a particular traveling fighter: the “Arcade Shock X Street Fighter” Ryu FS Street Traveler (version 2). There was a prior Ryu-themed model (no longer available) that shared more in common with the standard FS Transporter; this new version sports a number of upgrades. Arcade Shock provided us with one to have a closer look.
While the basic design is fairly simple — basically a black fabric box, right? — the new metallic zippers and logos make the overall look actually quite striking. You can see the prominent SFV logo on the front, and the stylized kanji that appear on Ryu’s gloves adorn the side panel that opens into the interior.
This model replaces the former basic smooth polyester exterior with a thick quilted fabric that is both reminiscent of a “street wear” look (as intended) and provides a more durable outer surface. This quilted exterior and the thicker padded areas are not particularly water-resistant, so while your contents are protected by the thickness of the padding, prolonged (or profuse) exposure to rainfall or spills might seep through.
The zipper tags are now tipped with a fabric grab-strip, which is very handy. You’ll note that the zipper on the bag’s forward pouch also tucks into a little sleeve to get it out of the way. There is also a sleeve for a water bottle and an additional zippered pouch on the side of the bag (as well as that extra pouch on the front). It’s got a sturdy handle on the very top, but no other handles aside from the backpack straps.
Just in case you forgot, the inputs for Ryu’s signature Hadoken await to remind you when you open the bag up. Internally, there’s a significant amount of storage space; you could squeeze in a couple of fight sticks, at the cost of internal padding. The design in fairly simple: it’s basically a big empty rectangular bag. To accommodate sticks of slightly different sizes and shapes, it includes velcro-edged pads that line up with strips on the inside surfaces to form protective padding where needed. There is a sort of “default” positioning based on the locations of these strips, but the interior layout is quite flexible, allowing a good deal of customization.
By moving the velco-edged pads around, you can fit pretty much any arcade stick in the HORI RAP/Razer Panthera size range, even up to a Qanba Obsidian. It can be a bit tricky to remove and set the pads in a new position, but it isn’t difficult. Open space is left in the center to accommodate a fight stick’s protruding lever. It’s pictured housing a HORI RAP.N below:
The extra pads can be popped into the open areas for extra padding, or removed outright. The bag has two access zippers into this cavity on the front; the open areas form extra storage compartments for cables, etc. when the bag is closed. This design is certainly flexible, however the stitching that holds the velcro to the movable pads seems to suffer from some assembly-line looseness: it was mis-stitched and separating from one of the pads on our sample. This is incongruent with the good quality of the stitching on the exterior of the bag, and fortunately it isn’t something that poses a problem unless you plan to move these pads around a lot.
The shape of this type of bag does seem to take a bit of getting-used-to once it’s strapped to your back; it has a chest clasp to help distribute the weight, and yet it seems to pull your center of gravity backwards more due to its thick, boxy design, as opposed to an ordinary backpack. But with some strap adjustments, it is still comfortable enough to walk around with. Your mileage will vary based on the shape of your shoulders.
In general, this is a solid bag that should serve your fight stick transport and protection needs quite well. The SFV Ryu-branding is a nice touch, as long as Street Fighter is your game of choice, of course. The versatility of the interior pads makes this bag suitable for transporting other electronics as well, like a small monitor or game console, adding some extra utility. This particular model is a limited-edition from Arcade Shock, limited to 300 units; so if you’re a fan of the original world warrior you’ll want to head over there before they’re sold out. You can pick one up for $109.98 USD on their website. If you wield a larger fight stick as your weapon — such as the HORI VLX — you’ll want to look into Splitframe’s XL offering, or perhaps the Qanba Aegis, if you use their Dragon fight stick.
Pros
- simple but visually-striking Street Fighter-themed design
- can be adjusted to fit a variety of mid-sized arcade sticks
- overall strong durability through quality build/components
Cons
- very large sticks will need a larger carrier
- not fully waterproof