In the 1970's, being a Salmon fisherman with a 16 ' fly rod, I used the nice expensive canvas and leather bags sold by Orvis. I would take my collapsible rod and reel with me whenever heading into Northern Europe or Scandinavia.

Most of my experience with these bags was wet packed contents, broken wheels on the rolling duffel, slimy wet leather handles and corners, and broken contents within, including some rather treasured single grain from Scotland. Only the rod and reel carriers have survived, primarily as they have a plastic or metal tube sewn into the canvas as a rod holder.

Same with my clever use of a Porsche Golf Bag carrier as the airline single sports item limit checked bag. Broken contents ( a large fragrant bottle of well padded Amarula ) returning to Switzerland from Brasil.

Our customs inspectors had a lot of fun with that arrival, one stating " Good for you that your clubs were not inside. " ( I found smiling at the moment difficult for some reason )

Increasing defensively then our collection of Rimowa products in both alu and polycarbonate, I have experienced no such problems since. Carry-on cases, or large XXL checked cases, nothing has since been discovered broken, wet, dusty, crushed, or even leaking.

I do have one foam padded Pelikan case, and I have used it in the Amazon in the rainy season, but it is very heavy in today's weight conscious air travel allowance. Unless I were carrying back an expensive Nikon, or perhaps a rare crystal of Remy Martin Black Pearl Louis XIII, I'll stick with Rimowa.