New Balance 500 Combo (Black) - Backpack/wheelie

New Balance 500 Combo (Black) - Backpack/wheelie at a glance

Brand	New Balance
Category	Bags
Price	$95.00
Availability	In stock (1 of 1 variant)
Tags	duffle, kit-bag, new-balance, wheelie
Sold by	Cricket For All, Gilles Plains, South Australia

Variants and availability

Variant	Price	Was	SKU	In stock
Default Title	$95.00	—	—	Yes

How to choose a cricket bag

Bag choice comes down to how much gear is carried, how far it is carried, and by whom.

Types

• Duffle - single compartment, lightest, cheapest. Suits juniors and players carrying a partial kit.
• Wheelie bag - wheels and a pull handle. The standard senior choice: a full kit with bat, pads, gloves, helmet, shoes and clothing runs 12-18 kg, which is a great deal to carry across a car park.
• Wheelie duffle - hybrid, lighter frame with wheels.
• Backpack / holdall - for training rather than match days, or for juniors carrying gear to school.

What full kit actually needs

A senior bag should take a bat (or two), pads, gloves, helmet, thigh guards, abdominal guard, shoes in a separate ventilated compartment, whites or coloured clothing, and a towel. Look for a dedicated bat sleeve (bats stored loose against studs get scratched and dented) and a ventilated boot compartment - shoes stored against pads is how kit bags develop their reputation.

Junior sizing

A wheelie bag that reaches a child's chest is unmanageable. Junior-specific bags are shorter in the pull handle and lighter empty. A ten-year-old carrying a senior wheelie bag will drag it, which destroys the wheels within a season.

Care

Empty the bag after every match. The most expensive damage cricket gear suffers is being left damp in a sealed bag between weekends - leather hardens, foam degrades and everything smells. Leave it open to air.

Organising a cricket kit

The bag is the least glamorous purchase in cricket and the one that most affects whether the rest of the kit survives. Most equipment damage happens in storage rather than in play.

What kills cricket equipment in a bag

• Damp. Pads, gloves and shoes come off the field wet with sweat or rain. Sealed in a bag until the following weekend, leather hardens and cracks, foam degrades and loses its ability to absorb impact, and everything develops the smell cricket bags are known for.
• Compression. A helmet stored under a full kit gradually deforms its liner. Helmets should sit in their own compartment or on top.
• Studs against surfaces. Shoes stored loose against a bat face or pad facing cause exactly the damage you would expect. A ventilated boot compartment solves both this and the damp problem.
• Bats stored loose. Bats knock against buckles, studs and stumps in transit. A dedicated bat sleeve is the difference between a scratched blade and an intact one.

Practical packing order

Heavy and rigid items at the wheel end so the bag is stable when upright: pads, helmet. Bat in its sleeve along the spine of the bag. Gloves, thigh guards and abdominal guard in the top compartment where they can be reached without unpacking. Shoes in the ventilated end pocket. Clothing in a separate section or a dry bag so it stays clean.

Capacity by player type

• Junior first kit - duffle or small wheelie. A part kit (bat, pads, gloves, helmet) fits comfortably and the child can carry it.
• Club senior - full wheelie. Bat or two, pads, gloves, helmet, thigh guards, shoes, whites, towel. 12-18 kg loaded.
• Wicketkeeper - full wheelie with extra volume: keeping pads, keeping gloves and inners are additional to batting kit, not instead of it.
• Coach or club - wheelie holdall or multiple bags; team gear volumes are different again.

Wheels and handles

Wheels are the first thing to fail on a cricket bag, usually because a bag too large for its owner is dragged rather than wheeled, or because small hard wheels meet grass and gravel. Larger wheels and a telescopic handle that extends to the user's hip height are worth paying for.

Storage between seasons

Empty the bag completely at the end of the season. Store pads and gloves dry and loosely rather than compressed, bats upright in a cool place away from heat, and the bag itself open. Kit stored packed over a summer break comes out unusable more often than kit that is simply old.

Cricket bag terms

• Wheelie - a wheeled bag with a telescopic pull handle.
• Duffle - a single-compartment carry bag without wheels.
• Bat sleeve - a dedicated padded compartment for bats.
• Boot compartment - a ventilated section for shoes, separated from the main body.

Common questions about cricket bag

What size cricket bag do I need?

A full senior kit - bat, pads, gloves, helmet, thigh guards, abdominal guard, shoes and clothing - runs 12-18 kg and needs a full-size wheelie bag. Juniors carrying a partial kit are usually better with a duffle or junior wheelie, which is shorter in the handle and lighter empty.

Wheelie bag or duffle?

Wheelie for anyone carrying a full kit any distance; the weight is genuinely awkward. Duffle for juniors, for training-only kit, and for players who mostly travel by car door to door.

What features actually matter?

A dedicated bat sleeve (bats stored loose get scratched and dented by studs), a ventilated boot compartment separate from the main body, and wheels large enough to handle grass and gravel rather than only smooth floors.

Why does my kit bag smell?

Because it is being stored sealed with damp gear inside. Empty the bag after every match, air the contents, and leave the bag open. This is the single most common cause of premature kit failure - leather hardens and foam degrades in a damp sealed bag.

Are junior bags worth it?

Yes, if the child carries their own bag. A senior wheelie that reaches a ten-year-old's chest gets dragged rather than wheeled, which destroys the wheels within a season.

Where this sits in the range

Cricket For All stocks 83 other bags items, priced from $19.99 to $385.00. At $95.00 this one sits around the middle of that range.

Closest alternatives in the same category, matched on shared product tags:

Product	Brand	Price
New Balance 600 COMBO (Black) - Backpack/Wheelie	New Balance	$120.00
New Balance DC 800 Combo (Black) - Duffle/Wheelie	New Balance	$170.00
Gray-Nicolls GN 500 Bag-Black/Pink	Gray-Nicolls	$59.99
Kookaburra Pro 5.0 Wheelie	Kookaburra	$100.00
Magnium FE Ignite Duffle with Wheelie	Cricket For All	$104.99
Magnium FE Ignite Wheelie	Cricket For All	$104.99

What to buy alongside

Bat covers and separate boot bags keep damp footwear away from willow inside a kit bag.

About New Balance

New Balance entered cricket relatively recently but has become a major force, particularly in footwear where its running-shoe engineering translates directly, and in bats through high-profile player endorsements.

Ranges this product appears in

• New Balance Bags — 3 products
• Shop All Bags — 54 products
• New Balance — 72 products
• All Cricket Gear Except Balls — 1451 products

Buying from Cricket For All

Cricket For All is an Adelaide cricket centre and online store at Unit 1-2, 621-623 North East Road, Gilles Plains, South Australia. Free standard shipping applies to eligible Australian merchandise orders of A$100 or more before cart rewards. Standard shipping is A$15 otherwise; express is A$20. Exclusions and weight limits apply. See the current shipping policy at https://www.cricketforall.com.au/policies/shipping-policy for full terms.

The store sits inside a working cricket centre with indoor lanes and bowling machines, so equipment advice comes from nationally accredited coaches who see the same gear in use daily rather than from a catalogue. Trading hours are Monday to Thursday 12:00pm-10:00pm, Friday 12:00pm-9:00pm, and Saturday and Sunday 10:00am-6:00pm. Phone (08) 7095 5777 or email retail@cricketforall.com.au.

Price, variant and availability details reflect the catalogue when this page was compiled; the live product page carries current pricing and stock.