I show off the new straps in an
unboxing stream recently if you want to see what they look like.
Just watched it. It was cool to see a brand-new Carolina being regarded for the first time and from what I can tell, it's virtually unchanged, apart from a couple of improvements on the design, namely to the internal frame and the bottle pouches.
Originally, the divider was a polycarbonate flat plate and wood dowel system that you had to screw together. Unfortunately, the divider piece had no adjustability in where you could slide it along the dowels.
The drink pouches had a single piece of narrow webbing on the bottom, which allowed thinner bottles to slip out. My work-around is to put a small towel on the bottom or to use koozies.
It looks like the material is the same 500 denier material mine is made of. It's freaking bomb-proof. The only wear I have is a couple of frame peek-throughs on the vinyl bottom. However, the straps are shelled out and will probably only make it through one more season, if that. Not bad for 10+ years, I suppose.
At the time, my bag retailed for $125 including a shoulder strap. The Phenix quad shock straps were a $40-45 upgrade. The shock straps were nice in that they have a heavy-duty elastic loop portion on each of the four connection points which really helped ease the bounce when walking with a full load of discs, gear and liquid.
I'm trying to decide now whether to merely replace the straps or to just bite the bullet on a backpack. I still get 'old skool' comments on the bag, which has some appeal, but if I'm replacing, I'll try to go with whatever is the best bang at the time.