I own a couple of the Outdoor Research bags and can testify to their usefulness - not as a bag to wear going great distances with a lot of weight, but more as a 'peak' bag that you keep in your backpack and take out to sling over your shoulder when you only want to carry a subset of your gear, such as headed up for a final assault up a peak. They are water proof / water resistant - I haven't swum with them, but rain doesn't soak the contents - and the shoulder straps are comfortable as long as you don't overload the bag.

For day to day use I use the OR bag to quickly pack up food for car camping - just throw it in the bag and go - or to stuff clothing in, because I almost always take more clothing than the average hiker. The bag compresses well but not like a stuff bag, and keeps it dry. The roll down top can roll down pretty much as far as you want, making the actual size of the bag on your back just whatever size of the stuff you carry. Ultra lighters might decry the peak bag as a waste of weight - unlike a syl nylon stuff bag, weight gets tacked on with the shoulder straps and related compression straps, but I gave up on the ultra light philosophy when I lost 90 lbs and realized that was more useful to me than cutting ounces :-). They are made with OR's traditional build quality. OR sells these in various sizes, we're lucky in Seattle to have the OR outlet in South Seattle where you can sometimes find the bags on close out for half the retail, mine cost me $15-20 each, they normally retail for $50 or $60.

The promo bags are just that, promotional only, I wouldn't rely on them to carry goods too far or certainly to keep contents dry, but could expect to find refugees wearing them if they were engaged on a death march away from a disaster. Anything in a pinch. You'll also find alot of folks wearing Hello Kitty book bags, but that doesn't mean I'd want to.

No compensation from OR or Sanrio, manufacturer's of the Hello Kitty brand - just a happy customer.