When our middle-school trumpeter switched schools, we needed a new case because the original was too big and heavy to store in a school locker, and hard to drag around to frequent rehearsals and practices. After researching opinions not just from other school families but also professional musicians, we chose the Contoured Pro-pac case. We're very satisfied with the quality, appearance and functional design.This model has wood reinforcement, inside all the padding, to protect the instrument against potential hard knocks. It feels very sturdy, while being much lighter than the original. Other cases might be lighter but you have to trust padding alone. This one seemed to be a better compromise for the safety of the horn. The outer surface seems very durable and is holding up well in its first several weeks of use.The closure system helps ensure that the case stays closed, and the zippers work easily. The main carrying handle is in a well-balanced position, plus there is another handle to carry it vertically as well as an optional shoulder strap. That strap is ideal for a student (or anybody else) who may already be wearing a backpack or carrying other things by hand.I was pleasantly surprised to find that the case has hard rubber feet on two edges. These allow it to be set down either horizontally, or vertically (bell facing down). In both positons, the case is balanced enough to stay upright on its own.There is a cup - basically a reinforced hole within the case -- to hold the mouthpiece. The cup is just deep enough for the length of the mouthpiece, which touches the bottom of the case when stored. If the case were totally perfect I'd wish for at least a little deeper slot there, but it has not presented any problems so far.There is one outer pouch, with a couple of small pockets inside it. It is handy to have space for valve oil and other items, but you can't fit any conventional size music in it without folding. We have a Bach straight mute, which will indeed fit in the pouch -- but just barely. It really protrudes, and with no padding there, the mute has no protection from impacts. I would avoid using the pouch this way if possible, but it seems others don't mind. One is giving up the storage capacity of a larger, heavier case for the sake of portability, so this pocket seems a reasonable compromise.In sum, this seems an excellent choice if you need to "downsize" from the manufacturer's original case, or decrease the carrying weight, or both -- without sacrificing strength or protection.And the real clincher for our purposes is that this case fits in a regular full-size school locker -- in fact, to keep it from sitting on your books you can hang it from a coat hook if the locker has one, using the carrying handle on the end.I see various comments from owners of Bach Stradivarius trumpets -- in my opinion this case fits a Bach Strad perfectly. The padding hugs the bell but that's how it's supposed to work. The horn slides right into place. The original Strad case has a lot of space around the horn, which may throw off their expectations when switching to this design. Also note that the older case has two mouthpiece cups and space to store scads of accessories. Making the switch to this Pro-Tec case, Strad owners will lose that voluminous storage space but get a far more convenient and portable case that will take the instrument from point A to point B safely.