He demolished and escaped from his new soft-sided carrier within 30 seconds.

clever cats from opening them. A strong material should prevent a cat from clawing or chewing its way out of the carrier.

That’s human think. The cat just pulls the teeth of the zipper apart at the middle. That’s cat think. 🐱

So disappointing. I was hoping to find a good one.

Our cats have never tried to claw their way out of soft carriers. Not that they were thrilled, but it's way better than the hard carriers. He (just the one, now) can barely stand up in it. He's sitting or lying all the time anyway, except when stress-excreting (all three ways, like clockwork). Because the soft carrier has both top and end zipper openings, I am able to reach in and remove one of the layers of absorbent pads I put in before the trip. Awkward, yes, but he settles down quickly.

I've looked into cat strollers. For him, going to the vet is so stressful that I'd want to have a different stroller so he won't think he's going to the vet all the time. Also, the visibility in those is much better than in a regular soft carrier.

I'm going to call the vet for an opinion on the safety of the soft carriers and strollers.

They have MANY to choose from. https://www.chewy.com/b/carriers-travel-454

Make sure that it has a door on the top. It is MUCH easier to get kitty into a carrier that way than shoving them into the side.

That being said, our kitties ride in style with these carriers.

https://www.chewy.com/pet-life-wheeled-travel-dog-carrier/dp/271632

I used to regularly drive a carload of cats 30 miles to get fixed. We always asked for clean, hard-sided carriers, but often got the soft ones, which is how I sometimes found myself driving along with a loose cat in the car.