North Face backpack madness

It's been a popular for as long as I can remember to disparage larger, more commercial outdoor brands such as Patagonia and The North Face. As with anything perceived as mainstream, people that see themselves as innovators will turn up their nose and point to some lesser known brand as more legit, better designed, or better value.
For the most part I've tried to resist the temptation as I understand that you can always sell more graphic tees and hoodies then technical shells or down parkas, and these sales funded large R&D departments that quietly turned out quality products in smaller amounts, such as the North Face's Summit Series. As long as these quality, innovative products kept coming I could turn a blind eye to the deluge of cheap imports aimed at the Denali-fleece-and-Ugg-boot clad masses.


Well, at least for the time being I am formally withdrawing my support for North Face and jumping on the "they jumped the shark" bandwagon.

What the hell is this? This is what happens when you change your back pack line every year out of compulsion and not for the sake of incremental improvements over the last models.

I don't know what kind of mysteries are hidden behind that piece of nylon but why have tubular frame sections transition to flat stays?

arbitrary patterns indented into the hip belt padding. overly complex adjustment system. ridiculously thin padding. Iffy proprietary fabrics.

I'm all for innovative, daring designs but there is no clear design focus here, it really looks like a crowd of burnt-out backpack designers go together an threw a bunch of their left over ideas into one pack. For all I know it might even work very well for some body types, it certainly has some good features too it, but there is no focus, no overarching goal. This is what it looks like to get curb stomped by the Good Idea Fairy, features for feature's sake.

While we're on the subject, check out this other North Face pack. It's hard to tell from the picture but the designers decided it needed an obscenely steep lumbar angle, for a flat-backer like me the point is the only part that makes contact. You can see were the designers are coming from but somewhere in the line the signal/noise ratio is getting shot to hell.

I don't have pictures to illustrate my point but a lot of this has slowly built up over the years as I've watched North Face's pack department slowly degrade. The Terra line for instance was a respectable, simple top loader for many years that died a slow death as it was weighed down with gimmicky features. The battle to keep the price point the same has seen a decrease in quality until now, when it seems more at home next to a Cabela's house brand pack then among the Gregoys and Ospreys of the market.

Maybe I'm just bitter over the changing market in general (Golite's laughable transition being a prime example) but I do hold out hope because even with many companies seeming to take leaps backward there are still more fantastic backpacks on the market then ever before, and more showing up every year. Just buy your backpacks from backpack companies and your hoodies from hoody companies and you'll be fine.

Silly Kickstarter of the week: HackedPack

I don't know if it's just because I'm looking more or if increased use and the law of averages is taking affect, but I'm seeing more and more silly products coming out of Kickstarter these days.

Exibit 1:

The "HackedPack"

The gimmick is strong with this one.
I think a lot of Kickstarter failures occur from taking good ideas but using poor manufacturing or horrible materials choices. The problem with this product is not the pack or the hammock, which by all indications look above-average for Chinacrap, but the very idea that there is an advantage to combining two separate items into one. Why not go to REI and pick out the pack that fits you the best, and then wander over a couple isles and buy an ENO hammock? Then you can use one without the other, with no weight or price penalty.
Just like those "as seen on TV" products the main sales pitch seems to be to make something that is not hard at all (pulling a hammock out of a backpack and pitching it) look like some huge hassle that needs to be streamlined.
It does not.

Unlike the self-proclaimed capitalists that are quick to say "if you don't like it, don't buy it" or to proclaim that more competition is always better, I see every silly, gimmicky product as a waste of time, energy, resources and attention that could have been spent on real innovation or improving existing products in small ways. By distracting consumer dollars away from producers of truly excellent products, buyers are hampering these company's  ability to invest in future product development, and thus cheating themselves out of more, better, awesome stuff.

GORUCK

I'll just go ahead and be blunt.

I don't like GORUCK.

The story of the garage start up, the dedication to American manufacturing, the fun extra products that pop up (1000d cordura tie? I can get behind that), all that is well and good. It's not even the high prices or the obnoxious cult-adherents purchasing their products that rubs me the wrong way, we've seen that all before (COUGH *kifaru*).

Its the packs.
I think they suck. I'm all for streamlining and simplifying, most of my favorite packs are quite simple and could even be simplified more, but with GORUCK I think too much was sacrificed at the alter of minimalism.

No sternum strap?
No belt?
No compression straps?
Any color as long as it's black?

I'm not fan of panel loaders, I know that is just a personal preference, but why build a backpack and go on and on and on about its durability and design it to be one zipper failure away from spewing your stuff on the ground? It's not even as beefy a zipper as some other pack makers use (looks like a #8, I'd bet dollars to donuts it's not a #10 like HPG or Kifaru). Go look at a Pointman, Ute, or even a Trizip, none of them leave you completely out of luck in the case of a zipper failure.
It's a 1000d cordura backpack with beefy stitching. It's not really going to be any tougher then any other 1000d cordura backpack on the market with beefy stitching. It's going to be as tough as its weakest components, zippers and hardware being my guess.
I'm also not going to buy the line that a relative newcomer to backpack design (with no prior manufacturing or textiles experience) is going to be able to design intrinsic durability improvements into the bags themselves. Go look at HPG's judicious use of hypalon, or read about Mystery Ranch's differentially cut double pack bottoms if you want to see what that looks like, Evan and Dana have been mulling over backpack design for years (not to leave out Patrick Smith, but I think he has more of a "brute force" design ethos that seems to have worked just fine).
Interestingly enough, I see many parallels between the cult of GORUCK and the oddly passionate attachment I used to see people express for their Kifaru E&E packs: Both offer very little value added over other generic backpacks at a much steeper price.

And the price. I'm used to paying extra for quality American made products, but even the GORUCK guys will admit $295 is pretty steep for such a simple bag (the GR1). What does the same money get you from other quality, American pack companies?

Kifaru Zippy:

3 zippered access points, full compression system, removable/adjustable shoulder straps, top and bottom lashing points, and your choice of full MOLLE or water bottle pockets.

Mystery Ranch Big Sky/Dragon Slayer/Sweetpea:

Depending on model you could get a full compression system, bottom compression straps, water bottle pockets, stowable fully padded hipbelt, adjustable yoke, load lifters, an aluminum and fiberglass frame, and some pretty extensive internal organization. Throw in another $25 and you could add the 3DAP to the party.

HPG Umlindi+Prairie belt:

Full compression system, top and bottom lashing straps, water bottle pouches, frame sheet with aluminum stay, full shoulder harness, and a full sized pack belt.

I'm not saying the GR1 isn't the perfect backpack for some people, I just don't understand how so many packs with more materials and manufacturing complexity can be offered at the same price point, there is either a hefty mark-up or some major parasitic loss in the GORUCK supply chain.


But despite all this I do have something very positive to say about GORUCK. A tumblr post led me to this:

The State of GORUCK: Edition 3
Jason needs an editor and some shorter sentences, but scroll down and you'll find this:

I have huge respect for any company willing to post their revenue on the internet for all to see. I appreciate the transparency, as well as just being interested in how businesses are run. If they ever get their Mesh Tac Hat back in any color other then black I'll probably throw a few dollars their way.

But seriously, I'd rather have a Blackhawk! 3 day then a GR1, and that's saying something.

If wishes were fishes

If I could go back in time and unwrite one book, it would be "Mystery Ranch" by Gertrude Chandler Warner.

Darn thing pops up EVERY TIME I go backpack shopping on eBay. That and it outnumbers the backpacks by about 3:1.

That is all.