I finally finished sewing my first pack and wanted to share with all you fine fellow gear makers. I’m reasonably happy with my quality of workmanship (been sewing for quite a few years now), but the numerous design flaws have me eager to make more packs in the near future.
The pack body is made from 200d urethane-coated packcloth and dyneema x gridstop for the high-wear bottom. Heavier than silnylon, sure, but still pretty darn light and much easier to work with.
I was trying for a daypack, but the volume (including lid) is something like 2000 cu.in. and feels like it has a lot more usable volume than my old REI pack since it isn’t divided into a bunch of silly little compartments. I still want that lid though, since it’s a handy place to keep small essentials separate from other items. Makes me feel better, anyway.
The shoulder straps are essentially unpadded, made with 3d mesh from thru-hiker and 3/4″ binding tape on the sides (from para-gear) for bearing weight. This design was inspired by another pack I saw on here a while back, and I’ve got to say it works rather well. Very light and airy.
The straps attach to the pack body with a reinforcement patch. Unfortunately this still causes point loads at some of the stitches and the thread has pulled holes open in the fabric.
Another important feature is the shoulder strap pouches. They’re good for holding items I’m constantly putting on and taking off like hat and sunglasses. These are a little small, but their utility to me has been proven.
Then there are the side pockets. I changed their design at the last minute after seeing ULA’s line of packs. Originally they were going to be side-entry instead of top-entry like my REI pack’s pockets. They work well in place of waist strap pockets when the bottom of the pack is wide enough to reach them without taking it off first. The top-entry pockets are nearly as convenient and hold things more securely. The material is spandura I got from Seattle Fabrics. It’s a lot like standard lycra but thicker, less shiny, and maybe a little stronger stretch.
I used water resistant zippers for the lid and main compartment. The lid zip works nicely, but the main compartment zip has a lot of resistance and takes work to open and close since it snakes around the pack and thus doesn’t support well against the slider drag. If I do it again, I’ll use a standard zipper/flap for the main compartment. I am happy with my decision to have a single slider on each zipper though. Some OCD part of my nature is never happy with where I leave the two sliders on a zipper. Having a single slider eliminates this niggle.
I added a single 1/2″ compression strap about midway up the main compartment. It goes all the way around the sides and front and has a single ladder lock on the right side. It works well enough but is redundant with the bungee cord net arrangement on the front. I’ve never had a pack with one of these things, but they seem nice enough as an alternative to stretch mesh pockets like on my Osprey pack as well as doing double-duty as a compression system. (Btw, does anyone know where to source that stretch mesh?) The loops the cord goes through should all be a little lower though.
I’ve got this fabric tube elasticized at the end for the hydration port. I was going for something more water resistant than the normal slit in the side. Unfortunately the elastic wouldn’t stretch down enough and still let the bite valve through, so it looks pretty goofy and probably doesn’t work as intended.
Inside I’ve got a velcroed foam backpad compartment and a bladder sleeve. Unfortunately the bladder sleeve allows the bladder to hang below the pad and I can feel the hardware digging into my back. I’m inclined to leave the sleeve out in future designs since you can just put the bladder wherever and pad it with other items in the pack.
Finally, because the pack rides pretty high, has straight sides and the lid is above the straps, it hangs away from me pretty badly. I’m hoping a taller pack that doesn’t terminate in the small of my back will hang better. Also, if the main compartment isn’t completely full, the lid hangs down awkwardly making it harder to use the main zip and bungee net.
More images on Flickr.
