My new 10 oz Zimmer Built pack.

Sweet pack!

Genious at work.

That is one sick looking pack!

Very nice work indeed. I have been thinking about a day pack and though this may be a bit big, it also may just do the trick. I want to be able to carry a three-liter hydration platy bladder and about 3-5 lbs. of gear. This looks like a sweet way to do it. I like the contrasting colors of the different fabrics and I like the shoulder straps and hip belt.

Yes, I would love to see some different photo angles of your beautiful pack. Especially the belt and shoulder straps and maybe one with the bungee tightened up to compress the pack.

I've always admired Chris' work. This has really brought my admiration to a whole new level. Good job on both or your parts. Do keep us posted on your in-field use of this little gem.

Rock on. Or is that walk on?!

edit: just found that Chris has this one up on his web site with nine different photos. I would like to see the pocket in the lid and how it works.

That looks like a very well thought out pack. Congrats to both of you.

I'd love to see more pics. And please follow up here after using it a few times.

This pack looks amazing. Chris' work is always first class, and I have talked to him and received help with planning my own gear before. Really helpful guy.

I really like the simplicity of this pack. The lid and front pocket together looks like a winning combination. I've been needing to make myself a new three-season pack for a while, and I think some of the parts of this pack may end up on mine. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Below are a few more shots of the pack. On Chris' site, you can rotate it to see more angles.

I'm very excited to get it in my hands. And yes, Chris Muthig, I like the simplicity too. I've always found a sense of beauty in simple things that work well…and I think it will work excellently for my purposes.

Thanks, everyone. I will post more when I get it.

Walk on, as Warren says.

Looks like I need to email Chris after the holiday madness.

that really is an awesome looking pack. Looks pretty functional too. Great mix of cuben colors and dyneema strength. PM me the $?

Chris never ceases to amaze me. Keep up the good work my friend..

Woot woot! I received the pack yesterday…and it looks even better in person, in my opinion. Combing over it, it's hard to find fault with Chris' workmanship. I believe it is as good as everyone here has said. Zimmer, a professional seamster in a previous life? Probably. Regardless, my anal eyes are impressed! I'm equally impressed with his ability to blend together function and aesthetics in unique and creative ways. His single wrap-around pocket for instance is brilliant, in my humble opinion. The bungee running over it on each side seems to work great as well to compartmentalize into the standard 3 pocket configuration.

Below are some photos with all my late summer gear packed: 60" long Neoair folded and against back; titanium pot with alcohol stove, spork, etc inside; Six Moons Meteor bivy; Zpacks Hexamid tarp w/ stakes inside pint sized Gatorade bottle urinal; 3 days food; windbreaker jacket; Equinox Terrapin poncho; WM summerlite without stuff sack (bag stuffed in pack on top of aforementioned gear). One outer side pocket includes toilet tissue and Steripen. The other side holds a 27 oz Klean Kanteen. If I wanted to put my bag in a stuff sack, there'd be more than enough room left over for my WM Flash jacket and pants and a couple more days food.

Bungee compression cord slightly engaged.

Bungee compression cord arresting poles.

The lid and and front pocket cinch together in unison. Chris and I had the same basic idea here but he ultimately worked out the fine details. I do not know how to describe how it works but it's quite clever on Chris' part.

Pocket inside lid with velcro closure. No stitching on the top. Spacious. Simple.

For reference, I'm 6' and 150 lbs, soaking wet.

No really, it was this long….

EDITed to add photo and clarify.

Something I forget to mention and take pics of is the hip belt. I haven't seen one like it. It's nicely padded with a standard center release buckle in the center. Unlike standard hip belts though, you don't pull away from your center-line at the side release buckle to tighten. You pull the straps towards it instead…straps that are threaded through a ladder-lock on each side of the padded wings. If you don't want the padded wings, this same webbing can be taken off the wings and re-threaded through a tri-glide on each side of the pack. Or, all of this can be left behind.

My old Osprey pack has a waist belt that you tighten by pulling "in" instead of out. Much easier to work with. Good looking pack Rusty.

Ryan

Fantastic pack and details.

My only concern is that the external pockets look like they would fill up with water in a heavy storm. Any drainage ports at the bottom of them?

Thanks, guys. James, there are drain holes in each corner.

Rusty, awesome pack. I'm really stoked about it. I'm definitely leaning towards giving Chris a call. I'd like a pack like yours for day hikes and maybe overnighters and will use this winter to mull over exactly what I need and then get it built. Pretty cool stuff.

Thanks for taking a photo of the lid pocket. I guess Chris taped it on rather than stitched it in. Nice clean touch. And I'm definitely interested in more photos with the padded hip belt on. Did Chris send it to you with both a webbing belt and a padded hip belt?

Thanks, Warren. What I meant by no stitching is that Chris didn't stitch the top piece of velcro to the lid. That piece of velcro is stitched to a separate piece of cuben which is then stitched to the lid. This way, there is no stitching in the top of the lid to leak. Chris may have had other reasons too, I don't know.

Re the hip belt, yes. It is just as it's shown in the earlier photos I posted (the nice ones that Chris took). The unique thing about it is that the webbing only part of the hip belt is integrated in with the padded part. Want only webbing? Just take the webbing off the wings and reattach it to the tri-glides on the pack. If you look at the photos closely, you can see what I mean.

Hope that helps.

r

That is one sweet pack!
Might have to put it on my Xmas list for myself.

As requested, I'm following up with this pack. Though I haven't used it in the field, I have played around with it for the past two months around the house. I liked it so much that I had Zimmer build me another… with a few changes I thought would better suit my particular needs. A couple things of note are as follows: I decided that I like padded hip belts over simple nylon or none at all so had Chris sew padded wings to the new pack. I also had the top bungee compression strap changed a bit so I could better compress my SUL summer loads. I'll post photos of the new pack once I get it and have time to mess with it a bit.

Now for the sad news. Unfortunately, as much as I'd like to keep both packs, I can't justify it financially or otherwise. So, I have put this one up for sale.