1960’s Kelty Price List

Dick Kelty – cottage manufacturer.
So now I'm hoping your garage holds some other treasures of the same ilk. How about a price list for Antelope Packs of similar vintage?

Don't know what I am going to find. I think I paid around $20 for my Svea 123, which is probably equivalent to around $120 today adjusted for inflation. These were made in Sweden. Today a Svea 123R lists for $109, and is made in Asia somewhere.

I did find all my Snap-on Tool receipts from 1973 – 1976. Gosh, they were cheap :)

Paul: I saw that Kelty price list and immediately thought "Antelope Packs" as well. Light green as I recall and held up as the best option to my Scout Troop circa 1973.

My uncle was a scoutmaster, and he and all his boys had Antelope Packs. I think scouts were the main market for them. Light green cotton canvas bags on an aluminum frame – but screwed together, not welded. I think my brother still has his, which he got somewhere around 1965.

I paid about $68 for my Kelty A4 with a mountaineering frame at the Chatsworth,CA store. I remember seeing Eric Ryback's pack with broken frame he used on the PCT displayed at this store. I was sold and flipped burgers for 3 months ($1.35 hour)to make enough for my pack.I still have my Kelty but wish I had hung on to my 1965 VW Camper.
Some of you may enjoy this pic and have a few gear flashbacks.

Bill
Thanks for that info.
So you worked for 50 hours to buy that pack.
I believe that if you flip burgers at McDonalds over there now you get about $7 per hour.
So $7x 50 is $350 .
Maybe gear is cheaper now…
Franco

Since there's some information from the early days of Kelty floating around, do any of you happen to recognize/know the approximate date of this Kelty label?

Is it just considered pre-1963 since there isn't a zip code?

@Bill:

Wow. Bandana around the neck, red down jacket, no shirt and really-short jean shorts. That's bold.

@Nick:

Please keep the finds coming!

>"and really-short jean shorts."

My jeans shorts were shorter. It was the 70's!

William,

I am not a Kelty expert. All the pack labels I have seen are the triangle logo. In the early 60's they read, "Glendale 1, Calif." Later they added the Zip Code. In 1968 Kelty moved the manufacturing to Sun Valley, Calif. and changed the logo to reflect the name. In 1972 Kelty was bought by CML and Dick Kelty stayed with the company for another 6 years. In 1973 they came out with the Serac and Tioga packs and changed the logo, without any city or name. If you would like some pictures I can dig out some old packs.

Is that logo from a pack? If so, I would sure like to see it. On my screen, the material looks like it might be a canvas/nylon strap and I don't remember seeing such on any strap.

I purchased my Kelty pack at the Kelty Glendale store in 1969. I recall the purchase, which, at the time, was a “budget-busting” event.

I recently found two Kelty Glendale store receipts from July of 1970. Neither receipt includes the Kelty pack, Svea 123 stove or Sigg Tourister cook set, but one receipt includes an Alp Sport Sierra Sleeper bag. I am quite sure I purchased the Kelty pack the prior summer.

Still have the Kelty pack instructions, with the Sun Valley address and Zip code. In the early 70’s (I think), Kelty offered a padded lower back pad, which I purchased. Still have padded lower back pad instructions.

I am good at throwing old items out, but these receipts were found at the bottom of a box filled with some other items from late 60's/early 70's. Although I was aware of the box and its general contents, box was set aside in attic for decades. Time flies!

Hi Nick,
All the packs I'd seen were the triangle ones as well. When I saw this one, it looked like Kelty, but didn't have a logo, until I flipped the lid and that logo was tucked under. It actually looks pretty similar to the mid 60's packs, which some minor differences. PM me with your email and I'll send you some photos of it. I was in contact w/Bruce (Oregon Photos/Gear History) and he was stumped as well.

After using a borrowed Boyscout rucksack for some time, I bought my first backpack – Kelty D4 around 1973 – joined it up with a Eureka Timberline tent and Svea shortly thereafter – it's a good thing that pack could carry a lot of weight because it was somehow "cool" to proclaim carrying a 50-60lb pack on rough terrain for long distances.

As long as we're reaching back, let's not forget the man himself – Collin Fletcher – for helping to push the concept of backpacking into the mainstream.

Bill, thanks for the photo – I can feel that scene! :-)

mM

"In the early 70’s (I think), Kelty offered a padded lower back pad, which I purchased. Still have padded lower back pad instructions."

Jim,

I have seen pictures of the padded lower pad, but didn't know it was sold by Kelty, or is it a padded back and belt? Kelty offered that in the early 60's forward as an option. Also another huge success was the Kelty metal cam-lock belt buckle, that almost everyone purchased for their Kelty and non-Kelty hip belts. Kelty made the cam-lock buckles standard in the mid seventies or so, then went to plastic in the 80's.

Interesting is that many companies made Kelty-specific upgrades. A16 in El Cajon mad and sold an upgraded hip belt for Keltys. Many companies made replacement shoulder straps.

There's a mixed metaphor…

My first Kelty was my Dad's, which he got by going down to the Kelty shop in Glendale, and it was a pain-inducing beast with only a "belly band" at the hips. Ahh, the days of 50lb packs being the lower end of "macho". My second Kelty was a Tioga XL with the plastic cam-lock belt buckle.

I still use the Tioga as my go-to pack, now filled with lighter and lighter stuff. It holds a BV 500, down bag, Optimus Crux and a few pounds of Nikon gear, quite well! Kelty just comped me some new shoulder straps after I revealed the reason I asked to purchase some were that mine had hardened, but I chose to keep the cam-lock belt –I like it better than the two-handed "Scherer Strap" (however that goes) on the newer rigs. One hand to tighten, one hand to flick it open and off. No pinch, no fastex. I dig the cam-lock.

Those snazzy new shoulder straps are the luxe, too.

Nick,

You are correct: The "Padded Lower Back-Band" is a combination back-band and hip belt. On the hip buckle, Kelty Pack, Sun Valley is inscribed; appeasrs to be a Kelty made product. Tomorrow I will take a picture of Kelty Pack, Inc.'s back-band installation instructions and back-band and post.

Upgrades to our Kelty packs were, at the time, significant. There was not much in the way of new gear. In hindsight, I guess we subconsciously understood our Kelty packs would last forever and it appears they will. Unfortunately, in a fit of housekeeping a few years ago, some old Kelty frame parts were thrown away.

Always brings back memories when I see an old Kelty pack on the trail. Maybe I should stop, stand aside and bow my head until the Kelty pack hiker passes through.

I should know this. I guess I was too young. My best guess would be mid to late 50's. This is the original label. It was sewn into the hem of the flap. It often folded down and you could see part of it from the back of the pack. I'm sorry I don't know the year. This label was used when production was out of the house and perhaps for some time at the address on San Fernando Road in an old barbershop. It is pre 1963 – no zip code. The next label was the green triangle with Glendale 1 – also pre zip. The operation moved to Victory Blvd. in 1962 and manufacturing moved to sun valley in 1968

My First pack was a Kelty Basic. Got it in 1976 or so. Paid $31 for it.

It made it thru absolute hell until 1992 or so. It then hung in garage until 2001 when my sister decided to try to take it as checked luggage. It had survived Philmont, half a dozen section of the AT, The weminuche, Angel Falls, Treks in Ghana only to be taken out and destroyed by a luggage carousel in Houston.