Another dyed ULA pack

That looks awesome! If you don't mind, where was the original post about this? Or would you care to outline what you did?

As much as I value function, IMO an all black pack like that looks really sleek.

Here you go.

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=30922

Thanks Ken!

So for everyone who did this, what was the best vessel for the water and dye? I had a friend dye a bunch of stuff for me in his washing machine… is this a common / responsible practice? I don't wanna go staining my washer permanently or anything.

I didn't use my washer 'cause I was scared about it staining. I used a large plastic storage tub with hot water (some just real hot from the tap, a couple gallons barely heated on the stove). I poured the whole Rit bottle in the water and sloshed it around for an hour or so. Then I washed it out with cold water until it ran sorta clear. Then I stuck it in the washer and washed on a gentle cycle.

What about drying the pack afterwards? Sorry – I'm full of questions. Just don't want to find anything out the hard way.

I assume air dry is the best bet, but I feel like that would take days?

I used a 5 gallon bucket with 3 gallons of super hot(nearly boiling)water and 1.5 bottles of dye. With dye its use is calculated on the weight of what your are dyeing. Not the amount of pieces. Too little dye will result in the blueish color being the end result and not true black. The fabric will only take in so much. Use 2 bottles. I used a lid and wrapped a towel around my bucket to keep the water as hot as possible for the full 20 minutes. I actually went a little over a half hour.

Wearing gloves go out and stir the pack around every 5 minutes to get a nice even finish. When the time is up, pour out you dye mixture. Now I have a laundry tub.So what I did was put the bucket in the sink and let the cold water run for quite a while. Keep rinsing with cold water until the water runs clear. Cold water will help set the dye.

For good measure I then tossed my pack in the washer and put it through a cycle with very little soap.

Line dry, pack and enjoy.

My pack was dry pretty much overnight. Hung mine in the shower.

I dyed a Golite pinnacle (medium blue) to dark blue/black following the above procedures (hot water with whole bottle of black rit dye) and it worked well. Left in dye solution for about an hour I believe with moving it around several times. Washed with garden hose until it ran clear and hung it in the basement to dry. Best I remember it dried fairly quickly. I did remove the support pad from the pack before dyeing. Happy with the results.

I am going to try this with my 2012 Mariposa Plus and eventually the Kumo if it comes out alright. I'm pretty excited. I think those packs will look pretty great in a color besides that medium gray.

everytime i see this i want to dye mine. hmmm

I've thought about dyeing my pack but I worry about the dye running all over if I get rained on. The few times I've dyed fabric in the past it proved to not be very colorfast. Have any of you experienced your pack getting wet? How did the dye react to that?

wow, this almost makes me want to buy a ULA pack again!!

Does anyone have any tested input on how this impacts DWR treatment? The treatment is the last thing put on the fabric by the manufacturer and I can only assume there is a certain loss of integrity from this process.

My Ohm has a big hole in the top. So I don't even think about packs and waterproofness. So can't help you there.

Colorfastness. Cold water helps to set the dye. I have had no issues. I did have some dye transfer once. I believe it was caused by not rinsing long enough.

Too much?

ULA is doing custom work now. Just order the color you want.

Josh,

I have a question.

How is it that after dying your pack that the ULA and circuit embroidery stayed white and yellow respectively? ;-?

Party On,

Newton

I think this was covered in the other thread (which is the only reason why I know it!), but the material the Logo is embroidered from (nylon, perhaps?) doesn't take dye. That's what pushed me over the edge of dyeing it. Not sure I'd want a completely monochromatic pack, but the color pops so well the way it turns out.

I've got to do this. Been saying that for 3 years now.

Gonna do this later with my 2012 Gossamer Gear packs. I think they're going to look like some of the nicest ones I've seen yet. ULA and GG both have excellent quality control.

I like the light gray okay. My buddy just had Zimmer build him a pack much like my beloved Mariposa 2012. Zimmer used a black dyneema. I think a dark blue like the OP's added to the GG dyneema would look great, unless it comes out looking like its been flushed down an airplane toilet.

I like the gray just fine too… but I'm a DIY dork and also love a minimalist black pack. So it's just an excuse for another project. :D

I always thought the black Dyneema X in the MLD packs looked cool too.

Okay!

So I dyed the 2012 Mariposa Plus AND the Kumo.

I'll post pictures tomorrow, I'm a little burnt out on this project, and they are drying. But as far as I can tell the results are good. However… they are quite "blue". I've dyed stuff this way before and expected that, but based on everyone else's pictures I thought the fabric would react a little differently. Maybe it's the gray of the GG dyneema? I don't know.

The Mariposa came out basically a perfect dark navy blue. Which I don't mind, but it's definitely not black.

The Kumo came out VERY dark blue, it looks a lot closer to black, but still has an obvious blue tint to it.

I used a 5 Gallon Home Depot bucket in my bathtub. I simmered 2 gallons of water for each pack (I did them separately with 1.5 bottles of dye each), and then added the hottest water I could from the tap. I stirred them frequently though that doesn't seem to be much of an issue. I left them in each for a little over an hour.

Not sure why they came out so blue, but I think maybe Black Dye + Light Gray is a little on the bluer side than the other color backs we've seen so far?

Wonder if throwing it in another time with the black dye would finish the job?

True the ULA packs are green so already darker. I did do a grey Ion and it turned out almost black, dark charcoal, close enough.
Could be coatings on the new fabric. Did you wash the packs before dyeing? The instructions state to do so, don't they?

I would sure be careful in regards to how that hot water affects the coating on the fabric. I would do some testing on scraps and compare coating tenacities.

Dan, I was wary of this as well, which is why I was hesitant to throw boiling water on it. But I can't see any degradation on any of the materials on my Mariposa Plus. Furthermore, the original thread was posted years ago, and I feel like if people were experiencing severe failures due to this process, we'd have heard about it by now. (This community would never let something like that slide.)

After some research I think I've found that the heat is indeed necessary, more so than the time. It seems that less water + more heat will do the trick.

After drying, I concluded the bag is DEFINITELY navy blue. It's actually a very nice blue, but that's not the color I was shooting for, and I have the kind of OCD that won't let me stop without the results I was after. So I'm going to redo it. I think with it being already very dark, it shouldn't be hard.

I also read somewhere that dye manufacturers tend to use a base colors? So when the dye goes on too thin, or too cold, that base color presents itself, which in this case I think is blue. I saw a tip about "countering" the color using it's opposite, which in this case would be orange. I actually don't think this is a bad idea. I work in color-correcting images and the same principle applies…

Anyway, I think I'm going to try again in the next day or two and hope for a more monochrome look.