HMG Porter in black.

Wow. Slick pack.

Am I understanding you right that this is a burlier fabric now for the whole pack? What does it weigh then?

nm

Hi Clayton,

Yes, the fabric is burlier. It is a 150 denier poly/cuben hybrid versus the white, which is 50 denier. Per Mike at HMG, this fabric only adds an ounce to the overall weight, but I don't have a scale to verify that (sacrilege!)

I'm really happy with how it turned out.

So the nylon not the cuben is heavier? Seems like that is a good upgrade, I'm assuming that means greater abrasion resistance?

Tougher? The white still has dyneema threads and after 3 years of heavy use I am still looking for holes. The standard stuff is bomber.

What I want to know is whether the color will bleed.

Dave, I suppose time will tell about the long term durability of the color. I have a trip planned over the next 4 days, so we'll see how it handles a bit of sweating and such.

Great, thanks.

I've used a black Zpacks Zero all summer with zero bleeding onto my shirts. I did soak it in warm soapy water when I first got it to attempt to wash out some of the color. None then and still none now. I think this generation of hybrid cuben is more colorfast than last years.

Ryan

Very nice Aaron.

… but in strong sunlight, that pack will get very hot. May be o.k. in the Rockies, but untenable in the kinds of summers that we have here (Korea), at least.

I haven't done extensive testing, but I was pleasantly surprised at how cool my black zimmerbuilt pack (Xpac) stayed while under relentless attack from the southern california desert sun. Any water inside got warm, but my food didn't melt away like I thought it might

edit: sexy pack, btw

That's a sleek looking pack! But as others have pointed out, that thing would probably get really got inside when out in the sun. Multi use: solar stove/food heating bag!

I think hiking inside the pack might be an issue. But hiking with the pack on, it shouldn't be too hot.

Lol

I don't know if you'll get noticably hotter in a black pack. But your food might get a bit hotter. But when melting food is a concern I don't bring things like hershey bars anyway.

Worst case scenario, I use it as a bivy, right? ;)

My black pack is no hotter than any other pack I've had. Bedouin tents anyone?

Now that is a sweet looking black.

My Porter 4400 is holding up well with the original white fabric. Don't see a real issue with what I have.

I'm not sure about packs, but i notice a HUGE difference when i'm outside in the Sun wearing white or very light colors vs dark colors. Since heat tends to radiate outwards and up, i suppose the inside of a black colored pack isn't going to necessarily get that much hotter than a lighter colored one… but then again there was that myth buster show about light colored cars vs dark ones and there was significant temp difference in the inside between the two.

Well, in any case, i don't like the color black, never have, and probably won't ever.

I see a Porter and I want to paint it black…

Live in the southwest desert. I have a black daypack and have no heat issues. I didn't get the black HMG partially due to the extra price buy mostly because I thought white would blend in better with the surrounding environment.
That is a beauty. Looks much less like a huge Jack in the Box hamburger bag than mine does.
You could add some red and blue lights and use it to pull over speeding hikers.

Scree, they call mine the potato sack. Most comfy potato sack ever.

Not sure white stays that much cooler. Quoting myself from a thread on thermometers:

“Also kinda scary seeing how hot it gets inside HMG Windrider white cuben fiber backpack on sunny days. 94 F max reading on a day the nearest weather station says 64 F.”

— Rex

WTF?

Are all these Cuban packs fully opaque? If some are not, that would explain why the white or light colored ones get warmer on the inside, sort of a mild greenhouse effect. I would have a hard time imagining that say a tyvek home wrap pack (white on outside) that would get very hot inside.