New Panel Loader From ZPacks

Thanks for posting this Chad.

You can read some of the backstory on the new ZPacks Arc Zip – it has been a fun adventure for me!

It's very cool to see this "type" of pack brought back from almost extinction. I have a friend who let me borrow his Granite Gear Aji just for the heck of it for a quick over-nighter and I loved the convenience of the panel loader. It was a pretty comfortable pack too, but man . . . it's heavy and ugly as sin. Pretty impressive all the new products zpacks has been cranking out over the past six months.

Joe and John, nice work, looks well done. The #5 zip and especially internal compression straps will I think be key to longevity.

The top cinch in stock form looks like a roll top without the opening, correct?

I'm curious about the intended use of the big front pocket. It would make construction quite a bit more complex, but two vertically divided, side opening pockets (going back to the Terraplane) might be more functional and less likely to eat your map and Snickers.

@David,

Thanks a bunch!!

Regarding your question about the top… hmm, well, if you had a roll-top that had straps that compress the roll-top down along the axis of the bag, I suppose it could be viewed that way. (and yes, by default it does not have a top opening)

Terraplane… huh, now that is interesting… two side-by-side pockets. Had never even thought of that before. Suppose it could have its pros and cons against one big pocket. Would want to ponder on that, but given the pack is already on the market, not much of a chance of such a change at this point.

Again, thanks David.

Not to drift but I have one big pocket on my Zimmerbuilt and I love it. about 10L? 8L?

Looks like a continuation of the UL pendulum swing from the glorified grocery sack back to lightened versions of traditional packs. Definitely a great market there for convincing people new to lightening their load but I'll stick with simple as well as light.

10L? 8L?

Hey WoodenWizard.

Not sure if you are asking how much volume the Arc Zip front pocket has, or if you are indicating how much volume your Zimmerbuilt has.

So just going to throw it out there: the front pocket of the ZPacks Arc Zip is right at 10 liters (600ci).

It ended up being a smidgen larger than what I was originally expecting it to be. My original thoughts were to have it be around 15 inches in height. But at the 19 inches of height it just looks so much better. And the extra weight for 4 inches of additional fabric was inconsequential.

The green/black version shown on the ZPacks website is my personal backpack, the final prototype. It is one sweet looking backpack. Well, at least I think so. :-D

For some reason, every time I look at the pic all I can think of is this guy:

Ryan