I made a backpack with a lot of features, 15.5oz.

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

I put all my gear in it and went for a long walk and it seems really comfortable and doesn’t seem like it will fall apart. It’s made of coated ripstop like the good old days. Why don’t people make packs out of this basic fabric anymore? Too boring?

So the features include:

• Spandex bottom pocket for snacks
• Inside the bottom pocket is a zipper pocket that has a pull-out mesh holder for a wet poncho or tarp in there. Modeled this on a pull-out mesh helmet holder.
• A 1.0 oz DCF purple pocket on the back where I can put maps or other things. It’s not easy to get your hand in there when the pack is full.
• Two small patch pockets inside the side pockets to hold my water filter and tent stakes. This keeps them easier to find.
• Big front pocket is all one piece so I can reach in and get things without taking off my pack.
• Removable simple webbing hip belt.
• Pack straps are running vest style with pockets for things like bidet, sunscreen, headnet, water bottle.

Here’s the pullout mesh with my poncho in it.

It is pretty simple construction. A 30″ tall tube with one seam. The panel with straps and hip belt is sewn onto it like a big patch. The big front pocket sewn to the bottom and the sides sewn directly the the pack fabric.

The colors are not my first choices but it was all stuff I got really cheap. I bought a $30 box of mystery fabric from DIY Gear supply a long time ago and it had the brown and black fabric plus a ton of other fabric. I found the spandex in a bin of scraps. I bought the DCF from Ripstop by the Roll hoping it would tie the colors together. It was fun to make. I want to make more backpacks but what am I going to do with so many backpacks???

[Jerry Adams]

nicely done

I’ve made something similar, except without the pockets and stuff

I like 200D fabric, like the one from RSBTR.  A little heavier than your regular ripstop.  I’ve had one with lighter ripstop rip after a while.

yeah, what do you do with so many backpacks?

[Tim (Slowhike) Garner]

Looks perfectly functional.

I’ve toyed with the idea of making a pack someday.

[Paul Wagner]

Nice work–and a good design.  You’ve got me thinking now…

Do you think those running vest front straps will be warm if you’re hiking in the summer?  That’s my only concern.

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

These vest straps could be a little warm because I think I made them too wide at the bottom. I find that any straps, no matter what they are made of, if they touch a certain part of the side of my body I just heat up real bad. These don’t quite touch that part of my body so they are fine. I have worn these straps around town where it is warm outside and on some backpack trips (on a different pack — they are interchangeable with other packs that have a similar attachment system) and didn’t find them to be too warm, just slightly wider at the bottom than I think would be ideal. They are made of spacer mesh, two layers sewn together and turned right-side out. That’s usually not any warmer to wear than other materials.

[Paul Wagner]

I loev the fact tht you can interchange straps on your packs, Diane. My only response to the above note is:

COOL!

[AK Granola]

What would you say is the max weight you could comfortably carry in your pack? I’m impressed with your creativity! Maybe you could make a bunch of them, and give them to some organization to raffle them off for a fundraiser. Or just keep them all in your gear stable. Make your friends wear them for a full in the field test. Can you show it loaded while wearing?

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

Here’s me wearing it with my gear inside. Here’s my lighterpack list but I did add a few additional things just to give it a good test the other day. I dumped in one of my unused resupply boxes of food from last summer’s unfinished trip and put 3 liters of water in the outer pockets. This is about the weight I would carry on day 1 of a 3 day trip, so somewhere around 17 or 18lbs. Seemed as comfortable as any of my other packs.

Edit: Oops, I forgot to strap on my 6-panels of Zlite pad to the top, but there are 4 panels inside.

[Monte Masterson]

Looks nice Piper. I really like the way you multi-use ccf foam as pack frame/cushion and sleeping pad. I do pretty much the same but usually add a torso Neo-Air or Klymit X-Frame. I’m especially big on ccf for sitting around camp.

Only thing I can see that might be an improvement would be to add a 10mm single adjust buckle to the top and directly on each side of pack (like in pic below). https://dutchwaregear.com/product/single-adjust-buckle/

Then sew a 3/8″ wide strip of nylon that includes the male, adjustable end on it to around the top of the side pocket. After you close and roll the top of the pack down that would allow you to cinch everything a little tighter and create a more concise and compact load like on this ZPacks Sub Nero 30L. Excellent looking pack you made though.

 

 

 

[AK Granola]

Thanks for the pic. It has a really nice profile, very evenly distributed load. That may or may not have anything to do with comfort, but it looks nice! I always wonder when I see folks with lumpy, bumpy loads and stuff attached everywhere if they are comfortable.

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

My elbow is hiding an unused side release buckle for rolling and clipping the top like that.

[David M]

Diane – thanks for the writeup and the great photos!  I had a similar design at the early phases of building and your post helped me a lot.  I’ll do a writeup of mine.

[Author]

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