THE INEFFICIENT BACKPACK

[S. Steele]

Your body produces efficient forward motion by performing a horizontal pendulum motion, yet most backpacks and trail running packs restrict your freedom of motion for efficient use of your energy to provide speed, endurance and comfort. The backpack is an ancient storage device to carry your gear. The majority of backpacks sold in the USA, Europe and UK, have a maximum of seven bio-mechanical inefficiencies that reduce your speed, endurance and comfort.

1. Water is normally the heaviest item stored inor on a backpack. Roughly 85℅of backpacks provide side pockets for water storage which wastes your energy as your body thrusts the weight forward and back. You most frequently have to remove a backpack for a drink as bottles are difficult to access and return. After returning a bottle, what you drank is less than the weight of the bottle on the other side leaving you with an unbalanced load. A hydration bladder is stored in the center of a backpack. They are heavy, provide an undesirable taste, are costly and require hygienic maintenance as compared to a standard water bottle. Wider than a typical water bottle, a good percentage of the weight is a thrust-ed load being partly distant from the center of your body, just as are water bottles stored on the sides of backpacks. Bladders additionally reduce load carrying capacity as they fill-up a good portion of a backpacks space.
2. Packs are long, extending to the hips or lower having capacities normally in excess of day hiking needs and eliminate your natural pace speed. Raise your pack higher than your hips and you will notice how much easier it is to move at a normal pace speed.
3. If you carry a load of roughly twenty or more pounds it is desirable to transfer a portion of the load to your hips with a hip belt. A day pack load normally will not exceed 8 to 12pounds thus not requiring a hip beltand occasional hip padding and/or additional storage compartments. Eliminating the unnecessary weight (if practical), improves comfort and allows improved endurance or speed.
4. A hip belt tightened at your waist will restrict your breathing, valuable for efficient expenditure of energy for speed and comfort. You can improve speed and comfortIfyou can place the hip belt a few inches below your navel.
5. Side storage on hip belts are an additional side load thrusting issuethat wastes your energy.
6. Unless a pack is designed with shoulder straps placed away from your outer shoulders you will expend energy, reduce your speed, endurance and comfort thrusting the your backpackload attached to the straps.
7. Backpacks are deep for ample storage, but will result in side to side load thrusting unless properly loaded and cincheddown. Additionally, most of your gear sits at the bottom of the bag with the difficulty of finding your gear.

The backpack of today is not an efficient device for hiking or running. It is what is currently available, awaiting a new approach to an efficient means of storing our gear for improved speed, endurance and comfort.

[Franco Darioli]

https://www.aarnpacks.com/

[Ken Thompson]

OK. And? Zip off pants were a while ago. Got something?

Edit: Just jump to this post,

https://backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/the-inefficient-backpack/page/3/#post-3481222

[Mark Fowler]

See Franco’s post. Many other attempts to address your issues over the years but inevitably at increased weight, complexity and expense. The best route is to reduce weight carried and good packing procedures. Perhaps you could try the basket on head method of load carrying. It addresses several of your issues and has been popular in many parts of the world for several millennia.

[Jeffs Eleven]

They got that backpacking wheel cart thing.

 

But you cant have wheels on the good trails. Lol.

[Ken Thompson]

The inefficiencies apparently aren’t enough of a bother. I don’t notice any thrusting, discomfort, trouble breathing, etc… to any real noticeable extent.

[W I S N E R !]

Stillsuits.  Frank Herbert, 1965.  I’m still waiting for the production model.

[Jerry A]

I’m going to a Zip Lock bag pack on my head and hope my neck want hurt.

[arien g]

I just jam everything into my pockets and wear my tent like a cape works pretty well.

[Greg Mihalik]

“Your body produces efficient forward motion by performing a horizontal pendulum motion…”

What is a “horizontal pendulum”? Most of us move forward in a continuous controlled “fall”.

1  …which wastes your energy as your body thrusts the weight forward and back.” There you go again ..

4. Yep. Hip belts should be worn on the hips.

5. As long as hip belt pockets aren’t flopping around, they will conserve their forward momentum

6. Huh? (My shoulders don’t move back as I move forward.)

7. My gear is packed with the lowest need on the bottom and the highest need on the top – e.g. sleeping bag on the bottom, rain gear on top. Aside from needing to get to rain gear, I don’t need to get into my pack until I reach camp

 

 

[Eric Blumensaadt]

“The Inefficient Backpack” … hmmm…

To me the most inefficient backpack is one with no frame and no padded, load bearing hip belt. (Well, without a frame there’s not much use for a padded hip belt anyway.)

Yeah, I know SUL backpackers like frameless backpacks (not talking about daypacks here). And to each his own. Frameless backpacks, IMHO, make about as much sense as hiking poles without straps.

Let the hate mail begin.;o)

 

[Ken Thompson]

“And to each his own.”

+1

[Ken Thompson]

Come on Steele with these creds,

“Background in Electronics, Architecture and Fine Arts, Bio-mechanics, Systems Analysis, Operations Analysis and Computer programming.
Over forty years hiking experience.
Innovator of the zippered convertible pants – 1971.
Practiced architecture for twenty-seven years.
Currently performing aeronautical and physics research.”

You got to have an answer.

[Bob Moulder]

It wasn’t that long ago that the non-articulating frame was causing all the inefficiency.

People keep finding problems I never knew existed.

[Bob Moulder]

Frameless backpacks, IMHO, make about as much sense as hiking poles without straps.

Having used both of those — at the same time — I am highly offended!

//not//

:^)

[Nick Gatel]

What?

<span style=”background-color: #f5f5f5;”>Water is normally the heaviest item stored inor on a backpack. </span>

I can guarantee you that if you hike for 1 or 2 weeks in the wilderness, water is NOT your heaviest item, unless you are crossing a desert where there is no water.

 

Packs are long, extending to the hips or lower having capacities normally in excess of day hiking needs and eliminate your natural pace speed. Raise your pack higher than your hips and you will notice how much easier it is to move at a normal pace speed.

Umm… this is backpackinglight.com. Most of us are focused on backpacking, not day hiking. We need to carry the gear and supplies to stay safe, warm, and dry for extended periods of time.

 

If you carry a load of roughly twenty or more pounds it is desirable to transfer a portion of the load to your hips with a hip belt. A day pack load normally will not exceed 8 to 12pounds thus not requiring a hip beltand occasional hip padding and/or additional storage compartments. Eliminating the unnecessary weight (if practical), improves comfort and allows improved endurance or speed.

Yeah. Most of us have a small pack for day hikes, and larger packs for extended trips in the backcountry. I have NEVER had a day pack that weighed 8-12 pounds… heck I can often go a couple days with that kind of weight.

 

A hip belt tightened at your waist will restrict your breathing, valuable for efficient expenditure of energy for speed and comfort. You can improve speed and comfortIfyou can place the hip belt a few inches below your navel.

Perhaps you haven’t seen an effective waist belt? Google McHale, for starters.

 

Side storage on hip belts are an additional side load thrusting issuethat wastes your energy.

Yes, that 8 ounce camera in my hip-belt pocket destroys my equilibrium. I can hardly walk straight. Forget walking up a hill, it’s impossible!

 

Unless a pack is designed with shoulder straps placed away from your outer shoulders you will expend energy, reduce your speed, endurance and comfort thrusting the your backpackload attached to the straps.

Backpacks are deep for ample storage, but will result in side to side load thrusting unless properly loaded and cincheddown. Additionally, most of your gear sits at the bottom of the bag with the difficulty of finding your gear.

We have members here who have walked thousands of miles on a single continuous hike, with off-the-shelf packs. Some have even averaged 30 – 40 miles per day on the same trip. When they were done, they  were very happy with their packs, because they picked it carefully to fit them. How is it possible they can do these kind of hikes with such dysfunctional equipment?

[JCH]

The OP sounds just a bit like someone attempting to prime the market for “a new and revolutionary product” :)

May I suggest the name “Shai Hulud”? (nod to @xnomanx)

[Ken Thompson]

Good thing the maximum inefficiencies are only 7.

[Taiga]

[Steofan M]

Hmmm… “new and revolutionary product” has to be an XUL Dog Travois. Dog cheerfully hauls everything, hiker cheerfully carries nothing. That would certainly check-off all of the Inefficient boxes.

[S. Steele]

OK folks,

The proof of the pudding is in a VO2 oxygen consumption study on a treadmill I requested to be performed by a sports medical and performance center. A sports medicine doctor and assistant monitored the tests. An individual walked at a rate of 4 mph for 10 minutes with a 7% rise in the treadmill every minute the first week.. The second week the same person was on the treadmill with a pack that eliminates all seven inefficiencies for 10 minutes. The third week the same person was on the treadmill with the typical backpack representing about 85% of those sold in the USA, Europe and UK,  The person terminated the test after 8 minutes. The inefficiencies are real. You don’t have to agree with the them. I have the V02 documentation report to prove the results.

BPL, exists as a responsible and mature website to review and document the real, physical world in which we live, learn and provide useful information on hiking and related matters. We don’t need the nonsense responses posted.

Franco: I have shared the inefficiencies with Aarn over a month ago. To my recollection of our many email interactions he hasn’t disagreed with me.

Mark: No complexity, 7 + ounce weight and cost roughly $125.

Ken: Yes, I do have the answer.

Nick: Raise your pack above your hips and you will move at a normal versus a reduced pace. I’ve proven it to a number of Germans and REI sales staff in NYC.

[Ken Thompson]

And you’ll be sharing your report and answer with us surely.

The nonsense posts are lighthearted, don’t sweat it. Lighten up.

[Nick Gatel]

@sbsteele

I’be been backpacking for over 50 years, but never on a treadmill.

I’ve had good packs and bad packs. I’m 66 and can still hike 18 miles in a single day with a 10,000 foot elevation gain (beginning elevation vs final elevation). So maybe a different pack might be more efficient, but the time, effort and expense for some measure of improvement approaches a point of diminishing returns for me.

I hike often and really prefer to use what already works for me, and not spend time thinking about or searching for the newest and greatest innovation. At the end of the day it’s just walking and our species has been doing it for tens of thousands of years.

As a former distance runner and a student of running, I understand the science, which is needed to gain a competitive edge to win races. I don’t race in the backcountry, I walk and enjoy myself. That being said, if your pack makes it easier for some folks to hike, and you can sell a lot of them, good for you. I like to see people innovate and make tons of money.

[Mark Fowler]

@sbsteele Perhaps you should have put the details of your little experiment (sample = 1) in your original post – people may take you a bit more seriously if they have context.  Could you answer a couple of questions so we can make sense of your experiment.

Comment – for me 4 mph is pretty fast, 3 mph is about a fast as I go but I am ancient (even older than Nick).

What weight was the person carrying?

When you say the incline increased by 7% per minute does that mean 7% of 90 degrees, or a 7% slope increasing by 7% a minute to a 70% slope after 10 minutes or something totally different.  The scientists here will eat you alive if you can’t be precise in what you measured and the test conditions – UNLEASH Roger. Edit: I said in a very Pythonesque manner.

Aside – I wish I could walk as well as Nick.

[Bob Moulder]

@sbsteele I live not far from you, in Ossining, NY and am happy to meet up with you at Harriman SP for a test drive in a realistic setting, mid-week preferably. Glad to sign a NDA if that makes you more comfortable. As I suspect you already know, Harriman has a good selection of easy trails and many that are surprisingly difficult, which makes it an excellent proving ground.

I, like many here, am a natural skeptic, but I too have dabbled in a few projects over the years and have found something useful a couple of times and am delighted to find a new idea that provides tangible benefits.

PM me if interested.

 

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