JanSport are part of the VF Outdoor, Inc. This in turn would seem to be a subsidiary of VF Europe B.V.B.A. which has its head office in Belgium. This seems to be an acquired collection of outdoors companies which includes The North Face. Comparing JanSport with The North Face suggests that JanSport is very much more 'consumer-oriented' than The North Face.
Testing the JanSport pack did not go smoothly at first. We were sent an early prototype unit somehow (lying around the warehouse?), and found that the webbing slipped through the buckles at a truly alarming rate when under load. Also the measured volume was way below the claimed volume. We reported this to the company with some concern, and the company was very apologetic and replaced the pack quickly. Unfortunately the replacement was another early prototype with the same problems! Eventually we were able to contact the 'right' manager in the company to discuss this. The conversation was 'interesting' at first, as he was looking at much later versions of the design than we had. Eventually we managed to sort all this out and he sent us a 'latest' version. Yes, it had many significant differences and was much improved! The weight had gone up above the initial claim, the measured volume now matched the claimed value, and the buckles worked properly. I think the manager then went off the clean out all the failed prototypes from the warehouse to prevent future problems.
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- JanSport Big Bear 63 Pack
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James,
I should have added that the Aarn Pockets do have built in stays that rest on the hipbelt and that is why you can transfer all of the weight to the hip belt.
This is me about 10 years ago striking an Aarnpack pose :
I have had 18kg (40lbs) inside that combo with around 5-6 kg in those pockets. (mostly water)
BTW :
I tried a prototype made from a couple thermorest bags about ten years ago
do you mean an Aarn made prototype or something you put together yourself ?
"This is me about 10 years ago striking an Aarnpack pose :
aarn pack pose"
Good taste in pants. ;0)
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