March of 2015 I found myself needing a backpack for work; something in a solid, unobtrusive color, and smaller than the various packs I had around in the house at the time. Several evenings spent comparing various packs online narrowed my choice down to this one. Campmor (via Amazon) had it to my door in just a few days and I put it to immediate use. First impressions were mostly positive, the only negative was that one of the corded zipper pulls on the secondary organizer pocket fell off straight out of the bag. Annoying but it wasn't a deal breaker, and it was fixed in under 5 minutes with a piece of paracord looped through the metal zipper pull and braided into place. Due to the compactness of the pack I was skeptical of the storage capacity at first but over time that initial impression was happily proved wrong. Since I was going to be using the pack for work, and work had me constantly travelling between an office environment and isolated, industrial type facilities, I added two MOLLE water bottle holders to the left and right side of the pack so I could maximize the internal real estate for other items. The Good: Backpack is compact and light for it's size. PALS webbing gives you options for adding MOLLE pouches for additional storage space but it's limited (see below). Large capacity relative to the size of the pack; I was able to shoehorn a 17" Dell laptop into the main compartment on several occasions although I DO NOT recommend this as a daily activity because it placed a significant amount of stress on the zipper at the corners of the laptop. A 17" HP laptop would not fit. A large 3 ring binder, a 1 1/2" thick textbook, and several paper pads routinely cohabitated in the main compartment without difficult or stressing the zipper. The maximum amount of weight carried was in the 35-40 lb range, my usual day-to-day at this point in time is in the 15-20 lb range. Durability of the pack has been great. After 4 1/2 years of nearly daily use the water resistant lining is starting to peel away from the nylon shell of the pack and two 1" tears have developed in the bottom of the main compartment. Four days ago (9/5/19) the zipper on the secondary compartment finally gave out and the teeth separated far enough that the zipper pull jumped one side and it can't be repaired without replacing the whole zipper. Aside from that, no other damage to report. All of the seams are intact, straps and buckles are still factory new and functioning flawlessly. Velcro panels have held up great, no problems with unraveling even with repeated patch changes. The pack isn't overly "tacti-cool." It doesn't knock you to the ground and pummel your face into a bloody pulp while screaming "MILITARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRY!!!!" It's nicely featured without drawing undue attention. Even with a high and tight haircut you won't look like you just got off base on a 3 day pass with this pack slung over your shoulder. (This is not a Stryker-X assault backpack after all...) The Mediocre: The backpack isn't particularly rigid. If the main compartment is not full and you place any amount of weight in the sunglass pouch or the small storage pouch above the secondary organizer pouch the entire pack will slouch off to one side. Too much weight near the top without some bulk in the main compartment makes the pack just fall over. The Bad: If you are looking for a backpack to use as a carry on for air travel I wouldn't recommend this particular pack unless you have a checked bag or you're just on an overnight trip, in which case this backpack would do nicely. I prefer to only fly with a carry on bag and no checked luggage, and this backpack can hold a maximum of two days worth of clothing without festooning it with additional pouches. Which brings us to... While the pack is equipped with a decent amount of PALS webbing, due to the materials used in the pack the webbing is of limited usefulness. The left and right sides of the pack are the only places you can add pouches that do not limit your ability to access and operate zippers or that do not immediately pull the whole pack wide open as soon as you unzip the main compartment. You can add a small admin type pouch on the front of the secondary compartment if you need to but adding anything larger tends to pull the bottom of the pack downwards and change how the pack rides. Opinion: I think the pack would actually be improved by eliminating the PALS webbing on the face of the pack and just going with a slick face with Velcro panels. Keep the PALS webbing on the sides, and add an additional three rows of webbing on the lower left side by eliminating the drawstring water bottle pouch. Bottom Line: Yes, I would by this again, in fact I'm purchasing a second one to replace my first one now that it has finally worn out. Yes, I would recommend this pack to anyone looking for a small, lightweight, compact backpack. If you need durability without breaking the bank I had great results from mine. I don't mean "Oh sure, it's held up well," great. I mean "Let's go work around half-million volt electrical gear this year and next year we'll spend our days inside old attack submarines!" great. I've hauled this thing through electrical substations, power plants, shipyards, old warships in the process of being scrapped, offices, classrooms, buildings in various stages of demolition and/or refurbishment, industrial workshops, mock up trainers, attics, basements, tunnels, through coastal forests and up a couple of small mountains to reach transmitter sites. It has been bounced around mercilessly in the back of work trucks, the trunk of the car, and stuffed full of parts and slung on a manlift basket. If it can deal with that for 4+ years and come away with a couple of holes in the bottom I'd say it was worth my $30. It may just be worth yours too.
