Ventilated backpack suspensions are great, but in our mind, no one has yet come up with a truly ventilated suspension. By that, we mean having nothing at all - no mesh or anything else - sitting against the middle part of your back. That is, until now …
Gregory’s new 2010 JetStream LTS packs just hit the streets this week, and are available on a limited basis for the next month, until they’re more widely available in 2010. That’s the earliest we’ve ever got our new packs for the next season on the market and, yes, it is - for you astute shoppers out there - just in time for the holiday shopping season.
What’s new and notable here is that the seven new packs in the 2010 JetStream LTS series (four Z series packs for men, and three Jade series packs for women) are the first packs to achieve ventilation without using the ubiquitous mesh panel that you’ve found to date on backpacks that offer ventilation across your back.
So why is this important? Continue reading >>
Suspension systems that allow air flow across your back are certainly in vogue these days. Everyone seems to have one, and so does Gregory.
Such ventilating suspensions definitely have their benefits, namely that as you sweat, the moisture on your back can more easily evaporate. So they work great in warmer weather.
Nearly all of these kinds of backpacks rely on a so-called ‘trampoline’ design, meaning that a mesh back panel is stretched across a structure that supports that mesh. (The mesh is stretched across rods or other supports, either side to side, top to bottom, or both.) Think about a how a trampoline for kids works, and you’ve got the idea. And this works great when you’re talking about the kind of weight that you’d carry in a day pack.
In fact, Gregory has its own line of packs that uses a variation on this trampoline technology. Jet Stream DTS (Dynamic Tension System) Suspension is a beefy version of a trampoline design. The twist on Gregory’s approach is that the rods that support the mesh are designed to flex as more weight is loaded into the pack, which makes them become more rigid. Thus, Jet Stream DTS suspension offers more support as more weight is loaded into the pack. Gregory uses this suspension in packs between 20 and 35 liters in size.
The problem is (at least in Gregory’s view), this suspension reaches its limit around 25 to 30 pounds. Put more weight than that in your pack, and a trampoline suspension simply doesn’t transfer the load effectively into the lumbar region of the pack, and then on into the waist belt. Or said perhaps more appropriately, it doesn’t transfer the weight nearly as effectively as it could.
And for the backpacker wearing your pack, that means they are not carrying weight as comfortably as they could. Which is why Gregory has two versions of Jet Stream Suspension.
Continue reading >>
Thought we’d share a good review we got on a respected UK-based outdoor blog.
After logging many miles, the tes
ter’s conclusion: ‘The carry is the important thing, and here it’s right on the money.’ We couldn’t have said it any better.
The Gregory philosophy has been and continues to be that a couple of extra ounces in the right spot (the suspension) for the right reason (better load-transfer, which means better carrying, which means more comfort at the end of the day) can make your bag carry that much better over the span of long days on the trail. And that will go a lot farther toward energy savings and feeling better at the end of each day than saving weight at all costs.
Continue reading >>
How does wearing a pack affect your body? At Gregory, that’s always been a key question, because the driving principle has always been ‘if you’re not comfortable, you’re not going to have fun.’
In that vein, longtime outdoor industry writer and observer Clyde Soles blogged about a recent study by the American Physiological Society that concluded
backpack straps can cut off blood flow to your arms, resulting in decreased motor control and more fatigue.
We thought it would be interesting to get some perspective from Gregory’s guru of suspension, company founder Wayne Gregory. Wayne’s been living and breathing backpack suspension for about 40 years. If you want to know how passionate he is about the subject, just get him started … and budget some time. Wayne’s first question on this recent study: “Well, how were they carrying the weight? And were they in the right frame size?”
A pack for carrying bigger loads, according to Wayne, is like a finely-built automobile. You start with the appropriate chassis, and then the various components from there have to make sense with the rest of the car. Only then do you achieve appropriate load transfer so that they load is evenly - and comfortably - distributed to the various points on the body where it should go. But you also have to be able to change the way you carry that weight on the fly. Continue reading >>
