Backpacks and Daypacks

How to choose a pack, and why fit beats every specification on the label.

Updated

Nearly every disappointing pack is the wrong size or the wrong fit, not the wrong brand. The reviews below cover a lot of packs that are no longer made; what follows is the part that does not change.

Fit is measured in torso length, not height

Measure from the bony bump at the base of your neck to the level of the top of your hip bones. That number decides the frame size. A tall person with a short torso needs a small pack, and getting this wrong is the single most common mistake.

Then load it. Any shop worth buying from will put 15kg in a pack and let you walk around, up and down stairs if they have them. Ten minutes tells you more than any review. Roughly eighty per cent of the weight should sit on your hips; if your shoulders ache, the fit is wrong rather than you being unfit.

Buy smaller than you think

Gear got lighter, so the sizes moved. A load that needed 70 litres in 2009 fits in 55 now, and most people buy too big because a bigger pack always gets filled.

Travel packs and hiking packs are different tools

A hiking pack loads from the top. A travel pack opens like a suitcase so you can reach the middle without unpacking, which is what makes living out of a bag bearable. If you are travelling rather than walking, that zip matters more than any feature on a hiking pack, along with straps that stow away so a baggage belt cannot tear them off.

Women's fits stopped being a novelty

Shorter torso ranges, shoulder straps set narrower and angled differently, and a hip belt shaped for a different pelvis. These are geometric differences and they decide whether weight lands on your hips. Nearly every serious line now ships both, and several makers build one pack with an adjustable harness instead. Try both regardless of the label.

What is worth paying for

A lighter empty pack, because you carry that weight all day for nothing. A back panel that lets air move. And a repair guarantee: Osprey, Gregory, Deuter and Patagonia all fix packs of almost any age, which over a decade is worth more than anything on a spec sheet.

Kept current

The reviews (145)

Written at the time, about gear that in most cases is no longer made. Useful for what the writer noticed, not as a shopping list.