Bushwalk Australia

as opposed to their packs designed for adventure racing,
they are now giving a nod to lightweight design for overnight tramping packs
1.1 kilos for a 45 litre pack
they are succumbing to the dark side

http://www.macpac.co.nz/trek/trekking-p ... -pack.html

Macpacs version of the exos??

good point, yes well it does have the trampoline back and the side compression straps of teh exos...
has the large vertical zip pocket of other brands as well.
the market is so awash with lightweight designed gear now. macpac seem to think its time to get try and get a bit of the lightweight market

I fear Macpac are far too late moving on this market trend - they are already too far behind the rest of the pack (excuse the pun!) so would need to produce something extraordinarily different to the others in order to get their edge back. Not to mention this particular model is still fairly heavy for a 45L pack.

bringing out one lightish weight pack is only dipping your foot in the water of the lightweight market and its not an ultralight pack. maybe they are looking to see what the uptake is before deciding if they will put out more models lighter than their normal range, theres no shortage of competition, so they must know their sales for the new model arent likely to be stellar.
be interesting to see if they bring out more lightweight models.

Given Macpac and Kathmandu have a different customer base to the current lot of UL buyers, they can now move into a maturing technology and pump it through their mass market business model. All perfectly logical. They clearly aren't chasing the relatively small premium UL buyers nor have a need to do so.

GPSGuided wrote:Given Macpac and Kathmandu have a different customer base to the current lot of UL buyers, they can now move into a maturing technology and pump it through their mass market business model. All perfectly logical. They clearly aren't chasing the relatively small premium UL buyers nor have a need to do so.

Good logic there

Looks like they have forgotten about hydration?


"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards"

Giddy_up wrote:Looks like they have forgotten about hydration?


"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards"

woops!

Giddy_up wrote:Looks like they have forgotten about hydration?

Nup

Stretch side pockets that will easily take a 1 litre bottle

well that gives you so many options for hydration

wayno wrote:well that gives you so many options for hydration

Clearly a feature!

BTW, do other UL packs have dedicated hydration facilities? Never thought those hydration systems with all the heavy plumbing etc are consistent with the UL philosophy.

this tasman pack certainly looks nice and shiny and sleek.
Given the new ceo came from the fashion house of Trelisse cooper, i'm excited anout the prospect of frilly fashion packs to come out with flowery prints all over them...

GPSGuided wrote:

wayno wrote:well that gives you so many options for hydration

Clearly a feature!

BTW, do other UL packs have dedicated hydration facilities? Never thought those hydration systems with all the heavy plumbing etc are consistent with the UL philosophy.

i've got an osprey talon 44 litre, same weight as the tasman, has hydration bladder and hole for the tube...

i've got a black diamond 40 litre axiom, same weight and that has a hook and a strap for a hydration bladder with holes for the tube..

Sounds like those Yank marketing departments have sold out from the core philosophy of UL. Good to see Macpac is stedfast on it.

If their market is mainstream as mentioned, the lack of a hydration port will be a huge turnoff.


"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards"

that macpac pack is not an ultralight pack, its too heavy for the size... it just looks like a cutdown version of their standard packs with lighter materials... but they havent gone all the way... they've still go t a frame, padding, massive waist belt. suspension system...
its just your average lighter side of average weight pack...

GPSGuided wrote:

wayno wrote:well that gives you so many options for hydration

Clearly a feature!

BTW, do other UL packs have dedicated hydration facilities?

But this isn't a UL pack...

Strider wrote:But this isn't a UL pack...

Not UL by our standard but for Macpac...

wayno wrote:this tasman pack certainly looks nice and shiny and sleek.
Given the new ceo came from the fashion house of Trelisse cooper, i'm excited anout the prospect of frilly fashion packs to come out with flowery prints all over them...

do you think he anything to do with this pack? it started in development a good 9 months back. The ceo has only ever been involved with design of soap. That is the truth.

blacksheep wrote:

wayno wrote:this tasman pack certainly looks nice and shiny and sleek.
Given the new ceo came from the fashion house of Trelisse cooper, i'm excited anout the prospect of frilly fashion packs to come out with flowery prints all over them...

do you think he anything to do with this pack? it started in development a good 9 months back. The ceo has only ever been involved with design of soap. That is the truth.

it's called taking the *&^%$#!

wayno wrote:

blacksheep wrote:

wayno wrote:this tasman pack certainly looks nice and shiny and sleek.
Given the new ceo came from the fashion house of Trelisse cooper, i'm excited anout the prospect of frilly fashion packs to come out with flowery prints all over them...

do you think he anything to do with this pack? it started in development a good 9 months back. The ceo has only ever been involved with design of soap. That is the truth.

it's called taking the *&^%$#!

who knows, you may be correct, but not yet ...but any impact on product wont really been seen for a little longer..I'm sure there will be a bunch of new things for xmas that will give an indication on their "new direction".
what he said in wilderness is less emphasis on clothing and more hardcore gear. I will be very interested to see what actually happens...

blacksheep wrote:what he said in wilderness is less emphasis on clothing and more hardcore gear.

If that's the case, it would be very interesting to understand how they are planning to cover the overheads associated with their huge chain of brick-and-mortar stores. There simply aren't enough hardcore gear freaks to justify a store in every major regional centre, and most of them probably shop online anyway..

macpac dont have that many stores compared to kathmandu..

wayno wrote:macpac dont have that many stores compared to kathmandu..

Kathmandu haven't shown any intention to shift their product line toward hardcore gear.

well the ceo came from a niche company, seems to want to make macpac more of a niche technical company as well according to a statement he made when he took the job earlier this year... so far all we seem to have is this semi lightweight pack with no facility for a hydration bladder.... so that rules out anyone so prefers a bladder wanting to buy it.... water bottles have a strong following in countries with very cold winters since the water freezes in bladder tubes and you can carry a bottle in your jacket to stop it freezing.. have they simply aped overseas design features?

wayno wrote:well the ceo came from a niche company, seems to want to make macpac more of a niche technical company as well according to a statement he made when he took the job earlier this year...

you believed that?

blacksheep wrote:

wayno wrote:well the ceo came from a niche company, seems to want to make macpac more of a niche technical company as well according to a statement he made when he took the job earlier this year...

you believed that?

"seems to want"

blacksheep wrote:

wayno wrote:well the ceo came from a niche company, seems to want to make macpac more of a niche technical company as well according to a statement he made when he took the job earlier this year...

you believed that?

he was pretty quick to make the statement having just started the job, that seems a bit impulsive, would have been safer to spend some time in teh company to try and get a better idea for what he thought their best path was...
its early days for him, he seems to want to show a commitment to being a technical company by making that statement but since he had only just taken teh job when he said it , it means theres more time for him to change his mind...

wait and see