Tested: 6 leading waist packs from Decathlon, Deuter, Mountainsmith and Osprey
Please note: this replaces Article 5, Solution 2. Since that publication (back in May 2021) I have received a great deal more input from my community and it was agreed that one, I had not sufficiently highlighted the usefulness of fanny packs and two, I had only mentioned two packs, when in fact there are six “leading” models used by my community – as well as by countless other people around the world.
This prompted us to start a new round of thorough tests, as per our usual stringent standards (see Article 1, FAQ 1) but with the notable addition of even more “mixed” usage in urban and pan-urban environments such as strolls and rides in large city parks, city centers, zoos, “urban trails”, not to mention usage in air travel, schools, gardens, nature, various industries, etc.
As a reminder, a waist pack is also called: fanny pack, butt pack, sac banane, lumbar pack, tummy pack, hip bag, bumbag, etc.
Why these particular models? There are literally hundreds of lumbar packs on the market, but we chose these because:
– they are available fairly widely (Decathlon being the easiest to find within their more than 1,500 stores in over 60 countries, plus of course online.)
– we have used them extensively.
– they accommodate a small to fairly large amount of photo/video/drone gear. The consensus was that a 5 liters capacity is a reasonable minimum for such usage. You can get by with something in the 4L range if you use very compact gear such as MFT (Micro Four Thirds), certain Leica models, etc. with just a few lenses, but below 4 liters the needed interior space is just not there, even if you have great organizational skills.
Note: the fact that we tested 3 Mountainsmith products simply reflects the breadth of their offerings and not any sort of favoritism. Their Tour model has been the most-used waist pack in my community for well over two decades, followed by the Day and Tour Small.
As with my other articles/resources – and unlike most of the “reviews” published on the internet - I will not insult the reader’s intelligence by spending most of this piece describing each pack, i.e. rewording the manufacturer’s product page. I will focus instead on the detailed results of our findings in such important areas as strengths, weaknesses, functionality, etc.
Here are the official links and prices for each model (note that there are frequent promotions in certain markets) as of this writing:
Decathlon Forclaz 10 L Hiking Fanny Pack (MSRP: $35): https://www.decathlon.com/products/travel-backpacking-fanny-pack-10-l-109528?variant=31629495107646
Deuter Travel Belt (MSRP: $45): https://www.deuter.com/us-en/shop/bags/p226422-hip-bag-travel-belt
2020 Mountainsmith Tour Small (MSRP: $75): https://mountainsmith.com/collections/tls-lumbar-packs/products/2020-toursmall-lumbar
2020 Mountainsmith Tour (MSRP: $80): https://mountainsmith.com/collections/tls-lumbar-packs/products/2020-tour-lumbar
2020 Mountainsmith Day (MSRP: $90): https://mountainsmith.com/collections/tls-lumbar-packs/products/2020-day-lumbar
Osprey Talon 6 (MSRP: $90): https://www.osprey.com/us/en/product/talon-6-TALON6S21.html
Important: having had to make sense of a rather considerable amount of notes and clever observations from our testers, I tried to organize them by adopting a different format for this article, with four sections labeled A to D.
Disclosure
As usual, all tested packs were bought by their owners, with the exception of one copy of the 2020 Mountainsmith Tour, which was graciously sent to me with a couple of accessories by the company.
A – WAIST PACKS: COMMONALITIES
A1 – WARRANTIES
Excellent coverage with 10 years on the Decathlon and Lifetime for all the others.
A2 – COMMON STRENGHTS
a) Versatility
This type of medium to large waist packs have rather outstanding versatility and perform well for camping, hiking, photography, drones, school, camping, tourism, boating, biking, etc. The Mountainsmith Day even performs great for picking wild berries, as I verified myself. Just rotate the pack to your front, slip a deep plastic container under the “front hammock panel” (more on this below), run the included shoulder strap behind your neck for stability, and you have the best wild fruits picking setup ever!
b) Light weight
When “dry” (empty) all these packs weigh roughly between 1 and 2 pounds. While the Mountainsmith models are a tad heavier than the others due to their much sturdier construction, using the included or optional strap(s) makes them in fact feel much lighter than the others in actual use (details below.) All these packs compress into very little space when empty which is very useful for those of you who like to stash a bag on flights and use it for city strolls once at the hotel. Note that both the Deuter and Mountainsmith allow you to fold the belts behind the backpanel, which is great if you like to keep things tidy when for example throwing your loaded waist pack inside your backpack, near the end of a hiking day.
c) Excellent for spine health
They are also a total no-brainer if you have any type of back pain or spinal issues since all the weight you carry (even high loads, one of our members has successfully tested the MS Day with over 25 pounds) rests on your hip bones, the strongest part of your body. Also, as long as you wear your pack front or back (sideways is possible but it can be awkward since it tends to interfere with your arms’ swings at anything more than a leisurely pace) you maintain perfect symmetry and you avoid the potential spinal dangers caused by off-axis packs such as slings, satchel-style bags, shoulder bags, messenger bags, etc.
d) Supreme carrying flexibility
All can also easily be used as a shoulder or sling pack, bandolier style, with the two obvious major caveats most of you probably know already. First, any pack that applies constant pressure on one shoulder can create pain and spinal issues. And second, they are a no-go in risky areas since it’s so easy for an experienced thief to approach from behind, slice the main strap and rip the pack right off your body.
e) Best solution for gear safety coupled with quick accessibility
Looking for real comfort, quick access plus maximum security? Do yourself a favor and ignore the fearmongering “creative” marketing foisted upon your naiveté by unscrupulous, self-serving photo bag brands which falsely claim that “rear opening” backpacks are the miracle solution to all your armchair nightmares. We have found instead that the following setup is simply optimal: TMP backpack (see R1, article 1 at top of this thread) + waist pack.
These packs can indeed easily be used anywhere around your waist with any TMP pack. How? You simply place the waist pack on your left side, slide the left belt buckle just behind the TMP panel at mid-back with your left hand until it becomes visible on your right side, move the right buckle around your stomach to your right side, click and then move the waist pack to your front… takes just a few seconds!
Even the most experienced thief in Paris, Rome, Madrid or San Francisco, upon assessing the situation, will quickly move onto an easier prey. How do I know this, you ask? Because this is the setup most of our members use (with a dark color raincover on the backpack in truly risky areas, see Article 1, paragraph 7, also FAQ 15) and we are yet to experience any theft, even in highly touristy areas, among over one thousand members.
Note that when your waist pack’s belt should sit just a tad above your TMP backpack’s own belt. This is the most comfortable setup and also the one that allows the quickest access to your photo gear.
A3 – WAIST PACKS: COMMON FLAWS
a) Poor to average access to the main compartment
The “industry standard” is still top access only and via one or more zippers. Does this design choice make sense on those myriads of small fanny packs (maximum 2 liters)? Sure it does. After all, 2 liters is a very small volume (that’s only two standard Nalgene bottles!) which means that rummaging through it by opening a central upper zipper is no big deal.
Does this design choice make sense on a medium to large fanny pack? Well… NOT so much! We asked one of our testers, a retired outdoors industry leader, why all brands use this inferior design. He said with a smile: “all through my career I heard, well my competitors do it, so I’m gonna do it too... Bottom line, you’d be surprised at how common this lack of creativity is in the industry!”
Indeed, on these larg-ish waist packs, the main top zipper, even though it drops down a bit on each side, is a far-from-ideal type of entry system because it makes seeing and accessing your gear more difficult than need be. A horizontal U-shaped zipper, protected from rain by a small flap, which is a standard design on most small photo bags (see R4 for pictures) would make far more sense. Another advantage of such a design is that it would free up the entire side of the waist pack, allowing for deeper side pockets that accommodate longer water bottles such as the very common Nalgene 48oz (about 1.5 L), longer photo lenses, a compact umbrella, etc.
b) Pressure Panel Design (of physiology, heat dissipation, and body shapes…)
Those of us who have used Pressure Panel (PP) packs (see Article 1) are very familiar with a massive flaw that is inherent to the PP design itself: our back gets drenched with sweat after just a few miles as soon as the weather warms up, even a little bit. But if, as I once did, you think that all that heat comes from your back, you are grossly incorrect. The culprit is in fact our large abdominal area which contains about 80% of our (amazing) immune system, a hugely sophisticated assemblage of cell-level and other mechanisms that keep us healthy every second of our lives. All that work goes into overdrive as soon as we exercise, which produces even more heat that radiates all through our mid and upper section. All that heat escapes fairly easily out front through our skin, but not so much out back, where it is slowed down by our spine and surrounding muscle tissues. This heat accumulation is the reason why our back tends to sweat so much.
Knowing these basic facts, one quickly realizes that a TMP waist pack would make a lot of sense, and even more so because such a system would be far easier and cheaper to implement than a TMP backpack. Sadly none has (yet) been widely commercialized and all tested waist packs are PP packs that deal very poorly with heat, with the notable exception of the Mountainsmith models, but only when used with the right extra straps and in certain circumstances (more details in B below.)
Note: Mountainsmith now offers the Cona 4, a new waist pack that purports to have a “no-contact breezeway“ to keep the backpanel away from the body. I cannot say anything more since it has not been tested yet.
Advantage women!
How do men deal with adding more stuff and weight inside a waist pack? Well, since most of us are shaped like anything from a bean to a pear, we have no choice but to tighten that waist belt at belly button level. Not fun, but we ain’t got no choice…
Non-overweight women, on the other hand, have those nice wider hips just a few inches below their belly button and our female testers found that this is a massive advantage over men because they could actually loosen their waist belt by and inch or two and still enjoy a much more comfortable carrying experience.
c) Thin padding
While the mesh that is in contact with your body dries fairly quickly, at 1/3 to 1/2 inch on these waist packs, the padding itself is simply not thick enough. Worse, all tested packs appear to use cheap open cell foam that quickly “crushes” down to half its thickness or less. Just like the shoulder straps on certain backpacks, these waist packs are begging for a quality, dual-density foam design that is correctly implemented. A 3/4 inch thickness made of 1/2 inch quality closed-cell bonded to 1/4 inch quality open cell (to evacuate heat in tandem with an open-mesh cover) ) would be perfect for all the pads, both on the lower back section and inside the “wings” of the waist belt. Such a solution (which I suspect Deuter uses on some of its Aircomfort packs, see FAQ 26) is inexpensive and would make these waist packs considerably cooler and more comfortable in temperature above 60 degrees (about 15 Celsius.)
B – DIFFERENCES
B1 – CAPACITY
Given the lack of true, independently-verified industry standards and the resulting “games” played by so many brands, we were curious to see for ourselves what usable capacities these waist pack have. Here is what we roughly measured (rounded to the closest value) with some short comments when needed:
Decathlon Forclaz 10 L Hiking Fanny Pack
Claimed capacity: 10 Liters
Actual capacity: 8L [main compartment section: 7L, side pockets: 2 x 0.5L, belt pockets: 0]
Deuter Travel Belt
Claimed capacity: 5 Liters
Actual capacity: 6 L [main compartment section: 5L, side pockets: 2 x 0.5L, belt pockets: 0]
Mountainsmith Tour Small
Claimed capacity: 6 Liters
Actual capacity: 8.5 L [main compartment section: 6 L, side pockets: 2 x 0.75L, belt pockets: 0.75L + 0.25L]
Mountainsmith Tour
Claimed capacity: 9 Liters
Actual capacity: 12+L [main compartment section: 9L, side pockets: 2 x 1L, belt pockets: 0.75L + 0.25L]
Notes:
Why 12 PLUS liters? Because if you’re smart, you can use Mountainsmith’s clever expandable volume design to significantly increase your actual gear capacity. See LASH POINTS below for details.
Mountainsmith Day
Claimed capacity: 13 Liters
Actual capacity: 16+ L [main compartment section: 13L, side pockets: 2 x 1L, belt pockets: 0.75L + 0.25L ]
Osprey Talon 6
Claimed capacity: 6 Liters
Actual capacity: 8 L [main compartment section: 6L, side pockets: 2 x 0.5L, belt pockets: 2 x 0.5L]
B2: “TIPPER? FLOPPER? BALANCED?”
It is hard to understand why this aspect of waist packs design is not discussed more often since it is so hugely important. To keep things in simple terms, it refers to where the horizontal center line of the belt intersects with the pack’s main compartment (high, low, or center.) This being said, as you will see below, various design elements can mitigate actual performance:
– If it’s too high, you have a FLOPPER, a waist pack that constantly hits your butt or your groin (not very pleasant) And the LOSER is: Deuter Travel Belt. This is the main reason why testers disliked this pack.
– If it’s too low, you have a TIPPER, a waist pack that constantly threatens to “tip over” when full (not very pleasant either.) And the LOSER is: Decathlon Forclaz 10L. This is the main reason why testers disliked this pack as well.
– If it’s roughly centered, you have a BALANCED weight load. And the WINNERS are: all Mountainsmith models, Osprey Talon 6.
Note: if you simply look at a Mountainsmith Day or even a Tour and never test them properly, you could easily conclude that it is a tipper. What’s important to understand here is that Mountainsmith has inserted two efficient side compression straps on each side, anchored outside the “wings” just behind the side pockets. One runs horizontally to the bottom of the pack and the other one shoots up towards the top of the front panel, at a 30% angle on the Tour and a 45% angle on the Day. This feature, completely absent on the Decathlon, effectively prevents a full pack from tipping over with a normal load.
B3: BACKPANEL “VENTILATION”
Or, should I say to be honest, lack thereof…
The “least worst” is the Decathlon. Its thin backpanel does not evacuate heat particularly well, but at least it dries quickly.
Next, and slightly worst is the Deuter with its slightly more comfortable padding which, just guessed it, is slightly less able to remove heat.
At the bottom of the pile are the new-ish “breathable” systems from Mountainsmith and Osprey. Here is a slightly updated section I had already posted in FAQ 26:
Previous versions of these great Mountainsmith Day waist pack had standard foam pads (a wide one, unfortunately not split with a central channel at the bottom of the backpanel, plus two long-ish ones on the upper sides, leaving a very nice inverted-Y channel in between for upper ventilation.) The 2020 version has a one piece, rectangular backpanel made of foam with “ridges” (think jagged profile) that run horizontally, covered with nylon mesh. This design is also found in the Osprey Talon as well as quite a few photo packs.
As we were testing the leading waist packs, we noticed a big difference in ventilation between the two Mountainsmith Day versions, with all testers saying that the new one “runs much hotter” whether you wear it on your back or on your front. You could easily tell by just sliding your hand behind the backpanel. One was lukewarm to the touch, the other one was hot. Still, one of our members, an engineer who uses high-precision temperature instruments at work, brought his gear to the trail and took a bunch of measurements. Here is a very revealing one at ambient temperature of 60 degrees Fahrenheit.
Backpanel temperatures after 20 minutes of brisk walking:
old MS Day, 66 degrees
new MS Day: 87 degrees
Clearly, the “old” model has vastly better ventilation and therefore cooling. What happens with the new one is that your body heat is trapped inside these horizontal foam ridges since it has no way to rise and escape. This would obviously be far less of an issue if the ridges were oriented vertically, which by the way would also allow for sweat to drip down at the bottom (one of our testers, a profuse sweater, noticed that his sweat would accumulate in between the ridges, with nowhere to go. He had to turn the pack sideways to let the sweat drip out when we took breaks.)
The temperature levels were even worse on the Osprey Talon, which also has a horizontally-ridged backpanel, but it’s covered by a 1 inch tall piece of fabric at the top that entirely blocks whatever tiny amount of heat could have escaped upward. That pack also has some type of horizontal metal bar at the top that digs into your lower back while wearing a thin layer, especially when going uphill.
B4: RAIN PROTECTION
Under anything more than a short shower, the only brand that offers you any type of decent protection is Mountainsmith. Yes, the $19 rain cover is optional but it is well designed (it covers the side pockets and comes in a small pouch that you can never lose because it is sewn to the cover, a clever touch) and I highly recommend it. Just make sure that you wrap tightly over the backpanel stash pocket (the one time I failed to do this, I ended up with what felt like half a gallon of water in there… my hiking buddies thought it was hilarious!)
Keep in mind that on all these packs both the backpanel and the “wings” part of the belt (padding + pockets if any) quickly get soaked, and plan accordingly. For example, with my Mountainsmith Tour and Day, I have no problem leaving my Canon G1X3 inside the right pocket since that cam has such good WR (Weather Resistance) but with all my other compacts I place them inside a plastic bag when it rains, as do I with all my backpacks.
B5: SIDE POCKETS
The Decathlon, Deuter and Osprey waist packs have short and shallow side (water) pockets that can only accommodate very small bottles or lenses.
The Mountainsmith side pockets are, in contrast, little marvels of engineering that do a superb job of keeping your bottles (and/or, in our case as photographers, a spare lens or two) both accessible and safe, a small tour de force. To wit:
1 – At 7 inches these pockets are far taller/deeper than the competition’s.
2 – They are also a full inch wider, accommodating bottles, camera lenses, or anything else up to a 3.5 inches (8.9 cm) diameter, meaning that you can stick a standard 1 Liter Nalgene bottle (0.7 L on the Tour Small) in there (hooray!) or a pretty darn fat zoom lens (hooray again!)
3 – These Mountainsmith waist packs are the only ones to have the side compression straps correctly designed to not run around the outside of the side pockets, and to therefore not interfere with their use. This smart design gives you the best possible compromise: you can easily access the contents of your side pockets while keeping your pack in place and steady. No need to loosen straps and disturb your setup as is the case with the competition.
4 – Icing on the cake, each Mountainsmith side pocket is a highly sophisticated – and clearly far more expensive to manufacture – combination of three panels; the front and rear panels are made of quality stretch mesh but the side panel is very smartly made of the same tough 420 HD fabric as the rest of the pack, which means that even running through thorns, as I did not long ago myself, will not rip your side pocket to shreds. Now this is some seriously thoughtful engineering.
B6: BELT POCKETS
Lots of room for improvements here!
Decathlon and Deuter: horrible (zero belt pocket.)
Osprey: just okay. There are side pockets but they are far back and very small.
Mountainsmith: very good but perfectible. The one on the right side is larger than on many backpacks: it easily holds my G1X3, something even a Deuter Vario 60 cannot do, and it is made out of the same tough fabric as the rest of the pack which offers awesome protection even while bushwhacking through rough terrain. The one on the left is a simple flat stretch panel that works fantastic for photo filters and lens caps, but, contrary to what Mountainsmith says, does not accommodates a “large” phone unless you shove it hard in there. Problem is, given that this part of the belt is curved around your body, it is very easy to crack your phone’s screen, which happened to some of our testers (this would probably still happen even if the pocket were 1 inch longer.) If you absolutely have to have a phone at hand, insert it vertically, it won’t break and it will be much easier to grab anyway.
B7: LASH POINTS & EXPANSION OPTIONS
The bad news: those of you who like to carry a tripod or an umbrella on a walk or hike have zero practical option to do so with the Decathlon, Deuter and Osprey waist packs reviewed here. The Osprey does have a winged front panel with compression straps (called “StraightJacket”) but it’s super small, the straps are too short and more importantly they run horizontally instead of vertically. We found the hard way that it’s very easy for whatever you lash in there to simply fall through. As a result we only used this system for items such as a vest or a sweater.
The good news: all three Mountainsmith models have bottom straps that make it a breeze to carry your tripod. With small and medium tripods, you just slide all three legs inside the straps and tighten them. With large tripods, you do the same with just one or two legs. Some of our testers also simply kept their tripod on top when walking slowly from one shooting spot to another. Others preferred to slide it horizontally inside the front panel.
About that “Mountainsmith front hammock” (that’s we came to call it because, well, it reminded us of a mini hammock!)
This large, rectangular front panel, anchored at the bottom corners via short webbing straps and at the top corners via short, lockable elastic straps is simply the world’s best volume expansion solution on a waist pack. It is also a massive improvement over the previous, and already quite good, version, made of lash points/daisy chains that were organized in two rows across the front panel. And since Mountainsmith had the good sense of still offering 4 lash points (short, strong cross straps sewn across the top of each corner) you have pretty much the best of both worlds. You can simply slip whatever you like under the hammock (I use it for an extra pair of shoes on hikes over 5 hours, a jacket, etc.) and/or you can lash extra items to the pack’s front, your imagination and sense of organization being the only limits. Just as an example, one of our members, a huge fan of UL (Ultra Light) hiking, has lengthened the corner and bottom straps and he keeps a large dry sack with all his food under the hammock on multi-day hikes. His tent, pad and sleeping bag are lashed to the bottom, and he uses all other lash points to hand and dry his clothes while on the move. Of course he also uses the optional shoulder harness.
[note that on the 2023 models, which were just released, Mountainsmith has replaced this whole expandable setup with a simple large front stash pocket, as can be found on tons of backpacks. I will check with the company and report here if there were any other significant changes.]
B8: CARRY OPTIONS: SHOULDER AND OTHER STRAPS
Here again Mountainsmith shines by including a high-quality, super–sturdy shoulder strap with their Tour, Tour Small and Day waist packs (I recently paid $35 for a replacement shoulder strap for a piece of luggage which is junk in comparison.) While we would move the receiving (female) buckle to a different area of the pack (details below), having such a strap at your disposal makes a huge difference as long as you are just a smidgen creative. Here are just a couple of examples:
1) Run the shoulder strap behind your neck while wearing the pack on your front and you can loosen that waist belt, just like ladies do! Not everyone liked the bulky and fairly hard strap pad rubbing on their neck, but hey, it certainly works in a pinch.
2) Run the shoulder strap behind the top of your backpack, just above the front panel, around the side, then under whatever small horizontal straps the top of your backpack’s shoulder straps may have (the ones sometimes used for guiding a hydration tube, for example) and let them hang there. You now have a super easy way to clip/unclip your waist pack on your chest/stomach, at whatever height you desire (the waist strap is still clipped behind your back but it’s only there for lateral stability.)
Mountainsmith also offers as an option a widely adjustable, $28 shoulder harness named “Strapettes”, a cute word belied by its tank-like build quality. The back clips into the same top buckles as the shoulder strap and the front/bottom runs over your shoulder and back towards the lower sides, where its “end ring” slides into a weird metal receptacle. It stays there while under tension but if you frequently do deep forward bends, as in going through some highly technical hiking sections, it occasionally slips out. In fairness, this is not a big problem because one, your pack is still secured at the waist and two, most readers probably won’t have to deal with such hiking sections. Still, this attachment system could easily be ameliorated.
The Deuter’s belt can supposedly “convert” into a shoulder strap when you push it behind the backpanel but it’s a rather gimmicky system that doesn’t work well.
The other companies offer, well, nothing…
B9: STRAP MANAGEMENT
Terrible: Osprey has included zero elastic straps on the front belt, where they are badly needed, and two straps on the front panel, where they are hardly needed at all (no, I’m not making this up.)
Bad: breaking with its long tradition of using elastic keepers on the front belt (not to mention many other straps) Deuter uses two plastic clips on the Travel Belt. These quickly dig into your back or front and all our “lean” testers hated them.
Good: Decathlon and Mountainsmith offer good front belt management, using simple and effective elastic straps. We’d like to see these on the side compression straps as well since they tend to flop around and interfere with your arm swing.
C – PACK BY PACK TEST FINDINGS
Because I do not wish to repeat the above findings, you absolutely need to read this whole article before making your purchase decision, or before considering design improvements. In this section I will only summarize and/or provide additional feedback.
Decathlon Forclaz 10 L Hiking Fanny Pack
Likes
– Excellent price (can often be found even lower.)
– Backpanel was quickest to dry.
Dislikes
– Backpanel is way too thin.
– Terrible top handle: too small, uncomfortable, and sewn in a way that it constantly falls down and wedges itself against your back.
– Usable main compartment capacity is way lower than claimed.
Suggested improvements
– See all A and B comments above.
– Add the same type of large/stretchable belt pockets you have on many of your own backpacks such as the MH500 line.
Deuter Travel Belt
Likes
Deuter build quality.
Dislikes
Pretty much everything else. This is the worst Deuter product we have ever tested.
Suggested improvements
– See all A and B comments above.
– Replace that bewilderingly poor and confusing product name. I can’t believe I have to even say this given that Deuter HQ has perfectly bilingual people, but this product is not a “belt”, period.
– This product needs both a meaningful name and a complete redesign.
Mountainsmith Tour, Day and Tour Small
Unless otherwise noted, these observations apply to all 3 Mountainsmith models.
Likes
– Absolutely superb build quality. Everything is rugged, oversized and inspires confidence.
– Only brand to offer useful accessories.
– Far and away the most comfortable waist packs in extended use.
– The bright yellow inside color makes it much easier to “find your stuff.”
– Hands-down the best zippers and those huge zipper tabs are just awesome when wearing gloves.
– When used creatively, the Day can actually replace a small daypack.
Dislikes
– Every single tester complained about the two upper (female) buckles. These are, one, not in the optimal place and two, sewn at the top of the backpanel in a way that they automatically “flop down” and rub against your back or front when not used to secure the shoulder strap.
– Accessories are priced on the high side.
Suggested improvements
– See all A and B comments above.
– Replace the shoulder strap pad with one that is made of softer materials (see Optech straps.)
– Offer the customer a reasonably-priced, direct-sale accessory bundle option with Strapettes + rain cover.
– Move the shoulder strap’s receiving (female) buckles to a more efficient location. We tested several and by far the best one we found is at the top front corner (where the top compression strap and top elastic straps meet.) Lateral stability was much improved and there was none of the tipping over we experienced when placing long and heavy photo rigs inside the pack (the type that still sticks out after the lens has reached the bottom.) This was true with both the shoulder strap and the Strapettes harness.
– Replace the Strapettes lower attachment system with the long-proven swivel clips attached to a D-ring: inexpensive, way more secure and way more able to follow the hiker’s occasional gyrations.
– Make the bottom straps at least 17 inches long so that they may accommodate a Z-pad.
– Replacing the current anchor points of the front “hammock” panel with standard, 8” adjustable straps would one, make it possible for the customer to carry light but bulky items and two, be more secure (elastic cords have their limits!)
– Add sleeves to all straps.
– Replace the left belt stretch pocket with the same great pocket that is on the right side.
– Change the backpanel’s “ridges” to a vertical orientation or, better yet, go back to your previous, much more efficient backpanel padding (but add a 2-3” opening at the bottom center in order to improve air flow.)
Osprey Talon 6
Likes
Good build quality.
Dislikes
– Puny 1 inch wide waist strap that literally cuts into your abdomen’s flesh when you bare your mid-riff in hot weather (something we all like to do!) or even if you wear a thin layer. All competing models have a 1.5 to 2 inch wide strap, which makes a massive difference in load spreading and comfort. Those of our members who still own a Talon say that they actually only use it in cold weather, over the thick padding offered by winter clothing.
– To make things worse, that thin strap does not even have “keeper sleeves” which means that anybody who had a waist line under 40 inches and did not want to have the loose strap ends flap against his/her thighs all day long, had to make some big and untidy knot that was also unsafe since these knots easily catch on branches, rock cracks, etc. (and no, you do not want to “simply snip the ends” see FAQ 16 for the why.)
– Poorest backpanel comfort and heat management of all tested models.
– Grossly overpriced.
Suggested improvements
– See all A and B comments above.
D – SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
While we would love for Mountainsmith to implement the small but significant improvements suggested above, our testers unanimously agreed that the 2020 Mountainsmith Day, Tour and Tour Small currently outperform the competition by an absolutely huge margin. Regardless of the countless settings they can be utilized in, they provide the user with exceptional versatility plus the ruggedness, feel, and usability of a true professional tool. To be brutally honest, waist packs offered by the competition feel like toys in comparison.
Customize your own crash-proof enclosure for your photo gear (see how-to in the R4 articles linked below my signature), slip it inside any of these Mountainsmith packs and you have an unbeatable combination of comfort, protection and lightning-quick access: a photographer’s dream!
Send me a PM (Private Message) if you have any question about this article.
If you wish to discuss other waist packs or backpacks, start a different thread in this forum.
Happy hikes and activities!
