One of the worst parts of the Kifaru Nomad 1 was the fact that the straps ran OVER the wings, and if you cinched them down you'd crush your wings and make it annoying to get into them (top opening, shallow usable.) Loved the flexibilty and modularity though.
Nomad 2 brought a better design where the straps ran underneath, but unfortunately they went with the long vertical zip. Never bought one.
Everyone kept hoping for a Nomad 3, but it never showed.
EMRII (one of the best packs ever, IMO) split the compression tie-in points, but still had straps running over the wings and would collect debris from the top like you wouldn't believe. They fixed some of this with the EMR3, er, sorry, Fulcrum.
Then they (Kifaru) got lots of feedback that people wanted a StrykerXL with wings. So they said "nope" and came out with the Straightjacket. /boggle
But at least you can put a pack inside the panel, or run the camp bag. It's like of like a Nomad 2 with a panel/Sherman, and the strap runs (again) over the wings.
And now we have this. Different frame, couple of wings which are very (very) EMR2-like, and you can compress the main bag without crushing the wings. Nice. Wing zippers are on the wrong side, though. Drop your pack on it's face, the most natural position and keeps the belt/harness out of the duff/muck/sand/etc and the wing zippers are now on the bottom. Same with "chair mode" in
@Formidilosus' video. Downside to those trekking pole loops will be winter baskets, but to be fair, they did say this was a late season bag and not a winter hunting setup. Bungies are no-go for busting brush (my packs are dual use hunting and backcountry SAR), but they can be easily removed.
While I also have a K4 frame, I don't know if I'll buy one of these as I have far too many already and, honestly, while this one's functional it's kinda ugly. Wing zippers on the other side and a few other minor tweaks and you'd have sold me on yet another pack, though.
However you can tell someone (or someones) have been through the same wringer and paid careful attention to the actual use of the pack
in the field.
Well done. I think a lot of people will be very happy rocking this beast.
Cheers,
-mox
