HyperliteMountainGear - OLD

Just scooped up a SW 3400. Build quality is excellent. Unfortunately it’s not backpacking season yet. Full review to come this summer.

Great quality as aspected, but feel the 17L capacity is a bit small, I feel making it in a 23L could have served a much more broader group and ability to use this pack in a much brocades range. Travel pack and then opt for a day hike. Still great quality and should last a long time....

I bought a 4400 Southwest pack to use for 8-day work trips in the Sierra Nevada, for which I need to carry a full backpacking kit plus some science gear. The workmanship, materials, and layout of the pack are exactly the high quality I expected. The external pockets are just the right size to carry everything I need during the day, and the main compartment does indeed keep all my camp gear totally dry through rain showers. Also, there isn’t a confusion of straps, snaps, buckles, and flaps to sort through every time I need to open a pocket, like on some other brands’ packs (lookin’ at you, Osprey!). However, I am quite disappointed with HMG's sizing guidelines. I repeatedly measured my spine using the website’s guidelines and even had different friends help me do so in order to account for errors in technique, and I always got a measurement between 18.75” and 19.5”. Based on this I ordered a Large size. Unfortunately, after having used the pack for two work trips it has become quite apparent that I needed a Tall size. If I put the waistband on my hip bones the shoulder straps dig in, putting most of the pack weight on my trapezius muscles, which soon get sore. Classic too-short-pack problem. I feel that I was quite thorough in measuring my spine length and am annoyed at still ending up with the wrong size pack.

package is still in transit, will update upon receiving

Attention to detail and quality control appear to be lacking. I received the incorrect sized stuff sacks and ended up keeping them since I did not have time to exchange before a backpacking trip. Also it’s a small thing but several of the plastic clips on backpack were put on backwards so that the straps are twisted and do not lay flat when clipped. I cannot fix the clips without cutting the straps. I would expect a higher attention to detail for a product that is otherwise excellently designed and constructed.