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Outdoor Products Mist

rated 4.0 of 5 stars
photo: Outdoor Products Mist hydration pack

The Mist is an 8 L capacity daypack with a 2 L Camelback-style, water bladder included. At its price point, it is surprisingly well featured and versatile with three separate pockets to make organizing your gear a snap. Even when fully loaded it's quite comfortable to carry, and includes a full set of harness options.

Pros

  • Small, light, and well made
  • Many features found in larger packs
  • Hydration pouch
  • Very cheap for the feature set

Cons

  • No waist belt pockets
  • Limited 8 L capacity
  • Few attachment points provided

The Mist from Outdoor Products is only an 8 L capacity "daypack", but it has a lot of the bells and whistles that the larger, and more expensive packs have. This includes a 2 L Camelback-style, ”water bladder” that fits in an interior pocket. The whole pack is only about 16″ or 18″ tall. 

Electing for the relatively small, 8 L volume seems to me to be a good idea. It will force you into being very selective about what you actually choose to take along. ... We all tend to overpack... Lighter is better.

The Mist has a mesh pouch on each side to hold water bottles. Both the compression webbing and the buckles are sturdy, it is well sewn throughout and it uses decent SPS zippers with nylon teeth and metal sliders with web pulltabs. Inside, there are three full-height pockets, two zipped and one open-top slot. There is also an elasticized slot pocket in the back of the main compartment to hold the water bladder.

The shoulder straps have about a half an inch of foam padding and have some nice ventilating mesh on the back side. There’s a sternum strap to secure it across your chest, and a decent, but unpadded, waistbelt. While there are no pouches on the waistbelt, the straps are certainly large enough and long enough to thread through some type of belt-looped pouch.

Additionally, each shoulder strap has two elastic bands. These are there for you to secure the sip tube from the water bladder. But you could certainly use at least two of them to conveniently secure other small objects.

My only real criticism of the Mist is that it lacks any kind of bungee cords on the outside to allow you to carry a windbreaker or parka with easy access. However, the shape of the compression strap buckles might allow you to jury rig something with elastic paracord.

At this price point, I only paid $24 for it on a red-tag markdown at one of the big box stores, the versatility and features are unmatched by any other pack I looked at. It is sturdy and well-made, and the inclusion of the quite decent hydration pack, would make this a very good deal even at the more common price of $29-$36.

Source: bought it new
Price Paid: $24.99

A great value-for-money day pack; well designed with excellent construction and materials.

Pros

  • Top value
  • Good design for multi use
  • Outside wet gear stowage for those showery days
  • 13 liter total capacity inside zipped compartments
  • Waterproof except zips

Cons

  • Zips leak in heavy rain
  • Side mesh pockets rather on the small side

I had been looking for a multi purpose daypack for some time and had just got to thinking that I would have to make my own when this turned up in a warehouse sale. It met all requirements for day activities, Tenkara fishing, traditional fly fishing, day and short hikes. With UL tarp and gear I can even overnight at a pinch in summer.

I have never had a hydration pack before and now realize that a couple of drops of household bleach per liter of water keeps things sweet and healthy. There is plenty of adjustment in the harness and an excellent fit is easy, even fully loaded there is no sway or instability even when rock hopping or bouldering. 

I can offer that anyone seeking a multi purpose small daypack should certainly give this a good look first. Mine cost me US 16.50 for a normal retail of US 45. Doesn't come much better than that!

Source: bought it new
Price Paid: US 16.50

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Specs

Price Historic Range: $29.99
Reviewers Paid: $16.50-$24.99
Product Details from Outdoor Products »

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