User Review: Patagonia Crosstown

Patagonia Crosstown
Above: The current Crosstown, which may differ slightly from the version reviewed.

Reviewed July 15, 2008 by Alexandros

Rating:
Price Paid: $100

I love Patagonia gear, unfortunately this pack is a failure. The reason is that its compression system is woefully inadequate. Patagonia tried to copy Osprey's straight jacket system, but didn't give the pack the stiff wing sides that Osprey uses.

There is no option to compress the soft sides of the Crosstown. The result is the pack that compresses into a wedge with most of the weight hanging way off the back. Bad idea, even my 5-year old Mountainsmith compresses way better.

Other gripes- a laptop sleeve that is useless for anything but the laptop; that's a strange idea for backpack that is touted as an all-arounder. The pack is fairly discreet, although the large Patagonia logo pressed into the front pocket gives it away.

Crosstown is pretending to be understated, but in reality not understated at all. The carry system would have been comfortable of not the unfortunate compression system that makes all the weight jut out away from your bag.

I give this effort from Patagonia a "miss" mark...