Eagle Industries A-III

This is one tough pack. It is made entirely out of 1000 Denier Cordura nylon and only the finest ITW Nexus hardware is used. Construction is the best, main seam is four times stiched and main zippers (YKK#10) triple stitched. Only the best materials are used in it. The nylon webbing is even tougher and stronger than commerical nylon webbing, since this is a military pack.

Design is nothing special, like most military designs it is practical but very basic. The main compartment is big and opens with #10 YKK zippers, plus two smaller zipper compartments with #8 YKK zippers. There is a hydration pouch and even an exit port for the hydration tube.

It is pretty comfortable except for use during hot weather because the shoulder straps retain sweat very well. There is lots of padding on the back and it transfers weight to the removable hip belt well. The shoulder straps could use more padding though, and also coolmax mesh to help wick away sweat.

The only minor complaint I have is that, despite that they over sew it so many times, there are some areas where they stopped or started sewing where there are loose thread ends. I have fixed them all with a little dab of super glue at the base of each loose thread.

If you want a good comfortable, basic pack that is well built, then you may want to consider the Eagle pack. Eagle has a good reputation among our US special forces soldiers for indestructible gear and has an unconditional lifetime warantee (shipping paid too).

I recomend that you buy from Brigade Quartermasters (http://www.actiongear.com)

A well built, practical assault pack that's the perfect size for use in the field when you're going to be moving around often. Pocket for Camelbak is great. Tough as nails and comfortable to wear. Highly recommended.

The only drawback I could think of is the lack of PALS webbing for attaching pouches externally. There are add-on pouches available from Eagle, but other packs offer PALS webbing stitched to the outside of the pack. This can be quite useful in a military setting, but I doubt civillians will need or miss it.

I've had the original model in black for 10 years and it is still going strong. The pack is bomb-proof. I recently upgraded to the Molle version in multi-cam.

The pack will hold everything I need for three days in the wilderness. It is comfortable with up to 35 pounds worth of gear. Anything heavier requires the optional frame insert to be comfortable. I still use the original as an emergency pack for the truck.