Jonathan Houser

I've been looking for a pack that fits me well for a few years now. My recent move to a town in the Cascades sped up my decision making process that coupled with rainy hiking (a thing we know well up here) lead me to the Naos line of bags.

This is the first part of a longer 3 part review . I have had the pack for only a few days. I "Settled" on the cobalt color as it was the only pack in my size on sale. I was not to stoked on the color but when it arrived I actually found myself liking the color. The Cobalt is actually close to a vintage pack look.

My first impressions when unpacking was WOW, this material is very tough. It has a sort of rubberized kevlar feeling. It feels like a pack the Swiss Army would have made if they had "Future Technology" in the 60's. It's a very attractive pack indeed. Because of this thicker 420ACT "Fancy" material it lacks the "saggy" look most packs have. This definitely will be a durable pack when hiking through brush or against blowdown.

I spent the majority of yesterday afternoon fitting the gridlock shoulder straps. As I mentioned in the title I am a rather large guy and understandably most outdoor gear is designed for athletic builds. So finding the perfect pack has been a challenge. I'm 6'1" and 290lbs. I have a long torso so I decided to go with a tall. With most packs the belt goes right around your midsection which tends to cut my beer gut in half. 4 miles into a hike this becomes extremely uncomfortable. So, with my test run with the Naos 70 I kept this in mind and kept my pack looser than I would with another pack. What I found was pretty cool. The load transfer disc actually allows you to run your hip belt a little looser than with a traditional fixed hip belt. This takes pressure of of my love handle and allows the hip belt to move with me. Very very cool. I ran it with about 25 lbs in it so a little over half of what I plan to have in it for a 3 day hike but It felt crazy comfortable. I have a number of trails behind my house which has mixed rock and dirt pathway. I did some pretty steep scrambling up the large sandstone rocks and to my surprise the pack just flexed with me. The hipbelt is really an amazing thing. towards the end of the 3 mille it became apparent that this pack was a really good fit.

I'm really impressed with the build quality. People seem to criticize it for the price point. For me, $575 is not too much for something as critical as a pack that will fit me comfortably as well as keep my gear dry. I only paid half of that, but I would have paid full price if that was my only option. I will continue to update this review as I spend more and more time with it.