Maxpedition Sitka Gearslinger

Overview: The Sitka is a wonderfully well made bag, and it does the job it was designed to do. It will hold a light weight load comfortably for short to moderate periods of time. It keeps everything you've got in your pack within easy reach without needing to remove the bag. What would make this pack better: A trade off between build quality and price. This bag is just too freaking expensive for what it is. Because of the style of pack that it is you won't be packing it to the gills with gear AND using it for any length of time (comfortably). And, if you will only be carrying a light load you don't really need to make sure each seam is bulletproof with a 90 pound load. You get the quality you pay for, that isn't in question. Will you USE the quality you pay for? That's silly, right? Who wants something made worse? Me. I want something made roughly 50 dollars worse than this. I'm not going to assault an enemy compound with my cute little 600CU man purse (covered in molle because I like to reinforce the MAN in man purse). Pros: I find this bag ideal for urban situations. I would not want to pack more than 15 pounds into this pack to be carried for any significant length of time. This isn't a failure of the pack, this is part of the nature of a sling style bag. The weight is carried on one shoulder, so you want this to weigh roughly half what you would pack into a simple two shoulder backpack style bag, and there are no straps to transfer pack weight to your hips (which wouldn't make sense on a pack like this anyhow). This is something you have to keep in mind because you can easily store 15 pounds of gear in this bag without using the molle on the back, the molle on the side, or the molle at the hip, the molle on the chest strap, or strapping anything to the outside with the compression straps. So, why are you paying for all that .... The water bottle holder is great for 32oz nalgene and for tall thermos'. I haven't tried using a water bladder with the bag yet, and am hesitant to do that due to water weight. The large outer pocket holds a full maxpedition fatty pocket organizer with several cubic inches to spare. The ability to store flat items in two sleeves inside this pocket, or flat items inside the outer zipper is neat, but hasn't come in handy for me any more than the keyper in this pocket has. I like that the zippers and sleeves have been optimized for vertical or horizontal usage. And, to be very honest, if I didn't have a pocket organizer to store items the organizational capacity of this pocket would come in handy. The upper pocket easily holds sun glasses or a number of smaller things with the internal elastic organizational straps. The zippers have been optimized for both vertical and horizontal usage. As with the lower pocket, the presence of the elastic organizational straps would be real boon if I didn't already have my EDC items in a separate bag (to allow for more easy transitions between various bags). The main compartment is very well thought out. There is essentially one large area with 5 sleeves of various sizes. Against the back of this compartment there are sleeves for fairly flat items. The sizes of these sleeves are similar to the sizes of the pockets on the outside (in terms of proportion to each other). The large area within this pack allows for more than enough storage for a bag of this type. In front of this large compartment is another pair of pockets that mirror the previously mentioned sleeves. They're the same basic size, but these two are fully enclosed with a zipper and have a mesh wall to allow you to see what you're reaching for. There is a single zipper that runs the length of both of these pockets, and this means you have to fully open the zipper for both pockets to reach items near the bottom (this isn't the end of the world, just different). In front of these pockets is another single sleeve that runs the length of the bag. The wall to this sleeve includes a very large patch of the hook portion of velcro for storing items (conceal carry options). Lastly, there is an adjustable buckle like what you may find in a laptop bag to keep an item inside this long sleeve from falling out. The last pocket for this bag is the main conceal carry compartment. It's closest to the back, and can also function to carry a water bladder. This pocket has a very generous quantity of the hook portion of velcro for storing items (conceal carry options). This pocket has an opening at the top to allow you to run a hydration tube out to the shoulder strap. This pocket also has an opening near the bottom to allow you to store the stability strap when it isn't needed. Now so far I've listed all of the pockets, but there are more features for this bag that allow for more storage and organization beyond the 600+ cubic inches covered so far. There is a small hoop near the top opening for the hydration tube that would easily allow you to help keep a hydration bladder upright. There is a hearty D ring on the outside and next to this a very interesting bit of cord that looks like it can help keep items on the outside of the pack stable. It expands to roughly 7 inches in diameter and is very adjustable. On the outside of the uppermost pocket there is a hook field of velcro for patches, and over this an elastic cord and draw string for more storage. There's also a removable Y shaped compression strap that can be used to easily store shed layers outside the pack itself. The shoulder strap (in addition to the two points of molle webbing at the top, the two points of molle webbing at the bottom, and the two points of molle webbing at the hip where the shoulder strap clasps to the bottom of the bag, there is also a very heavy duty metal keyper. There are two grab handles on the bag, the top handle is covered with neoprene (or something like it) and is super comfortable to hold, the other is more basic (no neoprene) but still functional. The last feature I can think of is that the buckle for the stability strap also has a whistle so that if you're out and about you've always got a whistle handy. Comfort: This is a tricky topic. The padding on the back is great. The padding on the shoulder strap is great, and the shoulder strap itself is super wide to help spread the weight of the pack's single strap. It's easy to switch the position of the pack from your back to your chest to get at the pack's contents. As long as you keep the weight of the pack reasonable to your specific tolerances you'll be great. Finding those tolerances will take carrying around a too heavy load a couple times and regretting it. Cons: Price, seriously, this thing is really over designed for what it is capable of comfortably carrying out. If I'm going to spend $100+ on a SUPER versatile piece of gear one of the first things I'd like this item to do is be capable of being carried comfortably with a reasonable load for the features of the bag. The molle is overkill considering the bag has more storage options than the bag can comfortably carry. Attaching an organizer to the outside sounds like a great idea, but why have a nearly empty bag with extra stuff attached to the outside? I promise you won't want to load this out, attach 5 or 6 different pouches to the outside, then go do some trail running, or take off for a 10 mile day hike. There's no weight transfer to your hips, everything is carried up high, and all on one shoulder. These are the reasons I picked up the 613 cubic inch sitka instead of the 1,000+ cubic inch options (monsoon, or kodiak). Exactly how much wasted space do I need to carry around? Conclusion: If you have 60 dollars to buy yourself a nice backpack, and if you also have 50-60 extra dollars to throw at something, then this is a really awesome purchase. If a single shoulder sling type pack was super comfortable for carrying a decent sized load for long periods of time you would see outdoor companies making them. You don't see this, because it's not smart. In my opinion the sitka makes a lot more sense than either the kodiak or monsoon (and I prefer the look of the monsoon considerably).