I've been fooling around with backpack designs for a couple of decades now. I favor designs where the major parts of the backpack are separate from each other and easily detached/replaced rather than sewn together into one entity. So, for my purposes, I divide the backpack into 5 parts: frame, waist belt, shoulder straps, back bag and front bag. This allows my simple mind to address one part at a time and it is much less daunting (for me) than attacking the entire pack design at once.

Also, when one of the 5 parts fails in testing or post test use I only need to replace that part.....not the whole backpack.

I'm curious how others approach the design and testing process of backpacks.

Edited by lyrad1 on 12/17/2012 21:19:04 MST.

I do that some, but

If you, for example, sew the pack to the waist belt, it will be a more rigid connection and weigh less.