STAFF
Everyday use
Lightness matters.
Lightness matters. But I also want to use my gear hard, and for a long time, and ideally with a bit of character. That "bit of character" is the hard part.
High-tech new materials are appealing, but with long use they often just degrade. Thick cotton fabric or tannin-tanned leather, on the other hand, take on depth and atmosphere as they wear, or rather because they wear.
The new Kete from macpac is a backpack born from a collaboration with Hiker's Depot. It keeps things light while using AzTec, macpac's own highly waterproof cotton-based fabric. Not ultralight, but at 540 g in its minimal configuration it's light enough. And it has a stripped-down, primitive functional beauty.
It's tough enough for bushwhacking, being tossed onto dirty trails, scraped on rock or taken into streams. Being primitive leaves room to add functions and think about how to use it, which adds depth to the activity.
I used it on a walk along the Osaka Circular Nature Trail, and enjoyed how freely I could play with it and adjust to the way I wanted to play. How you play, how you use your gear: it doesn't have to be the same as everyone else's. I was thinking that again as I walked. Let go of fixed ideas. In the spirit of Steve Jobs:
Play different.
High-tech new materials are appealing, but with long use they often just degrade. Thick cotton fabric or tannin-tanned leather, on the other hand, take on depth and atmosphere as they wear, or rather because they wear.
The new Kete from macpac is a backpack born from a collaboration with Hiker's Depot. It keeps things light while using AzTec, macpac's own highly waterproof cotton-based fabric. Not ultralight, but at 540 g in its minimal configuration it's light enough. And it has a stripped-down, primitive functional beauty.
It's tough enough for bushwhacking, being tossed onto dirty trails, scraped on rock or taken into streams. Being primitive leaves room to add functions and think about how to use it, which adds depth to the activity.
I used it on a walk along the Osaka Circular Nature Trail, and enjoyed how freely I could play with it and adjust to the way I wanted to play. How you play, how you use your gear: it doesn't have to be the same as everyone else's. I was thinking that again as I walked. Let go of fixed ideas. In the spirit of Steve Jobs:
Play different.
