Ultralight Backpack
A foray into outdoor gear design and creation.
Personal Project
Sketching & Ideation
Design & Fabrication
In order to create a pattern that could be used to construct the bag, I created a set of parametric drawings in SolidWorks based off of a spreadsheet of body measurements and desired dimensions that I could adjust. This allowed me to dynamically change the proportions of the bag, in order to suit the volume and form factor that I wanted.
When it came time to fabricate, I was able to print out the large panel templates on a poster printer, then trim and trace onto the raw material. From here it was a matter of slowly assembling, taking care to work in an order that is actually manufacturable. For the foam-padded hip belt and shoulder straps, I sewed most of the piece inside-out, then unrolled them onto the foam padding. This then gave one raw edge, which could be hidden in the seam of the bag. Attatching the webbing to the hip and shoulder belts proved difficult, however, as it required my consumer sewing machine to press through two layers of foam, along with the thick 3D Mesh fabric. This consistently snapped threads and messed with my machine's tension. These are probably the weakest points on the bag, as the stitching I was able to do is inconsistent and not as reinforced as I'd like.
Reflection
As a whole, I feel really happy with how this project turned out, and it's super cool to have a bag I can look at while I'm using it and think "I made that myself". It's served a great use as a large daypack, weekend trip bag, and just a big ol' stuff sack. That's part of where my dissatisfaction with it lies, however, it's not the long-term backpacking trip machine I built it to be, at least not just yet.
I throw the bag around a lot and generally try and stress-test it like an average consumer might expect to be able to with an off-the-shelf bag, and it holds up really well. My big concern, is just with longevity under real load. Like I mentioned, the stitching for the hip and shoulder belts is fairly sketchy, and I only learned the proper techniques for sewing mesh after I had sewn all the mesh on. The whole thing is just a little rough around the edges, and that makes me scared to take it on a real trip where my equipment matters to the success of the trip. I'm working my way up to that, but it means I'm thinking a lot about this bag's successor.
I'm designing V2, and there are a lot of big structural changes I'm planning (check those out in 'Ongoing Projects'), but also a lot of small technical changes I'm going to make for structural improvement. A big one is to do a more 'rightside out' strategy with the hip and shoulder straps. I plan to use Grosgrain ribbon or similar to hide the rough edges, and sandwich the foam inside for greater seam strength. I also want to use less foam - I went kinda crazy with it in the name of comfort. I'd also create a full, removable hip belt, which would mitigate the flappy hip-belt connections to the body, and just give the user more support. Finally, I'd switch to a more resilient mesh, the one I used is more intended for leggings than a ice-axe or stray tree branches.
