Matador

FreeRain24L Waterproof Packable Backpack

Great idea, awful shoulder straps

Familiarity:

I've used it several times

Size Bought:

One size

Weight:

170

This is a great 24 L size and great packable and useful tool. Love that it actually can deal with serious rain. The bottle holders are a little fragile and the front pocket is only for very flat items, but for the overall weight and packed size, the trade offs make sense. The shoulder straps are awful. Truly awful. Stiff, very poorly shaped. They barely make shoulder contact on the edge, and are very stiff. Truly unfortunate design feature. Most pack straps seem to fit me perfectly, these are an exception. I use the pack, but each time seriously consider trying to make, or have someone make different straps. If I let the straps hang very far out on my shoulders they are almost workable. What a shame this great design does not use straps that either form to you a bit more, or have a more conforming curve to them. A sharper turn at the lower end of the ?J? (like so many other pack straps) would do it. The storage bag is fine, but for real world situations, a 10% larger storage bag would have no downsides and would be more useful when trying to quickly store this pack. Really a shame about the straps.