Choosing the Right Fabric
Wondering which outer fabric you should choose? Read on for a deep dive into our fabric choices! Or jump to our quick guide HERE if you're in a hurry.
When we started back in 2016, we only used one exterior fabric - 1000D Cordura Nylon. This decision was based on decades of real-world use that showed its flexibility, resistance to abrasion, and strength under tension. Cordura is also still being produced by a few mills in the United States in a wide range of colors, something we wanted to bring to a market that at the time was dominated by black and grey packs.
Fast forward a few years, and we wondered how 15oz waxed canvas would perform in a technical application. We had experience with the fabric in canoe packs, totes, etc, but hadn’t yet tried using it for one of our packs with nylon webbing, foam stiffeners, and a nylon liner. Well, we were pleasantly surprised how well everything meshed together, and even more pleased with how it developed patina over time while remaining durable and water resistant. Fast forward a few more years and we now have it available as an option for all our packs in 7 different colors!
In the beginning, we tested some X-pac fabric (VX21, VX15, and a variety of others), and found that while it is lightweight and holds its shape nicely, it had a tendency to delaminate and abrade in areas where it is repeatedly folded and exposed to moisture (we've been told this has since been improved in the manufacturing). This was mostly due to the 3 layer construction of the fabric which uses a nylon face with polyester X-plies and backing. These materials have differing coefficients of expansion when exposed to moisture and varying temperature, leading to an eventual parting of ways from each other. This led us to stick with 1000D Cordura as we found its durability outweighed its small weight penalty.
Dimension Polyant, the manufacturer of X-pac, has been busy designing new fabrics and launched RX30 X-pac a couple years ago, a laminated fabric which uses polyester in all three layers. We got our hands on some and started testing. Lo and behold, we haven’t experienced any delamination issues, and have been really happy with its balance of light weight and durability in our applications. This fabric is also produced using 100% post-consumer recycled polyester and is climate neutral certified to boot. We loved it enough to roll it into our full lineup of packs in 8 different colors. All our fabric color options can be found here.
Here’s a handy reference for selecting a fabric:
