Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Short Review: Great fabric, seems correctly listed. But a cursory initial inspection/comparison which turned up seemingly inferior metal components made me return this pack. Your chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If you are not planning on beating up your gear, this pack may suffice. However, for those who are a bit rougher with their stuff, spend $10.00 more (at the time of this review) and get the real, time tested, tried and true article. Longer review: SO... I have a couple old used USGI ALICE packs lying around. I obviously love them. I came across this listing. 1000D oxford stitched fabric, water proof... maybe it is time to upgrade??? The original USGI Alice packs are... I don't know, 420D? They definitely aren't water proof. They have this "gubmint" rubber thingy underneath the main cover which just cracks away after 30 years... So I decided to take a chance... Unfortunately, I ended up returning this. Here is why: The fabric looks about right. Thick. Stitching was correct. Oxford fabric. NOT exactly waterproof (because of design), but the fabric itself definitely looked like it was. Everything that I was basically looking at? Check. BUT... The metal hardware... When placed next to an actual Alice, they were clearly inferior. The frame itself looked 1/5 of the thickness of my actual pack frames... what the...? All the buckles and clips didn't look or feel "right." The draw cord was, for a lack of a better word, fluffy. Not dense like the real thing. The quick release tabs on the shoulder straps felt flimsy and weak. I'm not sure what these other reviewers are getting. Maybe I got something different as of Sept 26th, 2020. It was like having an A+ fabric, but D- everything else. I had a newer version of the USGI medium molle with the plastic frame for comparison next to it as well, and the medium molle felt noticeably heavier. I didn't weigh it with a scale or anything. Just my arm scales. But being lighter should be a good thing right? Especially for rucking? If you're an actor, sure. But if you actually use your gear, and want it to survive some bumping around? I recommend you just spend that extra $10 dollars (at the time of this review) and get the real thing. Honestly, what good is such awesome fabric etc. if you use weak thread to stitch the whole thing together? I'm not saying that the stitching is weak on this item, but you get the picture. What else did they cut corners on? Who knows. You can't skimp on something like this. Strong fabric but weak hardware is the last thing I want when out in the field. Maybe it is all in my head. Maybe everything this pack is made of is actually better because of new technology. The fabric, the frame... Maybe the frame doesn't have to be made with such thick and heavy aluminum anymore. Maybe I'm just some old veteran that isn't able to accept new advances in technology. Maybe. But for $10 more to get the genuine article? Seems like a no brainer - especially for those of us who have actually served. Because, boy... we really beat the snot out of these packs in the field, especially during basic. And not just us. The guys before us, the guys before them, and the guys after us. You get the picture. Our soldiers demand the most out of our gear while we are out in the field while giving it the least amount of maintenance. We are just too exhausted to gently place our rucks on the ground after a 3 hour, 6.2 km, trip humping 65 pounds in combat boots. Even if we are feeling fancy. So we quick release that baby onto the ground from 3 feet up. Sometimes even when our waist belts are still attached! So does every other soldier. We don't treat that gear like its our baby. We treat it like it's Government Issue! At the end of training, it goes to the next guy down the line because we couldn't break it! For every soldier (or veteran) it is like the best advertising for a product you can ever have. It is probably why old soldiers (turned civilians) will still look to military surplus when we want gear that we know have met some minimum mil-spec. Don't get me wrong. We have failures all the time. We are constantly complaining about how failure prone our G.I. is (especially the E-Tool, which is a baby sized shovel that you have to dig full sized foxholes with). But the truth of the matter? Government doesn't want to keep buying new stuff for the soldiers to break. They want that stuff to last a while. That said, this isn't a bad pack. It is definitely serviceable to some degree. A little overpriced for what it is at over $120.00. I would actually keep it to test out if it was significantly cheaper or if there was nothing else out there. But there is. The genuine article no less. I buy these items with my own pennies. Thank you for reading this far. It couldn't have been easy. But if you got a dry chuckle out of my silly stories, share the love! Hit that "helpful" icon, so I know you're out there! Sorry if this item wasn't for you. Congrats if it was! All in all, stay safe out there!