Crumpler’s Country Mile Range
Crumpler heads outdoors with a new range of technical packs.
(This story originally featured in Wild #178, Summer 2020)
After 25 years, Crumpler is moving. Moving into the outdoors, that is. Ever since being founded in Melbourne in 1995—initially growing in prominence as a maker of convenient yet bombproof messenger bags for cycle couriers who zipped around the city’s streets and laneways—Crumpler’s focus has been on hard goods for commuting and travel in primarily urban environments.
Now, however, the company is broadening its horizons. In November 2020, it launched its Country Mile range. While the company has previously offered products with crossover use from urban travel into the outdoors, this new range is the first specifically designed for adventure, and it contains the company’s most technical packs ever.
Crumpler’s Dusty Trail 30L pack
The collection has four elements. There are two daypacks—the 30L Dusty Trail and the 20L Beaten Track—along with the Cross Road 2L waist pack, and the 4L Cliff Hanger, which Crumpler describes as a ‘multi purpose bucket bag’ but actually resembles an climber’s oversized chalk bag. In fact, in some ways, the whole series seems retro-climbing inspired, aesthetically at least, but what’s also noticeable is that the products, for all their toughness and features, are surprisingly lightweight. The 30L Dusty Trail—despite the robust hipbelt and heavy-duty rip stop nylon—weighs just 1,250g, on par with most other purely outdoors focussed packs around this size. But that’s before you take out the laptop sleeve and removable frame; lose those, and we weighed the pack at a svelte 1,070g.
Crumpler’s Cliff Hanger ‘multi-purpose bag’
Compression straps, an aluminium suspended frame, water resistant fabrics, breathable shoulder straps and heavy-duty YKK zips all point to the two packs’ adventure focus. That said, the range doesn’t scream ‘outdoors’; it looks surprisingly at home in urban environments. “We are, after all, a metropolitan brand that was born in the city,” says Valeria Fioretti, Head of Design at Crumpler. But this carries past aesthetics. “That everything is friendly and handy is in our design bible,” says Fioretti. And it shows; the Dusty Trail, for instance, has ten storage zones aimed at easy organisation for travel or commutes. Still, don’t let that fool you—this pack, and the whole range—is squarely designed for adventure.
For more info, go to: Crumpler.com