>>1410171>as bad as some people in this thread are trying to make it out to be?The quailty, or lack of, on their duplex is well documented. I have heard less complaints about their packs, however, HMG make much better, and simpler packs in the same price range. I met three people on the AT who had had to repair the wacky frame system on their Arcs.
Zpacks got their name by being one of the first cottage companies to make DCF shelters, the hexamid is (was? Can't see it on their site anymore) an awesome shelter, and the duplex was the lightest two man tent around for a good while. However, they have been pretty much surpased by a whole bunch of other companies now.
>PCT thru hikersthru hiking is a silly niche activity, and what is popular on the AT and PCT isn't the best way to judge the quality of kit. Plus some many people have bought into the idea that thru hiking kit is semi disposable. So they don't really mind that their kit falls apart at the end of the trail. This is partly due to zpacks. Who use the 0.5 DCF on their shelters, while it is strong and super light, it isn't durable at all, so they said they will only gaurentee their kit for one thru hike. But if you look at companies like MLD and HMG they have chosen to use thicker DCF 0.75, or 0.8 it seems to be now. This is much tougher, and only at a very small weight penalty. While this is more realted to shelters rather than packs I feel it speaks volumes of the companies' approaches to building gear.
