>>2577305Osprey lost several member of their design team in 2018 or 2019. Supposedly it was political, which would t surprise me as the design team is made up of competent men and Osprey is a “woke” company. But these rumors are always from my dad who works at Nintendo.
I looked at the latest Exos and was severely disappointed, so I absolutely believe people left. I mean we can hate Osprey for encouraging teenaged girls to chop their tots off and believing that men can be married to one another via the anus, but they made really nice packs for their designed purpose.
I’ve been using different models of Exos since the first one was released in 2009. I found it to hit the perfect balance of weight, comfort, features, and durability for what I was doing.
I stopped into a local outfitter to take a look since my 2014 model is starting to delaminate. The 2022 model is the fourth iteration of the Exos. Someone decided to run the side compression straps over the side pockets.
A lot of Osprey packs have front access in their side pockets, allowing you to easily take a water bottle in and out of the pocket without removing the strap. This feature is negated if the contents are being squeezed tightly by a compression strap. There’s literally no reason for the front access. It’s a major design flaw.
On the previous three models there’s a tiny slot in the side pocket that lets you run the compression strap under the pocket. It’s a very simple solution that was left out, ostensibly because the design team is clueless. Without this little feature, the side pockets lose a lot of their utility, which the front access loses all of its utility.
Think about that. The pack has a feature that’s rendered completely useless due to a design flaw. How did that pass testing?
It also shows Osprey is just coasting on name recognition and fanbase. This kind of mistake is kind of insane when you step back and really think about it.
