Over the past 20+ years, Gossamer Gear has been all about promoting the benefits of lightweight backpacking. We’ve encouraged our audience to take less and do more. Without that extra weight, why not bag one more peak? Without your pack straps digging into your shoulders, why not add a few miles to your day to get to that perfect campsite?

However, after some real soul-searching, we decided that it was time to make a pivot as a company. No more time spent shaving ounces from your pack, or pulling together gear lists from over the years to compare where and why you could’ve gone lighter. No, friends. We’ve realized that what we really want to promote is this simple change: Take more. Do less.

We’re currently in the design process to create the heaviest pack on the market. Once complete, it’ll look like something maybe meant to go mountaineering with (if you’re nuts), but designed for a quick overnight. 

After some in-depth research by performing a quick Google search, we learned that osmium and iridium are the densest metals in the world, so we decided to use these to build all of the zippers on the pack — and we’re talking a lot of zippers. Whereas some may have loved the past simplicity of our Mariposa 60’s light and roomy main compartment, that will now be sectioned off into roughly 10-20 separate storage compartments, each secured with a heavy osmium-iridium-blended zipper. It’s the first of its kind on the market.

(Photo Credit: CC-BY-3.0, Periodictableru

While staring at our kitchen counters, we also came up with the idea to definitely stop production on any of our beloved frameless packs like the Kumo (and the Camo Kumo, which is on sale!), and incorporate a heavy chunk of granite into the back of our packs. These pure granite frames are innovative and sure to weigh you down to the point of thinking, “Ah, screw it, I’m just gonna stay home.”

We hope that by taking more and doing less, our community will come to appreciate the little things in life, like making it all the way from your car in the trailhead’s parking lot to the first trailhead marker before realizing how much your body aches and turning right back around. We want you to appreciate spending 5 hours on the trail just to reach that good enough campsite a tenth of a mile from where you started.

So, dear Gossamer Gear community, we hope you will join us in this exciting next chapter for our company, and take as much as you can and do a whole lot less.

Oh, and happy April Fool’s Day! We’re definitely all still hanging out in our respective homes nerding out about lightweight fabrics and ways to lighten our loads as we longingly stare at maps awaiting our next adventure.

 

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Banner image credit

April 01, 2020 — Korrin Bishop