
35 Years of Helping Paddlers Discover the Joys of Portaging
We’ve been canoe tripping with our families since we were kids. And got so fed up with uncomfortable canoe packs and nasty barrel harnesses that Bill just had to design a solution.
He first looked to backpack designs for inspiration. The result was:
- the first-ever internal frame portage pack. (So impressive with heavy loads.)
- the first barrel harness with a contoured foam back pad and Upper Adjustment. (Game changer!)
- and the first to offer custom-fit … because carrying 50+ lbs in a one-size-fits-all pack is unnecessarily painful.
“It was a blast being the lead designer for the Canadian Armed Forces Rucksack and Small Pack
System. We used scientific research and field testing to fully understand how pack design impacts load carriage, load control and weight transfer. It dramatically changed my approach to design. Custom-sizing does matter.” Bill Ostrom
