Was it the outdoor industry pushing a new "technology" with fatter margins? Consumers aspiring to be like those Everest climbers they saw on t.v.? Real consumer demand? I question whether most people really need them. They're not clambering over rocks, climbing steep terrain, using ice axe loops, or in general making use of 75% of the features of internal frame packs. But they do look cooler and they're more expensive so they must be good. Especially those Naos packs. The reason I ask is because of an interesting reader rant a few weeks back on this very subject in the comments section:
I need to vent. Why is it that every time I go into an REI, Sport
Chalet and every other sporting good store that caters to backpackers
that there are 50 internal frame packs and one external frame? Why is
it that the external frame has taken a backseat to internal frame? I am
46 years old and have been backpacking for 35 years ever since the age
of 11 when I joined Boy Scouts. My choice of back pack has always been
Jansport external frame and I used a D3 for 20 years. A few years ago I
let a pimply faced sales rep at a North Face store convince me that an
internal frame was the way to go. I dug into my pockets and gave him
$250 for a Dilligence model. What a mistake. No real side pockets or
easy accces to the inside, so I either have to access everything from
the top down or take everything out and lay it on the ground. It won't
stand up like an external frame so I have to hang it on a tree. My
preferred trails are in the Sierra Nevada and all the trees have sap on
them. As a result, so does my pack.
The first gear company that starts building cool retro externals made of wood, like the old Trapper Nelsons (pictured above), is going to make a mint. Mark my words. Especially since it looks like the trademark expired. Snap it up folks. You read it here first so that means I have prior art damn it. Four percent off the top is all I ask.
