Mystery Ranch has been teasing the first of three drops called BZN Special Blend. I present the first, the BZN Special Blend 001 Summit 26 – Black & Orange which is based on a classic Kletterwerks design with a touch of the Ranch thrown in for good measure.
The name itself is pretty cool. About 15 years ago Mystery Ranch created a pack for Navy SEALs called “Dana’s Special Blend.” These fully featured expedition packs are still sought after by military personnel and hikers alike, demanding top dollar. The BZN in the name obviously refers to Bozeman, the town Dana Gleason chose to set down roots as he wandered across country, working his way west from Massachusetts in various outdoor stores. It’s also where these packs are made; right at home in the mothership.
The pack lives up to the name in its basic coolness. It goes way beyond the fact that there are only going to be 250 of these on the street.
The 26 Liter Summit 26 is perfect for running around town. It features a large zippered panel loading pocket with an internal padded laptop sleeve. For those of you who are a bit more adventurous, there’s an internal toggle to hang your hydration reservoir. There’s also a Velcro pile field on the inside of the panel flap to attach your favorite accessories.
There are a couple of rows of low profile PALS webbing at each side of the bag along with bar tacked webbing down the front of the panel flap, to strap extras on. There’s also a vertically zippered pocket on the panel flap for those items you need to access quickly and it’s furnished with dual webbing haul handles at the top. It’s very well set up for travel and commuting.
A final note…the zippers. These aren’t just any old zippers. These are YKK IR-compliant zippers. I’d expect nothing less from Mystery Ranch, the entire pack is well made and from the highest quality materials.
Launching 1 March, 2022.
Keep checking www.mysteryranch.com/BZNBuilt which should go live soon with additional info.
“Designed, developed and made in America”. That’s excellent, but that seems to be the whole pitch. There’s clearly a lot of thought and design work put into their .mil and wildland fire/SAR lines, but the commercial stuff, this included, comes off kind of half baked. The selling points are that it’s 100% American and that there are only 250… Their talents are far better spent on their technical/professional line. The world has enough “Running around town” bags.
Absolutely nobody cares what you don’t want to buy. As much as you Pooh-Pooh American made, these will be gone in minutes. They are very well made bags from a great company.
American made is a good thing. I’m not disputing that, in case you misunderstood. It’s pretty much a given with MR that the workmanship is great. The shortcoming is the basic Jansport meets Blackhawk design, and the self imposed scarcity to add some shine to a product release. If “gone in minutes” was the metric used to measure how good a product is, Forward Observations Group and SupDef would be considered industry leaders.
You came on real strong about how you didn’t like this and now that it’s been pointed out to you that no one cares, you want to try keep talking about it? You aren’t going to dissuade someone who wants to buy it from doing so.
However, I’ll point out some stuff for you since you said a few more goofy things.
I realize reading is fundamental, but I guess you failed to pick up on the fact that is modernized version of a classic Kletterwerks pack which harkens back to the 70s. Lots of people like the simple design. That’s why it sells every time they make it. To beat the dead horse, they don’t care that you don’t like it. Not MR nor the people who buy them.
As for those companies you mentioned. They are well known but one major issue is that they don’t make enough to capitalize on “gone in minutes.”
Is the flag on the right-hand side?
Depends on your point of view
Be great if they knew how to honor the flag and present it properly..
Great gear, no slight on it. Just a Flag Etiquette. Regardless of what side it’s on. If the flag is hanging vertically as displayed, the field of stars is located in the upper left. The flying while assaulting forward does not apply to hanging vertically. Amature move to just rotate. Please fix. Simple none Vet mistake, but should be corrected. great gear.
Jumps out at you. At first I thought it might be a “sign of distress”.
Error you wouldn’t think you’d get from MR.
I love reading about new products especially from trusted brands. Thank you for highlighting MR. I have one of their bags, granted don’t have that much experience, but the quality and usefulness is beyond great. Not knowledgeable about the flag comments but will research and educate myself, posts here are always helpful.
I’m selling my Summit 26 unused.
https://www.at-ease-shop.com