The world’s only packable daypack
Correction: In this text, I referred to someone as “a friend of a friend.” They have notified me that they are, in fact, a friend, one that is both actual & direct.
This publication deeply regrets the error.
We must now mortifyingly, balefully look towards the tactical. Within the broader genre of carry there is a whole aesthetic of rugged-dude mil-spec, hauling 45lb plates up a mountain through a pile of MOLLE webbing and hunting knives. 2% is usually donated to our newly defunded veterans; fine. It is always, always men.
I apologize on behalf of society for this. Ruggedization takes many forms, and one of them involves, apparently, making you into a blasted-out family protector. Here, then, is your diaper bag, your overbuilt pack, your batteries & blades & flints. And sometimes, like a stopped clock, they get it right, and there is no peer. That’s where the Triple Aught Design Azimuth comes in, which remains, as of press time, the world’s only packable daypack.
Usually, TAD drops batches a few times every year, and they sell out within an hour or two. There are back-in-stock notifications, mercifully. Sometimes, stockists carry it, but you can’t really count on that. eBay is a safer bet. In short, it is basically never in stock. It’s not even listed on TAD’s website as of press time, even though a few were put up for sale last week. (This link goes to a 404 and should not. The duffel remains in stock, but the backpack is what we’re here for.)
Other people love the Azimuth; I am not new here. What is new is that I managed to score an Azimuth three months ago, and I took it on five days through Joshua Tree and 2.5 weeks in Japan.
It is the only packable daypack. It is not the best packable daypack; it is the only packable daypack. It is so good that it renders all oncomers irrelevant, even those that are from established brands or cool-kid hype. This is because it is a packable daypack that is like no other packable daypack: made of good fabric, with good zippers, packable & rollable, with adjustable straps that are sufficiently padded to take load, but not so overpadded that they render the rest of the piece unpackable. Mesh, that gram-shaver that inevitably results in structural failure, is a fake idea with the Azimuth. In its place: all of the fabrics that make a bombproof pack that way, with a focus on X-Pac. A sternum strap exists. An escape pocket. A top loop for hanging. Bladder hose routing. Carabiner loops. An accessory pocket. A side water bottle pocket that does not instantly reject any bottle you throw in there.
Generously sized, it has a tare weight of 363g, which you could shave if you wanted, but you don’t want to. It feels like nothing when you’re on trip, and that’s worth something, an impossible wonder, something that just straight-up refuses to fail you.
Perhaps the scarcity is enough; perhaps the price is at the right point; perhaps Triple Aught doesn’t want to become known as the brand that makes only packable daypacks. This bears out in the rest of the brand which, again, is tactical in a way that makes one have to apologize for being tactical. Mercifully, the Azimuth doesn’t scan tactical, other than being black. No added straps or webbing, no overbuilding, no excessive pocketing, no other trappings of the ultra-rugged.
There is, of course, no real story when something performs well & quietly. You have to search for the reasons. Ultimately, the Azimuth manages the stuff-to-function tradeoff better than any other packable daypack.
But there’s one more story. The top is rollable, somewhat, with a zipper for the main compartment and two D-clips that pull it down and to the sides. In practice, these, when fastened, act as two separate handles, helping you to pick up the bag when on the go – which you are, often, in a place like Japan.
The fiftieth time you find yourself doing this, you notice it. You recognize an invisible affordance when you experience one. And then you step back and write some text about it.