The Gossamer Gear Loris 25 is a frameless daypack with vest-style shoulder straps with stretch mesh pockets. Weighing 19.5 oz, it’s a great pack for day hikes and travel with a front zipper that lets you access the content of the main compartment without having to undo the top lid. The Loris 25 also sports all the other features that Gossamer gear packs are known for, including a sit pad, front stretch mesh pocket, and side bottle pockets.
- Weight: 19.5 oz
- Volume 25 liters
- Gender: Unisex
- Pockets: 5 + main
- Hydration Compatible: Yes (center port, hang loop and sleeve)
- Laptop Sleeve: (hydration pocket)
- Hipbelt: Optional Fast-Belt Add on
- Ice Axe Loop: Yes
- Trekking Pole Holders: Yes
- Materials: 70D Recycled Robic Nylon
- Maximum recommended load: 20 lbs
- Sizing: One size
- Rain Cover: No
- Pros: Easy zippered access to contents, sit pad, vest-style straps w/pockets
- Cons: No key fob, pack lacks structure and is floppy with small loads
Backpack Storage and Organization
The Gossamer Gear Loris 25 has vest-style shoulder straps that are slightly wider than regular daypack shoulder straps and position the pack higher on the torso. The straps have stretch mesh pockets outside, making it easy to carry a smartphone or snacks within easy reach. However, these pockets are too snug to carry non-rigid 500 ml water bottles conveniently, and you’re better off using a hydration system or carrying water bottles in the side mesh pockets, which can hold one 32 oz bottled water bottle or a Nalgene.
The Loris 25 has a tall extension collar that folds over the top of the main compartment and attaches to straps on the front of the pack. It is identical to the top closure found on other Gossamer Gear packs with one important difference: the addition of a long front zipper that allows panel-style access to the main compartment without undoing the fold over top. This is a great feature on a day pack since day hikers typically access the contents of their main compartment more frequently and because daypacks have less open external storage volume than multi-day backpacks. We’d love to see the same front zipper added to Gossamer Gear’s larger volume backpacks so you don’t have to unpack the entire pack to find items deep inside.
The outside of the extension collar has a zippered map pocket. It folds over the extension collar, which is gathered at the top with a small clip, which, when undone, lets you load and unload the pack from the top like a regular top loader. There’s also a second, quite large zippered pocket inside the backpack, layered on top of the internal hydration sleeve, that can be used to store valuables or a small notebook (the hydration sleeve can also be used to hold a laptop.)
The Loris 25 has a stretch front mesh pocket and side bottle pockets made with the same durable mesh as the vest pockets. The mesh is too tightly woven to see whether the contents haven’t fallen out, but it is also unlikely to snag on passing vegetation.
A seat pad is included with the pack and fits into mesh sleeves behind the shoulder straps. It’s easy to pull out and reinsert when you want a warm or dry place to sit during breaks. While it does provide some padding so the pack’s contents don’t poke you in the back, it doesn’t prevent the pack from barrelling if you try to overstuff it. When that happens, it’s best to reorganize the gear inside to make it as “thin” as possible, for example, folding fleece pullovers instead of stuffing them in the pack as a big ball. This is one of the advantages of a daypack with a metal or more rigid frame instead of a frameless daypack that lacks structure.
The Loris has a pair of trekking pole top holders, so you can carry your poles when not needed. The pole tips slot into cords at the base of the pack but shaft holders are not provided to secure the tops of the poles. While the pack has one tier of compression straps on the sides, these are positioned too low to hold the poles. While there are webbing loops higher up the sides of the pack where you could attach the cord to secure the tops of the poles, it’d be nice if Gossamer Gear included elastic shaft keepers with the pack like other backpack manufacturers. Such shaft holders could also secure an ice axe with the ice axe loop also provided with the pack.
Backpack Carry
So, what does it feel like to carry the Loris 25L with vest-style straps? For one, the center of gravity is higher up your back than on a regular daypack, where the center of gravity is closer to your waist and hipbelt area.
The pack weight is also more evenly distributed across your shoulders and upper chest instead of riding almost exclusively on your shoulders, like on a frameless pack with regular shoulder straps. While you’d expect the straps to pull your shoulders back and open your chest, the opposite is true, with your shoulders rounding forward to compensate and help maintain your forward momentum. Both our testers noticed this on longer hikes but much less so when using the pack casually around town or for traveling.
Our gear testers also noticed discomfort when using the Loris’ vest pockets with bear spray canisters with rubbing along the inner arms despite having an adjustable torso strap. We view this as a sizing issue, which is less pronounced for people that have longer torsos where the shoulder straps ride higher up: the workaround is to keep smaller objects in the pockets, like snacks or a smartphone, rather than higher volume items. But it raises a nagging issue that we’ve experienced with other backpacks having vest-style shoulder straps: the issue of sizing recommendations, which the Loris 25L specifications lack, particularly since torso length is not a reliable sizing factor for a pack without a hipbelt that is designed to ride higher on the torso.
Comparable Vest-Style Packs
Recommendation
The Gossamer Gear Loris 25L is a frameless daypack with vest-style straps and an integrated sit pad best used for day hikes, commuting, and traveling. While it shares much of the DNA as Gossamer Gear’s other backpacks, zipper access to the main compartment, an internal zippered pocket, and vest-style straps with mesh pockets make it much more suitable for day-hiker use than the company’s multi-day backpacks. If you want a multi-use daypack that is optimized for more frequent access to internal closed storage, the Loris breaks new ground and is an exciting option for Gossamer Gear customers, both old and new.
Disclosure: Gossamer Gear donated a pack for review.
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