Birth of the Modern Hiking Pack

Kelly Bastone, reporting for Outside Magazine, brings to light the story of Violet “Nena” Kelty and Asher “Dick” Kelty, progenitors of the modern hiking backpack.

Interesting to note that the almighty hip belt, to assist in distributing the load of a pack directly to the legs rather than through the spinal column, came about after a friend of theirs mentioned how much easier they found it to carry the backpack with its aluminum frame tucked into their back pockets.