Evolved Supply Co. The Ranger Backpack Review

Evolved Supply Co. has recently released their first backpack named “The Ranger”. This pack was purchased directly from their website on December 8th about two hours after the pack was announced. I finally received the pack on March 3rd and have taken it on multiple overnight trips to test it as the pack I’ll be carrying on my upcoming 2023 PCT attempt.

This pack will be replacing my tried and true Dandee The Standard pack as I needed a pack with a bit more room and most importantly, a Y strap to carry a bear can in the Sierra. This pack is extremely similar to the Dandee in so many ways and that really was the deciding factor on me picking it up for the PCT. My original plan was to have Dan over at Dandee make me a custom 43 liter pack in Ecopak with a Y strap, load lifters, and Venom mesh, but he was absolutely swamped with orders back in November and wouldn’t have had time to get mine finished before my PCT start date in late March. I was contemplating making DIY modifications to my Dandee pack as a last ditch effort prior to the start of my thru when lo and behold, Darwin released the video for his new backpack and it had every single feature I was looking for.

The Ranger is a 40 liter (Including pockets) frameless backpack weighing in at 21 ounces with all accessories, or 16 ounces when stripped down. The Ranger’s body is built out of an Ecopak EPLX 200 fabric that is constructed of recycled plastic water bottles. What’s great about this, is the plastic nature of the fabric along with the laminated and seam taped interior makes it extremely water resistant; much more so than your standard taped seam EcoPack. The pack does have a firm plastic-like feel to it that took a bit of getting used to, but it feels much more durable and even thicker than regular Ecopak backpacks I have owned in the past. The large front mesh pocket and bottom pocket is made of Venom dyneema reinforced ripstop mesh. I was super excited to see this pack featuring this material, as Dandee has been incorporating it into many of his custom packs and I’ve heard nothing but good things about this fabric. It’s much firmer than your standard stretch mesh, but feels so much more durable and doesn’t get those ugly hang tag loops when the fabric catches on branches and thorns. The “complete” option for the pack comes with two removable shoulder pockets, a thick padded hip belt, Y strap, and a nylofume pack liner. I have stripped the pack down a bit by using my Gossamer Gear hip belt as it is both lighter and has pockets to hold items I need access to while I hike. I personally can’t hike without hipbelt pockets as I keep my sunscreen, chapstick, and snacks in the easy to reach hipbelt pockets and it feels so odd to have a belt with no storage available. I really wish The Ranger included hipbelt pockets, but I’m not complaining as I love my Gossamer Gear hipbelt and it takes seconds to swap them over to the new pack with the releasable clips. The load lifters on this pack make a seriously noticeable difference in how the pack carries compared to my Dandee Standard. Regardless of how tall you have the backpack packed, the load lifters do a fantastic job of arching the pack to the contours of your spine and shoulders. This was always something I struggled with in other packs without load lifters as there was always a large gap between the back of my shoulders and the back of the pack. It always felt like the pack was not hugging my back the way it should and I’m never going back to a pack without them.

There were a few little quirks with this new pack and I took it upon myself to modify them to suit my needs. I wasn’t a fan of the non-stretchable paracord side compression straps so I replaced them with 2mm shock cord. I also sewed 2mm cord and a hook bungee toggle to the top of the mesh pocket to strap my ice axe or trekking poles when using the ice axe loop. I stole this idea from my Dandee pack, as it’s always been one of my favorite features. It holds your poles straight against the pack rather than having them attach horizontally to a side compression strap. The hook on the toggle makes removing and attaching your poles extremely quick and I’m glad I was able to easily add this feature to the pack. Oh yeah, and I also sewed a sweet frog patch to the bottom left of the mesh pocket for a bit of fun.

I am absolutely loving this pack so far and I can’t wait to bring it on the PCT. It really is the best pack I’ve used and I hope to get many years of use out of it as it genuinely is the jack of all trades backpack I’ve been looking for.