Symbiosis Gear Thinks Women Deserve Better Ultralight Backpacks

When she was thru-hiking the Pacific Crest Path, Sarah Berkeley blew by means of three totally different packs earlier than coming to a realization: ultralight packs are made for males. Just a few years later, when she determined that designing her personal backpack could be simpler than discovering the right match off the shelf, she surveyed a whole bunch of girls about what they needed in a pack. The most typical request was easy: shoulder straps that didn’t squish their chest. At the moment, Berkeley runs Symbiosis Gear, the uncommon woman-owned ultralight model. Her flagship product, the Aspen, is a frameless pack designed to suit girls and femme our bodies.

It’s been a very long time because the days of male-dominated mountain climbing and backpacking. In keeping with the Outside Business Affiliation, there’s a roughly 50/50 cut up between women and men who day hike, and thru-hiker surveys present that girls account for about 30 to 40 p.c of long-distance backpackers. By and enormous, the out of doors trade has change into extra equitable in response. Sizing choices for gear have expanded quickly, and the “pink it and shrink it” pattern that disguised ill-fitting males’s gear as women-specific is giving technique to intentional design.

But when there’s one area of interest of the backpacking world that hasn’t caught up, it’s the ultralight group. The stereotypical ultralighter is younger, male, and white. The overwhelming majority of ultralight manufacturers are based by males. Dimension and match choices for gear nonetheless are likely to replicate that, although there are a couple of exceptions. Manufacturers with girls founders or co-founders embody Toaks, attire maker Alpine Match, and Wild Brush, a one-woman cottage operation that Backpacker profiled in 2024.

There’s nonetheless an extended technique to go. To Berkeley, there’s no clearer instance of this phenomenon than the ultralight backpack. “I believe lots of girls really feel excluded,” she says. “Ultralight packs have been designed by males and made for males.” The result’s a self-fulfilling cycle. Girls say that ultralight gear isn’t designed with them in thoughts, and look elsewhere for gear. Manufacturers, with few female-identifying prospects to cater to, don’t design their merchandise with them in thoughts. With the Aspen, a frameless pack designed from the bottom up solely for ladies, Berkeley hopes to interrupt that cycle.

In designing the pack, Berkeley’s first precedence was to dial-in the shoulder strap system. An S-shaped strap helps to accommodate narrower shoulders whereas additionally offering further room across the chest. S-shaped straps aren’t new, however Berkeley says the curves of the Aspen’s shoulder straps are extra pronounced, and due to this fact a greater match for ladies with bigger busts. An elastic sternum strap with three adjustment factors (two separate daisy chains run your complete size of every strap) ensures the straps match as many physique styles and sizes as doable.

Even with the match found out, Berkeley quickly realized that constructing a model centered on ultralight gear for ladies comes with a giant problem: discovering an viewers.

“I form of had the imaginative and prescient of being the Pa’lante Packs for women,” she says, referencing the cottage pack maker that discovered success by leveraging word-of-mouth amongst thru-hikers and ultralight Reddit posters. “What I realized is that lots of girls aren’t ultralight, and never solely that, they’re delay by the label. Once I talked about making ultralight packs, I encountered some resistance that I didn’t know was there.”

Despite the fact that she considers herself an ultralighter, she didn’t assume she’d win over the viewers she wanted to achieve by specializing in ounce-cutting options and high-tech materials. Nor did she count on the ultralight group—very on-line and really male—to supply the form of grassroots hype-building that different ultralight manufacturers profit from.

As a substitute, she’s taken a special method. For one, her messaging to potential prospects revolves round simplicity, minimalism, and luxury, slightly than “going ultralight.” Due to that, she’s already attracting a wider buyer base—not simply ultralighters and thru-hikers, however day hikers, peak-baggers, and vacationers. She’s additionally upending the direct-to-consumer gross sales mannequin that the majority ultralight manufacturers favor to remain lean and improve margins, and looking for wholesalers and retailers. Despite the fact that Symbiosis Gear’s gross sales at the moment quantity within the a whole bunch, slightly than the 1000’s, the Aspen is already out there in 16 retail shops within the US. Compared, ultralight mainstay ULA lists simply 12 US retailers for its merchandise. Most fledgling ultralight manufacturers decide out of the retail aspect altogether.

The design of the Aspen itself additionally displays Berkeley’s seek for wider attraction. At 25 ounces, it’s pretty stout for an ultralight pack, with 420-denier Extreema nylon used all through. There’s additionally a full mesh again panel and a UHMWPE mesh entrance pocket, which add weight but in addition sturdiness and luxury. Additional gear loops, a stretch backside pocket, and outsized aspect pockets are designed to make the Aspen as versatile as doable.

This 12 months, Berkeley is concentrated on increasing the product line. Upcoming releases embody a bigger, framed pack and extra sizing choices for the Aspen. The newest drop is a mix hipbelt pocket/sling bag that she has christened the Huckleberry. Lengthy-term, Berkeley isn’t completely positive the place the model is heading. Double down on ultralight packs? Or embrace a wider viewers with extra conventional gear?

“I’m constructing this very organically and seeing how individuals reply,” Berkeley says. “No matter comes subsequent, it begins by listening to girls.”