cilogear makes packs

There is no good way to put this. CiloGear is scrambling…

All weekend, I’ve written and rewritten variants of this post, coming at it from different angles and divergent viewpoints. I can’t come up with the words to possibly explain what we’ve been going through down here. The QA process was a joke; details on that to follow, but first a brief explanation of it all after the break.

We had to fix every single pack in this shipment. Out of 280 plus kilograms of backpacks, none of which weigh more than 1100 grams, every single pack had to be fixed in one way or another. Some packs required a few additional bartacks, some packs had to be largely taken apart and rebuilt. We’ve been at it since the shipment came in, and we’ve been working about 10 hours a day, seven days a week to get it done. We are very very close to done with it all now…

Right now, something close to chaos rules our office and workspaces. From the entry to the hallway to the office, the cutting room and the webbing cutting area, everything is bordering on total chaos. Some pictures follow to illustrate what I’m talking about. Please keep in mind in the following pictures that EVERY single thing in the pictures except the some of the pictures, the tables and the computer screens moved at least twice in the past 72 hours, and at least six times in the past two weeks…

The entry way. Packs going out, boxes, old packs that need to find a home…

The hall mess. In front, 75L packs that are next to get fixed. Then lids that are getting fixed as I type. Then repairs that need to get finished.

Fixing some straps that weren’t made properly:

Dyneema packs that are getting finished today on top of the shelf in the background. 20L packs underneath them that are fixed and flying out the door. We’re making more red 20Ls here in Brooklyn next week. Under the 20Ls are 45L packs waiting to get fixed. Finally, there is a pile of fixed 30L and 75L packs. In the foreground are 50 fixed 45L packs and 25 fixed 75L packs.

I’ve run out of words…