Help! I Need Help!
503.305.3858 or email.
How do I measure myself for a CiloGear pack?
As we describe on the main website, you want to take a flexible measuring tape and measure from the bump under your neck to the top of your hips. That should do it. If you know your dress shirt size or dress coat size, that can provide more information, but basically the length of your torso is what we need.
Please note: Torso length is not the same as height. Some folks are 5’6″ tall yet have 23″ torsos, while some 6’2″ people have 18″ torsos. That said, if you’ve had a pack before, and you’re not growing, you probably want the same size from us. (Assuming of course that your pack fits!)
You can do a images.google.com search for a picture, try ‘backpack sizing’ and you’ll get a bunch of pictures.
For the 75L, 60L and 45L WorkSacks the sizing is as follows: Small fits from 14.5 to 17.5 inches Medium fits from 17 to 19 inches Large fits from 19 to 25 inches
For the 40L and 40B WorkSacks, sizing is as follows: Small / Medium fits from 14 to 17 inches Medium / Large fits from 17 to 21 inches
The 30L WorkSacks are available with normal length shoulder straps and long shoulder straps. The long shoulder straps fit folks with torso lengths from 20″ to roughly 25″
The 20L pack is one size fits most.
All WorkSacks are the same size regardless of what material they are made from.
What packs need to be seam gripped?
The only packs that need to be seam gripped are our NWD packs: the 20L NWD, 30L NWD, 40B NWD, 45L NWD, 60L NWD and the elusive 75L NWD. Due to the nature of the NWD fabric, reinforcing certain stress points is not only a good idea, it is MANDATORY. It’s also easy!
How do I seam grip my pack?
Please refer to the following videos (vimeo or youtube) for information on seam gripping your NWD pack. If you have questions, email us or call us at 503-305-3858.
Do you ship internationally?
Yes, we can ship internationally pretty much anywhere. We cannot, however, record our packs as “gifts” when filling out customs forms. This is illegal and upsetting the tax man is never a good idea. We don’t know what tariffs may apply for your particular country, but we are pretty sure that the code from the Harmonized Tariff Schedule is 42.02.1209.
If you’re asking us to send $5,000 worth of backpacks to an address in podunk Indonesia we are not going to take you seriously.
Do you do custom work? If so, what services do you offer and how much does it cost?
The short answer: the cost of materials plus $50 an hour for production time and $90 an hour for design and managment time. The minimum starts with two hours of production time and one hour of design / management time.
The long answer: We cut the materials for 100 or more packs at a time. This decreases the amount of time spent cutting each pack while increasing the material yield. The waste on cutting the “J” panels — the colored panel on the standard 30L or the ballistics panel on the Ballistics variant — is less than 2%, but when we cut a J panel by itself, the waste will go up to about 85%. Obviously this drives costs sky high. In about two hours, we can cut all the materials for 100 60L WorkSacks. Part of the price of your new NWD WorkSack is that the materials are so darned expensive that we cut each pack out individually when ordered.
To put this into context with a real example, let’s examine looking at putting a crampon pocket onto a Blue/Grey 45L WorkSack. We aren’t changing anything else on the pack in this example. Everything else is 100% stock. This is custom work, as it demands 3 parts that we don’t generally have at hand. It starts at $190 (2 hours of production time @ $50/hr and 1 hour of management/design @ $90/hr) plus about $100 for the materials for the pack. That’s a total of $290 for a 45L with a crampon pocket, a premium of $55 above the normal 45L price. CiloGear delivers reasonable prices on packs made in Portland, Oregon because we build the same thing again and again and again when you (our beloved customers) order the pack. Is it worth $55 to you? We don’t pretend to know, but we do know it costs us that much to do it.
These prices refer to the relatively simple jobs. Designing a new pack requires at least 60 hours design time and associated production time for making samples.
Please e-mail us if you have any further questions about custom work. We are available to do pack design, visual instructions and production consultation.
When will my pack be done? How long does it take to make my pack? How long does it take to ship my pack?
Our lead time is generally three weeks from when the pack is ordered. We do not stock an inventory of any of our packs, so when you order a pack it is put into the queue to be made. We often update our Twitter feed with information about the current length of the order / production queue. As a small manufacturer, we are vulnerable to the same galactic catastrophes and disasters as everybody else and a whole bunch of other potential disruptive forces. We strive to do our best.
Add another five to six days shipping time (UPS ground) to the East Coast. Count on about four days to California, three days to Idaho, five or six days to the Midwest, and potentially six or seven days to Florida. We can use a faster shipping method, but it will obviously cost you more. We will also ship via USPS.
How do I use the straps that came with my pack?
Any way you want to! Cilo Nation members (now including YOU!) have used the straps to hold up shower heads, serve as laundry lines in Peruvian hotels, guy wires for satellite dishes in Antarctica and many other strange and wonderful uses. The manual is a useful place to start. Please refer to this video for instructions on using your straps. (coming soon)
What is the best way to attach skis to my pack?
That’s a bit of a religious question, isn’t it? Diagonal? Sure. A-Frame? Of course! Something else? Carrying skis on your CiloGear pack is limited only by your imagination. Try the a-frame, the diagonal carry, or whatever else works for you.
