Proll shift was the term coined in a book I read many years ago that related to the demise of specialise fittings to the demand of one size fits all approach adopted by USA mass marketers to make their life easier. The stand out symbol was the baseball cap with the adjustable head size. In the past caps came in many sizes but now you have one size fits all.
As me being me I like to rally against such things and appreciate when a manufacturer has a wide range of fittings. Stand outs are One Planet with their packs having many harness sizes and strap lengths, along with Western Mountaineering having sleeping bags all the way up to seven foot. This means taller, shorter, smaller, wider, etc, people have some chance with such firms to get a size that best fits them. Scarpa are one of the few brands that go up to size 50 Euro. Sadly with bushwalking clothing long and short fittings are near impossible to find in nearly any brand.
I am venturing into a lighter weight pack and not that familiar with what is out there decided that a Alpine Lowe Nano is the go as it is about as light and small as I am willing to go plus was liked by a fellow walker that has been nibbling away at lighter loads for sometime using what I consider is a sensible approach to weight, cost and functionality. It has the street cred of Dyneema and reputable brand name with good raps about quality. More importantly it comes in XL fittings, or sadly did. The XL fitting is now defunct on the 2012 version and the small back version never was. Sure it has an adjustable back of sorts but as most people outside standard sizing know, this is not enough. Very annoying that a firm that sells wordwide has walked away from many potential customers for the ease to themselves that one size fits all.
Anyway as luck would have it an Australia mail order house was clearing out the 2011 Lowe range and an XL came on chuck-out special with nix for freight cost
So stand by for a mini review when I have had a look at it. But I just wish that more firms would understand that with many things, one size does not fit all.Cheers
