I have been looking for a new daypack—just something to carry 15–25 pounds/7–11 kilos, not something for trekking the Karakoram—and have found that most all of the options that would max out at that capacity include a waist or hip belt as part of their design. That’s an annoyance to me for matters of both fit (I have a short torso so almost all of the daypacks with belts end up not grabbing my shoulders when the belt is fastened) and function (I like the option to put some kit on my belt).

Anyways, this isn’t meant to be a post about my adventures in retail so much as it is meant to elicit information about the history of gear design. Does anyone on the forum who has spent a long time soldiering and/or generally spending lots of time in the outdoors care to comment on the different packs they have used through the years? Specifically, whether they have always featured waist or hip belts? At the capacity I am looking for they seem completely unnecessary so I have a hard time believing they’ve always been so prevalent on small packs.