I truly wish my lifestyle would justify the purchase of one of these, but short of storing some extra batteries that wouldn’t fit in the fridge, I’m pretty much at a loss as to what to do with them…
Here’s what i could find, note website listed as Northpoleltd is for sale and the US 800 numb is for an investment firm. But at least we get some history of the alpine design.
Backstory
Most recently, the name “Alpine Design” has been used by The Sports Authority for its house-brand camping gear. Sports Authority Alpine Design tents are manufactured by NorthPole USA. Other Alpine Design products made be made by other companies.
Originally, Alpine Design of Boulder, Colo., was named Alp Sport, which was founded by George Lamb in the 1960s. Lamb sold Alpine Design to General Recreation, Inc. of Ithaca, N.Y., took a break, then created his final outdoor company, Camp 7. Lamb was known for his innovative sleeping bag designs.
NorthPole, a multinational company based in Hong Kong, is the largest tent manufacturer in the world.
Consumer service lines:
(800) 775-1965
(800) 449-9015
(800) 366-1599 (U.S.)= Number is for some investment co.
(800) 625-8772 (Canada)
fax: (636) 390-5798
Business Hours:
Monday-Friday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central Standard Time
(allow 24-48 hours for a response during the summer season)
U.S. address:
NorthPole USA
23 Town and Country Drive
Washington, MO 63090
Customer Service:
NorthPole manufactures tents for a variety of brands. However, not every tent sold under the brands below is made by NorthPole. If a tent is a NorthPole tent, its manual, tag on the inside of the tent, and carry bag will indicate it is a NorthPole product.
Tent brands currently manufactured and supported by NorthPole include:
Alpine Design
Broadstone (Canada)
Cabela’s
Embark
Field & Stream (Dick’s Sporting Goods)
Gander Mountain
Glacier’s Edge
Guide Series
High Sierra
Magellan (Academy)
NCAA
North Crest
Northpoint
Outdoor Spirit
Susan Komen
Tailgate Gear
Terra Gear (Canada)
Wilderness Gear
X-Treme
Please note: In many cases, NorthPole is not the only manufacturer that produced and/or still produces gear under these names. NorthPole can only provide customer service for tents that are NorthPole products (look on your tent’s manual, tag on the inside of the tent, and/or carry bag for information)
Hope this helps you decide how to carry your candy corn.
@dtwsportsfan Of course, keep it mind that ALL the Sports Authority stores are now closed… their “intellectual property” was bought by Dicks Sporting Goods.
@chienfou Back in the early days of the Internet my sister was looking for some sports gear for her son and decided to look at prices on Dicks.com… needless to say, that was not the type of gear she was searching for . (Dicks sporting goods has since obtained that domain and it now redirects to their site.)
@sanman9781 One of my biggest problems with buying a backpack ‘sight unseen’ (i.e. on-line) is that the dimensions are sort of like the lumen counts for light bulbs and seem to totally arbitrary. Doing the math above, the 30L is only about 15% bigger than the 20L. Which begs the question, are the above dimensions wrong, or are the packs so weirdly rounded as to make the numbers useless for comparison?
(and don’t even get me started on whether they are actually anywhere near 20L and 30L volumes…)
The volume capacity is probably akin to refrigerator, car interior, or trunk space volume measurements - fill it to every single nook and cranny and that’s its volume. Actual usable space is a different story, of course.
Alpine Designs used to be a premium brand many years ago (I used to take people camping, etc. for a living). The guy who founded this company, sold it, founded Camp 7, I believe sold that… I recall that they went downhill some after they were sold. I wouldn’t necessarily trust the backpacking one on a long trip until you have tested it on a weekend trip to see if it is comfortable or not. That it is adjustable is a plus, although usually the better brands also make several sizes and then they are adjustable within each size.
A good backpacking one is several hundred dollars so this is a bargain in comparison, presuming you find it comfortable - and comfort can vary by the amount of junk you put in it (thus the weight and how you distribute it). I wouldn’t buy the backpacking one for a kid unless said kid is at least around 5’2" simply because last I knew usually backpacks for “adults” presume you are at least that tall and they make a scaled down one for kids (and adults shorter than that - in which case you win as they are cheaper but not “cheapened”). On the other hand if the kid is only hiking a couple of miles it is likely irrelevant unless they are a lot shorter.
One mistake people make is thinking, well I’ll only use it to backpack once a year so a cheap one is fine. The draw back is that the expensive ones are generally more comfortable and that does make a difference in the pleasure you can have on a trip due to comfort. Looking at the pictures I’d suspect this is not a bottom of the barrel one, but it isn’t a top of the line one either. For the price it is better than what you could buy at a Walmart equivalent type store. And if you hate it you likely could resell it (and break even) on craigslist to a family with kids who are scouts.
Now you need to sell me 50-100 lbs. of candy corn so I can pack it into my new 65L+10L backpack and carry it around to lose weight, only to gain it back from eating the candy corn on a later date.
Like @shahnm my couch potato life can’t justify the backpacks, but I’m really digging the 252141 Sword Girl shirt (although not at that ridiculous $78.37 Rakuten wants for it)
@123abc988 The design is pretty, but the Engrish is pretty hilarious:
“Dry cleaning is not. Weakly bounded if the hand wringing.”
“The material is knitted ribbing of the 100% cotton. And lumpy dough
texture of the yarn that surfaced in the It is feeling like a
washed-out a rough-hewn atmosphere with a rough texture and fabric.”
“In the dough one wash process, expresses the vintage.”
“Switch to the fly SLIB collar We have sewn Twill cloth tape on the
inside of the neck the collar to prevent.”
“Prints are usually printed and”
“It is a cool sword daughter short T shirt. Is featured in the biker
riders.”
@123abc988 given the pretty specific and fairly limited washing instructions, the price seems justified. This isn’t for some fly by night wash everything in hot type - you need to be committed to hand washing as “Washing machine is not available” and then, make sure to “Please hanging dry in the shade”.
Will keep buying this crap until MEH takes “unsure” out of my profile…and besides, I missed the small backpack a few weeks ago. In for the 20L…EDIT:…It worked, lol…I am now a casual acquaintance…YAY!
C’mon! The blurb on my email reminder this morning mentions, “Run To The Hills”…Tell me I’m not the only one who thought, "What are Iron Maiden doing on Meh.com?"
These look pretty sweet! I already have a 55L pack, which is enough for the Cub Scout trips I take my son on… but the 20L might be nice… is it actually a size of pack that an adult might wear? What is the use-case for it?
Sweet! I had been planning to get something like the 65L for a trip to Kenya. And I won’t be sad if it gets abused being squished in and out of tiny bush planes. Thanks!
/giphy glass-mundane-pixie
Does anyone know if the nylon material that these are made of is pretty substantial, rather than flimsy? Also, is the material the same nylon for all three? tia
So, @skemmehs , if you don’t mind me asking, what takes you to Hong Kong? Do Meh buyers travel the globe searching for great deals, or are you a remote employee? I certainly hope it’s the former, but I’m impressed either way!
Just received the 20L one. Its very light, not much padding, but is good enough for overnight. Hubby was pleased and tried to put the toddler in it. Luckily she’s smarter than he is.
Yes, Finally a place to store all of my candy corn.
I truly wish my lifestyle would justify the purchase of one of these, but short of storing some extra batteries that wouldn’t fit in the fridge, I’m pretty much at a loss as to what to do with them…
/giphy couch potato
Timely:
Oh, this is the most clunky of link handlers…
@uncleop for future reference we have our own xkcd embed, so you can just paste the comic url in:
@dave @shawn
Of course, even that’s not completely satisfactory, because it doesn’t allow one to see the extra text like how it can be done from the site.
On the other hand, it IS a mediocre compromise…
@schuette I thought we pulled in the tooltip. Let’s make @PlacidPenguin fix it if they want that: https://github.com/mediocre/mehdown/blob/master/lib/plugins/xkcd.js
@shawn
@PlacidPenguin doesn’t get paid enough to fix mediocre code.
Nice sacks.
Fingers crossed for an ice axe tomorrow.
@russellwilde In for two!
/image ice axe
@ruouttaurmind wonder how Trotsky feels about these things…
Here’s what i could find, note website listed as Northpoleltd is for sale and the US 800 numb is for an investment firm. But at least we get some history of the alpine design.
Backstory
Most recently, the name “Alpine Design” has been used by The Sports Authority for its house-brand camping gear. Sports Authority Alpine Design tents are manufactured by NorthPole USA. Other Alpine Design products made be made by other companies.
Originally, Alpine Design of Boulder, Colo., was named Alp Sport, which was founded by George Lamb in the 1960s. Lamb sold Alpine Design to General Recreation, Inc. of Ithaca, N.Y., took a break, then created his final outdoor company, Camp 7. Lamb was known for his innovative sleeping bag designs.
NorthPole, a multinational company based in Hong Kong, is the largest tent manufacturer in the world.
Consumer service lines:
(800) 775-1965
(800) 449-9015
(800) 366-1599 (U.S.)= Number is for some investment co.
(800) 625-8772 (Canada)
fax: (636) 390-5798
website: www.northpoleltd.com
(Note: when I tried the website it stated it was for sale)
email: consumer@northpoleusa.com
Business Hours:
Monday-Friday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central Standard Time
(allow 24-48 hours for a response during the summer season)
U.S. address:
NorthPole USA
23 Town and Country Drive
Washington, MO 63090
Customer Service:
NorthPole manufactures tents for a variety of brands. However, not every tent sold under the brands below is made by NorthPole. If a tent is a NorthPole tent, its manual, tag on the inside of the tent, and carry bag will indicate it is a NorthPole product.
Tent brands currently manufactured and supported by NorthPole include:
Alpine Design
Broadstone (Canada)
Cabela’s
Embark
Field & Stream (Dick’s Sporting Goods)
Gander Mountain
Glacier’s Edge
Guide Series
High Sierra
Magellan (Academy)
NCAA
North Crest
Northpoint
Outdoor Spirit
Susan Komen
Tailgate Gear
Terra Gear (Canada)
Wilderness Gear
X-Treme
Please note: In many cases, NorthPole is not the only manufacturer that produced and/or still produces gear under these names. NorthPole can only provide customer service for tents that are NorthPole products (look on your tent’s manual, tag on the inside of the tent, and/or carry bag for information)
Hope this helps you decide how to carry your candy corn.
@dtwsportsfan Of course, keep it mind that ALL the Sports Authority stores are now closed… their “intellectual property” was bought by Dicks Sporting Goods.
@chienfou Back in the early days of the Internet my sister was looking for some sports gear for her son and decided to look at prices on Dicks.com… needless to say, that was not the type of gear she was searching for . (Dicks sporting goods has since obtained that domain and it now redirects to their site.)
In case anyone else was wondering:
20L: H 23.5 in x W 10.5 in x D 9 in
30L: H 24 in x W 12.5 in x D 8.5 in
65L: ???
@sanman9781
65L: 65 x 30 x 23 cm (25.6 x 12 x 9)
Source: https://www.sportolino.de/McKinley-Maple-65-10-Trekkingrucksack.htm
Looks to be the same bag rebranded.
@sanman9781 One of my biggest problems with buying a backpack ‘sight unseen’ (i.e. on-line) is that the dimensions are sort of like the lumen counts for light bulbs and seem to totally arbitrary. Doing the math above, the 30L is only about 15% bigger than the 20L. Which begs the question, are the above dimensions wrong, or are the packs so weirdly rounded as to make the numbers useless for comparison?
(and don’t even get me started on whether they are actually anywhere near 20L and 30L volumes…)
@chienfou Probably the latter - weirdly rounded.
The volume capacity is probably akin to refrigerator, car interior, or trunk space volume measurements - fill it to every single nook and cranny and that’s its volume. Actual usable space is a different story, of course.
@narfcake yeah, I get that, but 20 liters is the size of a 5 gallon bucket. …Just sayin’
@chienfou The 30 L will likely include the volume of the side pockets when expanded.
Also known as the McKinley Trekkingrucksack Maple 65+10 as far as I can tell.
Links:
https://www.amazon.de/McKinley-Trekkingrucksack-Maple-65-10/dp/B013JMHGGG
@fractalVisionz In for 2
/giphy wet-creamy-soup
The copy for today’s sale is amazing.
2 buys in 2 days. I’m slipping.
/giphy heartfelt-jubilant-brick
Ok, but how many cases of keystone light do they hold?
@aknox077 between 80 and 180 cans, or between 2 and a half to 6 30 pack cases. Not bad!
/giphy tranquil-oblong-fact
Oh so now it’s a duet, there we going being politically correct again, Meh.
Alpine Designs used to be a premium brand many years ago (I used to take people camping, etc. for a living). The guy who founded this company, sold it, founded Camp 7, I believe sold that… I recall that they went downhill some after they were sold. I wouldn’t necessarily trust the backpacking one on a long trip until you have tested it on a weekend trip to see if it is comfortable or not. That it is adjustable is a plus, although usually the better brands also make several sizes and then they are adjustable within each size.
A good backpacking one is several hundred dollars so this is a bargain in comparison, presuming you find it comfortable - and comfort can vary by the amount of junk you put in it (thus the weight and how you distribute it). I wouldn’t buy the backpacking one for a kid unless said kid is at least around 5’2" simply because last I knew usually backpacks for “adults” presume you are at least that tall and they make a scaled down one for kids (and adults shorter than that - in which case you win as they are cheaper but not “cheapened”). On the other hand if the kid is only hiking a couple of miles it is likely irrelevant unless they are a lot shorter.
One mistake people make is thinking, well I’ll only use it to backpack once a year so a cheap one is fine. The draw back is that the expensive ones are generally more comfortable and that does make a difference in the pleasure you can have on a trip due to comfort. Looking at the pictures I’d suspect this is not a bottom of the barrel one, but it isn’t a top of the line one either. For the price it is better than what you could buy at a Walmart equivalent type store. And if you hate it you likely could resell it (and break even) on craigslist to a family with kids who are scouts.
/giphy idiotic-wistful-shadow
Incidentally, this is the cover of the next Tool album.
I bought the big one so I can carry all my WHEY protein in it. hehehe
Now you need to sell me 50-100 lbs. of candy corn so I can pack it into my new 65L+10L backpack and carry it around to lose weight, only to gain it back from eating the candy corn on a later date.
RIP to sports authority, I suppose
@Twiminy oh good so since toyrus and babiesrus are closing maybe some good toy closeouts coming soon?
@blndfayth or babies?
As your resident bag boy… I have no opinion on these bags. They are not literally on fire, which is a plus in my book.
Like @shahnm my couch potato life can’t justify the backpacks, but I’m really digging the 252141 Sword Girl shirt (although not at that ridiculous $78.37 Rakuten wants for it)
@123abc988 The design is pretty, but the Engrish is pretty hilarious:
@123abc988 given the pretty specific and fairly limited washing instructions, the price seems justified. This isn’t for some fly by night wash everything in hot type - you need to be committed to hand washing as “Washing machine is not available” and then, make sure to “Please hanging dry in the shade”.
Will keep buying this crap until MEH takes “unsure” out of my profile…and besides, I missed the small backpack a few weeks ago. In for the 20L…EDIT:…It worked, lol…I am now a casual acquaintance…YAY!
/giphy chipper-outgoing-back
@fastharry you could of just kept clicking the meh button and voting… but I enjoy when people buy stuff from meh.
@RiotDemon I enjoy it as well…been vary happy with everything I bought…even those crappy emergency lights a few months back, lol…
C’mon! The blurb on my email reminder this morning mentions, “Run To The Hills”…Tell me I’m not the only one who thought, "What are Iron Maiden doing on Meh.com?"
These look pretty sweet! I already have a 55L pack, which is enough for the Cub Scout trips I take my son on… but the 20L might be nice… is it actually a size of pack that an adult might wear? What is the use-case for it?
@kadagan Real world use for a 20? Day pack. Jacket, rain poncho, some lunch, a few water bottles, first aid kit and the car keys.
@ruouttaurmind yeah, basically. It’s a nice back-worn purse.
@kadagan I have a 20L I use for hiking and as an airplane personal item (might technically be too big, but I’ve never had it questioned).
Sweet! I had been planning to get something like the 65L for a trip to Kenya. And I won’t be sad if it gets abused being squished in and out of tiny bush planes. Thanks!
/giphy glass-mundane-pixie
@Carebear Kenya post some photos ?
Thanks for the Iron Maiden reference!
/giphy head-banger
@TheMonkeyKing JINX(But you beat me by a minute or two!)
Specs
What’s in the Box?
1x Backpack
Pictures
Options
The big one
the other side
Back
Detail
For the rain
Little one
Other side
Back
Medium one
Other side
Back
Heehaw
Price Comparison
20-Liter was $39.99 at Sports Authority
30-Liter was $59.99 at Sports Authority
65+10 Liter was $99.99 at Sports Authority
Warranty
90 Day Mediocre
Estimated Delivery
Monday, July 13th - Thursday, July 16th
Packing ‘em in tonight meh
Ok. One little one.
/giphy jolly-simplistic-pen
@Nate311 #MeToo gif?
/giphy conniving-ridiculous-jaguar
It’s good enough for a backup (or lend-a-friend)
/giphy misguided-worldly-poison
Does anyone know if the nylon material that these are made of is pretty substantial, rather than flimsy? Also, is the material the same nylon for all three? tia
In for the 20L
/giphy endurable-like-hat
@PlacidPenguin broken link…
@chienfou
Huh. Works fine by me.
@PlacidPenguin Imgur is being selfish like usual nowadays.
@chienfou
Opened page in incognito mode.
Yeah. Embeds have been having issues lately.
Although if you open a broken embed in a new tab and refresh that page, it works.
(Spoiler alert: The gif is @Ab3n’s gif in reverse.)
@PlacidPenguin odd… here’s what I see
@chienfou oh, never mind you answered my point while I was making the screenshot etc
tempting, but not enough pockets for how I usually use my daypacks.
So, @skemmehs , if you don’t mind me asking, what takes you to Hong Kong? Do Meh buyers travel the globe searching for great deals, or are you a remote employee? I certainly hope it’s the former, but I’m impressed either way!
@kshannon1 I’m a remote employee. I wish I could tell you I was searching for the next hot off-brand electronic though
@skemmehs so you are searching and you can’t tell us or you aren’t searching
@kshannon1 @Kidsandliz @skemmehs
Just received the 20L one. Its very light, not much padding, but is good enough for overnight. Hubby was pleased and tried to put the toddler in it. Luckily she’s smarter than he is.
Just because I am tired of having to empty my school backpack for short flights back home.
Since they won’t give me the specs, I won’t buy any of them. It’s easy to be a jerk!!
@decoratedwarvet
/giphy extravagant-leaded-story
/giphy distasteful-hospitable-cockatoo
Anyone else missing the whistle?