The waist belt is 1-inch webbing with the buckle in the middle and is about 46 inches long. The elastic portion is not long and was fully expanded most of the time while testers (including our smallest tester with a 39-inch chest) wore the pack, not providing much stretch. The sternum strap is ½-inch webbing with a whistle and short elastic section. When testers pulled the sides of shoulder straps to adjust them, the strap would move but the webbing did not which made them slightly harder to get comfortable. The webbing is attached to the shoulder strap in only four spots and moves freely for the rest of its length. Most of the weight rested on the webbing at that point. With loads from five to ten pounds the straps were comfortable but above 10 they began to dig into testers’ shoulders. The shoulder straps are very thin with highly-ventilated Airmesh straps and 3/4-inch webbing running down the middle. With a full 2-liter bladder, no objects poked through and the back panel was comfortable. Testers had to pack carefully for it to be comfortable. With no bladder, the panel reduced the feeling of sharp objects in the pack but did not get rid of them completely. Our measured weight of 10.4 ounces was the lightest in the test and less than half of the other options.

The closed-cell foam back sheet on the Kompressor is comfortable and gives the pack some structure while being very lightweight.