Rothco G.I. Type Heavyweight Mini Alice Pack Military Rucksack

I was undecided on whether to get this or not. I have enough backpacks, but for the price, and a comment from another reviewer about good durability, I bought it. I am glad I did. The "mini" in the title misled me slightly. I was expecting something quite small, in my opinion, it is not small. I'd consider it a medium sized backpack. A large edc pack. The shoulder straps are soft, not meant for heavy loads, but comfortable. It has 3 nice sized external pouches, all with flaps and straps. Old School straps that you easily pass thru the buckles, no quick release anything here. I like that old school feature, some may not. The external pouches could carry a fat water bottle, not the thin tall type. The main compartment is roomy and closed first with a drawstring, then with a flap and strap, again easily passed thru metal buckles. It is capable of carrying a lot of your lighter belongings. I wouldn't use it for a book bag, some of those text books are too heavy, but anything lighter for your daily trips, this is a good pack. A pair of size 12 tennis shoes fit nicely in the bottom of the main compartment, and a ranger style rolled change of clothes would leave room for other stuff. I don't usually leave lengthy reviews, but this is worthwhile. I got the olive drab, and there are a few other color options that I will consider purchasing soon. In case you didn't get the idea, I highly recommend.

This is a very sturdy little pack! I bought it as a minimalist multi-day pack, but its first use was as a "carry the tent, a fire kit, and water" pack when my wife and I went camping/canoeing. The main pack held our tent with a little room to spare. One pocket got dedicated to carrying our stainless water bottle, bottle stove, and cup. One was a fire kit on steroids. One got used to tent stakes and other assorted items.The pack cinches up tight, and I can tell from the reinforced stitching that I'm going to get a lot of use out of this before it wears out. The adjustable shoulder straps were handy for making the pack carry comfortably. We did not walk far with it, but the shoulder straps are comfortable enough that we could have.Great value for the dollars spent!

I almost didn't buy this pack after reading some of these reviews. GLAD that I didn't listen to the nay sayers. I am a retired infantry medic, if you know what that job details then you know I carried a lot of gear. My regular combat load, my personal gear, plus my medical combat gear. Point is I have more experience with military rucksacks/backpacks than the regular Joe. This is a tough backpack. It is made of thick canvas . The metal buckles are exactly what I've seen and used in service. I've neverbeen issued a rucksack/backpack where the metal tips have never worn loose and came off, that's just stupid. Crimp them back on or super glue the strap ends and soldier on. This is a very well made bag. I've used all sizes, this one is just slightly smaller than a medium Alice pack. If your using it to camp or hike it'll work great for you. My gosh for $25 this is a real deal. If you want a pack to use this is it. If your name is Nancy and you want super comfort on your day hike and want a perfect poser bag, pay the $$$.00 and get the girly bag. But don't tell folks on here this is a bad bag, because it's not. I recommend it if your name isn't Nancy.

Well, I decided to get this pack and like other reviewers have said the back straps are too short. I can replace them since I sew, but they need to be in the maximum length to be wearable out of the package. I smelled a chemical dye? smell and decided to put it inside a mesh laundry bag I tied off and toss it through a regular xlarge cycle in the washing machine on warm, which is cool to room temp water in our machine. I used a scoop of oxy clean, and one unscented tide pod. After it was done washing I took it out of the mesh bag and hung it by the back straps on a hanger to dry overnight. The bag was very stiff wet, and I pulled out the canvas so the bag would dry in its intended shape. (like it looks in the picture, but with only the back straps connected to hold it in the slits in the top of the hanger. Once dry, it was still very stiff and held the shape I put it in. (It will get floppy again I'm sure with use, just want to throw that out there.) When the canvas was wet from the wash it didn't have the chemical smell, dry, it's back, but much fainter. I need to have my face near it to smell it, which is fine with me. I'm sensitive to smells so its original odor may, or may not bother most people.After it dried completely I noticed where it was wrinkled in the laundry bag during the wash lighter whiteish wear lines appeared on the bag that were not obvious when the bag was wet. I honestly don't know if it's oxy-clean buildup that didn't get properly rinsed out in the two rinse cycles, or if it's wear lines where the dye actually wore off. I like the olive drab bag with the worn looking crinkled effect I got so I didn't try wetting the lines. I am going to apply a water-proofing mixture of 1 part beeswax to 9 parts paraffin wax that I found on youtube. This mix should imitate Greenland wax. (I hope) I didn't feel like dealing with boiled linseed oil which can combust easily which is in other "tincloth" waterproofing mixtures out there. (plus tincloth apparently smells, and I didn't like that aspect either. Greenland wax will just smell like beeswax, and can't burst into flames lol.) Since wax darkens the canvas somewhat, I hope the whiteish crinkle marks are preserved. If they don't, not the end of the world.I checked the stitching on my bag btw before washing and it seems the company caught the fabric well enough on my bag to keep anything from fraying. The laundry bag kept the little metal crimp on pieces from banging around in the wash and they stayed on. If anyone gets a bag where the bias tape on the inside isn't covering raw edges of the fabric it will probably fray like hell, in those areas. So fix any stitching problem areas before tossing in a washer. I'm fairly sure bags like this should be spot cleaned and not washed by machine. Pretty sure that the webbing straps are made of 100% cotton too along with the bag material. NOT nylon. Do NOT burn the ends of the webbing if your little caps come off. Either crimp them back on, or use a waterproof glue or fabric glue to keep the ends from unraveling. Cotton doesn't melt and seal, nylon does.Mind you, I just wanted to share my machine washing experience. Doing what I did may not work for everyone, especially if there are any defects in any bags. Overall I'm happy with the bag, and its size. I'll try and update this after I wax it, but I may replace the back strap webbing before I wax it which will be a little bit. And for anyone wondering I payed full price for this thing lol.

Bag is exactly as advertised, standard army od green color and cotton canvas For the price, you can't beat what you get. Classic medium Alice pack style bag. Main compartment is spacious and the three front pouches work great. If you are used to or want a pack like the gi issue Alice pack, this would be great. If you are used to or want a bag with alot of pouches and compartments to separate your stuff, this probly isn't for you. Can waterproof with regular camping waterproofing material's for a good all around pack.