GORUCK has not produced Shadow Rucks for a while, and it’s the one classic bag from the brand I’ve never tried. So when they recently re-released them, I grabbed a 25L Shadow Ruck to try out. I’ve been using it off and on since then, and it is a really quirky bag.
It has its place, but that place is different than how GORUCk positions the bag.
Materials & Specs
This bag is really simple, a 500D Cordura body, with no back panel or laptop compartment. It measures out at 19” x 12” x 6.5” for a stated 25L volume.
The straps are heavily padded and consistent with most modern GORUCK straps. It has a simple webbing handle at the top, and that’s pretty much it.
In Use
The key line in the market position for this bag is this one in the description:
It also packs flat when not in use, making it easy to stow inside larger rucks or travel bags as a secondary pack.
GORUCK also shows images of the bag being rolled up. All of these things are true, but none of these things mean that it packs down to be small in any way, shape, or form. This bag, when empty, takes up a lot of space no matter how you try to stow it.
Using 500D and having thick padding on the shoulder straps and a padded base means that this bag will never pack down small. This is not a bad thing, but if you are going into this thinking you can easily hide it inside a GR2, well — you can fit it in there, but the question is how much volume do you lose — I am betting you’ll lose too much.
With all of that being said there’s three really good things about this:
- This bag is really simple, and that simplicity means that there’s not a lot to worry about. It’s well made, rugged, and there’s not a lot of places for gear to hide.
- It’s a very effective backpack. There’s no over thinking it, no structure getting in the way, and it’s very light weight compared to other GORUCK bags.
- Both of those things add up to this being a very easy bag to use. When I received it, I kept using it for everything else. I would load it up with all manners of random stuff as I roamed around the city. It carried everything easily and mostly comfortably because of the wide and heavily padded straps.
Most of the bags GORUCK sell are overkill for the average person. This is the exception to that rule. It is still quite comfortable, but is dead simple in all other areas.
I do find that the execution of this bag is generally a miss and to make this a clear winner would mean making one of two changes (depending on the direction GORUCK would want to go).
There’s two paths here: either make this bag take up less space when empty so it is a better backup/travel backpack. Or give a just a little more so it is a better daily bag.
The easiest change to this bag would be to reduce the padding in the straps by about 50% and swap the padding in the base for something softer and more pliable. Those changes would make the bag lay flatter, pack down better, and would hardly compromise the overall comfort since there’s other factors missing on the bag which means you don’t need that level of padding to begin with. I would love to see this change made, as I think it would better embrace the ethos behind this bag.
However, another angle on this would be to simply add a very thin and light amount of padding/foam to the back panel (basically what is in the base right now), and leave the straps be. This would make the bag slightly less packable, but give the bag a much needed comfort boost. That boost would elevate this bag to a better carry for day to day things and would make it more compelling over all.
I’d take either change — it’s hard to think of which would be better.
Overall
Right now the bag sits in a very odd spot. There’s many better backpacks which are well made, and comfortable to carry, but also pack down much better than this. The Shadow Ruck is not winning on that front, as it’s far too bulky. The thickness of the straps make it an awkward carry when the bag is light, as they conform as nicely around your shoulders as they do on a GR1 given the structure and load carrying ability of that bag.
The lack of a back panel means you need to carefully load out the bag, so nothing is digging in your back — which isn’t bad, as much as it is simply a fact of life with this bag. Unless you often wear bulky jackets, then this is less of an issue.
While this bag is something you can easily keep around for a ‘toss around’ backpack that you never need to worry about the durability of — I have to wonder why you would choose this over other options. It’s nice, well made, durable, and a great size/shape/layout. But the straps are too thick for there to be no back panel, and I can’t wrap my head around that one.