MEC Brio 70 Backpack Review
Review by Dan James
- Product:
- MEC Brio 70 Backpack (company site)
- What's Good:
- Value (only $109.00 Canadian!),Ruggedness, Streamlined
- What's Bad:
- Hip belt padding, No water bladder compartment
For the past three years I’ve relied on my MEC Brio 70 (long – sage) to climb mountains, travel foreign countries, and make 70km+ treks. The bag, while being budget oriented, has stood up to the toughest of tests: I’ve dragged it down steep scrambles, pulled it through thick tuckamore, and its ridden on numerous airport luggage systems. Despite all of this the bag still looks new.
The Brio 70 is the big brother of the Brio brand packs from MEC. The 70 is what you’d need for a week on or off the trail. It’s little siblings are the 60, 50, 40 and the Crag Daypack. The Brio 70 comes in three sizes: Short (68L): Standard (70L): Long (72L), and two colours: Sage, and Blue.
The bag is top-loading and has a floating and extendable lid. The lid converts to a decent sized fanny pack which is good for small day trips, or just exploring outside of camp. The bag has a full length #10 YKK zipper that allows easy access to all of the contents . While this seems like a good idea I’ve only used the zipper a handful of times in the past three years. I find it’s very hard to zip back up when the pack is full and the compression straps are pulled taught.
View Larger Image A shot of the author wearing a fully loaded Brio 70 in Newfoundland, Canada.
The pack is made with 420-denier ripstop nylon pack fabric and the bottom is made from a very rough and durable 1000-denier ripstop nylon pack fabric. This pack is tough. As mentioned above, after three years of use it still looks and feels new.
The shoulder strap yoke is fully adjustable using a velcro mechanism to accommodate for different back lengths. This allows for an accurate fit. The shoulder straps are well padded, comfortable, and use a 3D mesh to aid in getting rid of sweat. I’ve never had any issues with the shoulder straps. The hip belt is not adjustable but seems to be well placed. The hip belt padding leaves something to be desired. For my tastes the padding is a little sparse. I find the belt to be a little coarse and it has caused sore hips on a few occasions. While the hip belt is not a show stopper be sure totry it on with some weight in it before you decide to buy.
The pack is very streamlined. It has the main compartment, the top lid, and one pocket that runs the length of the front. This front pocket is where I have resorted to put my water bladder as the pack does not have a dedicated system/design for it. There are also two small mesh pockets at the bottom sides of the bag. These are idea for holding water bottles, small slim items, or just to stick your poles down into. With this design you’ll find that you won’t have items bulging out of pockets. There are three compression straps on each side that help rope in the load.
Overall this is a great quality pack for the cost. You will not go wrong with this pack. If absolute comfort is a necessity then I would look for something with a more comfortable hip belt.
