The Story of the Packa

It all started in the Fall of 1999. I am from Mississippi, but for about 5 months I lived in Columbus, OH, and taught at a women's prison. At some point during those five months I decided to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail the following Spring (AT2K). In preparation for my thru-hike, I hiked a 13 mile loop trail called the Wildcat Trail three times. The Wildcat Trail is located about 2 hours southeast of Columbus and I highly recommend it. It was on one of these shakedown hikes that I first had the idea for the Packa. That Fall, before my Appalachian Trail hike, I documented and protected my idea to the best of my ability. I also spent many, many hours in the Ohio State University Library researching patents to see if anything like the Packa had  been previously patented. This was before googlepatents or even upsto online searching. The one thing I didn't do was make a Packa. On my A.T. Thru-hike, I thought about my idea often, especially while sweating profusely in cold weather wearing my pack over my Sierra Designs cajole with the vents wide open.  I never told anybody about my  idea during my thru-hike, although I came close a couple times. In New Hampshire I stayed one night with Nicheless, a Southbound A.T. hiker who invented the Hikenlight stove and I came very close to telling him about the Packa.  But I was very cautious about protecting my idea. I finished my thru-hike in July but it was December before I finally made my first Packa. The first Packa was truly a packcover-jacket combination. I bought a nice OR packcover and a cheap Red Ledge jacket, cut a hole in the back of the jacket, and hand sewed the packcover to the back of the jacket.  I hiked in this first Packa a little, mostly around the yard. I took pictures, posted them on the Web, and showed several hiker friends of mine to see if they felt the Packa was as good as I thought it was. The response was (and has always been) overwhelmingly positive.  In January 2001, I hired a patent  lawyer and we officially filed for a patent  on August 16, 2001. After my lawyer assured me my idea was safe, I contacted several  major hiking gear manufactures to see if any wanted to buy my idea or make and sell the Packa (for a small licensing fee).  Initially, I did not want anything to do with mass manufacturing and/or marketing of the Packa,  I am a school teacher and know nothing about business, and at the time, sewing. I approached every major, and semi-major gear manufacturer in the book, but nobody was buying. Some company rep's were nice and supportive, and gave me some good advice. Others were down right rude.  After attempting for several months to interest a manufacturer, I finally decided to have some Packas made myself.  Luckily, I grew up right around the corner from Toxey Haas, the inventor of Mossy Oak hunting camouflage.  The Mossy Oak folks put me in contact with Ravi Wadhwani of S.E.A.M.s Inc. in Hamburg, AR, a small sewing operation that  at one time made hunting apparel for Mossy Oak.  In May 2001, S.E.A.M.s delivered the first 50 commercially manufactured Packas and they did a great job. However, in an effort to keep costs low, I allowed Ravi to use some 200 denier fabric he had on hand.  But 200 denier fabric is way too heavy for most hikers. These early Packas were sturdy, virtually bombproof, but they weighed 26 ounces each. At first I thought I would never sell them all. Now,  I only have 1 left, and I am keeping it for sentimental reasons.  After receiving the heavy Packas, I tried to convince Ravi  to make some Packas out of Silicon Impregnated Nylon (silnylon), a new waterproof, lightweight fabric, but he was tied up with other jobs so he initially declined.  In the Fall of 2001,  I hired a seamstress from my hometown (West Point, MS) to make some Packas out of Silnylon. She also did an excellent job, but more importantly she improved the design significantly and made patterns for me. However, she made about 6 Packas before she decided that she too had  had enough.  So, I moved on again.  Next, I contacted Robbie Cross of EquinoxLTD, a bigger sewing operation in Pennsylvania. Equinox has lots of experienced with Silnylon and they are well known and respected in the hiking world for manufacturing high quality gear.  I received the first batch of 20 silnylon Packas manufactured by Equinox in May 2002, exactly 1 year after I received the first batch of  S.E.A.M.s  Packas.  I immediately sent  3 of these new Packas to Backpackgeartest.org to be reviewed.  As I began to approach the end of my inventory of silnylon Packas, I contacted Ravi again and he agreed to make some Packas out of Silnylon, at a much lower price than the Equinox Packas. But, after making just 5 new silnylon Packas, Ravi decided that he had had enough as well. Finding good quality sewing at a reasonable price is very, very difficult, especially at the numbers I am buying. Cutting and sewing silnylon is not easy. In October 2002, I bought my first sewing machine and began to learn to sew Packas and other hiking gear myself.  Also, around that time, I finally broke down and bought  thepacka.com domain name and built the first official Packa Website.  I sold the last of the first batch of Equinox Packas in Feburary 2003, and ordered another 100 Packas. The newest Equinox Packas have some small design  improvements included  based on the reviews at Backpackgeartest.org.  I ordered another 100 Packas from Equinox in the Fall of 2004. Meanwhile, I am now on my third sewing machine. I don't sew as much as I'd like to, mainly because I have been busy remodeling 2 houses. But I look forward to the time when I can spend several hours each week sewing and improving my sewing skills.  I continue to operate as a 1 man business with almost no marketing or advertising costs, except for ocasional Ebay fees and the Packa Website. The feedback I receive from hikers who purchase a Packa is almost always very positive (See Comments and Reviews) and I remain encouraged about the Packas chances of hitting the big time. I received my Patent in April 2004.

2004: 58 Packas sold

2005: 47 Packas sold

2006: 58 Packas sold

2007: 55 Packas sold

2008: 79 Packas sold

2009:  88 Packas sold

2010:  186 Packas sold

2011:  206 Packas sold

2012:  180 Packas sold

I received the newest version of the Packa in April 09. Many thanks to my friends at Big Agnes for helping me get a new supplier. The newest Packas are fully seam taped, and are by far the best Packas I've received.