Atlas Packs Athlete vs Maxpedition kodiak

Important: Choose the Adventure or Athlete hip belt – otherwise you will have literally no padding on your hips. I don’t recommend using the bag without a hipbelt either. The Adventure belt is more comfortable as it provides two layers of foam padding and a wider webbing and buckle – it’s also bigger and bulkier.

Going by her experience, we can highly recommend the Maxpedition Kodiak Gearsling if you plan to carry on one bag while travelling or just need a comfortable secure bag to sling your gear!

I also purchased a Capture Clip from Peak Designs which allows you to fix the camera to the shoulder strap in place while hiking – a great addition to this pack.

This is really pretty standard fare. I haven't experienced an overloaded situation yet, although to be honest, I haven't hiked with it for a 4-hour stretch either. I can appreciate the comments that say it could be easy to overload, and I can honestly say I haven't done that yet. This is clearly not a three-day pack but more of a day-pack

The zipper locations on the front two compartments, (especially the top one), can cause you problems if they aren't completely closed. I kept the pulls on the side and lost a coupe of items because they weren't COMPLETELY closed. If you keep the zippers on the top, you're more likely to water in the pockets when it rains. If you leave them at the side, they can easily be opened for the contents to fall out while it's on your back

She loved it and while travelling via trains and such while on her trip the bag proved invaluable. When my wife returned from her trip, I asked her how she liked the Gearslinger and she said, "I LOVE THIS BAG!!!" and here is what she loved about it: 1) Lots of useful well organized compartments and pockets and very easy access to them, 2) Lots of room for its size, 3) Fits under cramped airline seats, 4) Very comfortable to carry, 5) Very secure bag without applying locks. Going by her experience, we can highly recommend the Maxpedition Kodiak Gearsling if you plan to carry on one bag while travelling or just need a comfortable secure bag to sling your gear!

it's a sling bag that can only be worn over the left shoulder, no one in their right mind would even consider using this bag in a situation where they would need a water bladder. I would really like to see Maxpedition's justifications on some of their design concepts on this bag because it just makes no sense. It's too big to be an EDC bag. It's poorly designed for a BoB or 72 hour bag

However, it took me a year or so before I learned this and during that year the compression strap held up great as well. The one strap does make the shoulder sore after extended carry sessions. This inconvenience seems present with all one-strap bag designs, and the duration before the soreness sets in seems to depend largely on the bag weight. I owned a Timbuk2 Classic bag prior to getting this bag and experienced the same issue