!!

Hello, Guest!

You are viewing the GunLink forums as a guest.  CLICK HERE to register for the forums and unlock more features, hidden forums and the ability post in topics, vote in polls, see poll results and more.

Tandemkross

Author Topic: Red Rock Outdoor Gear Hipster Sling Pack Review  (Read 3322 times)

Offline GunLink

  • GLHMFIC
  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1581
  • Karma: 17
    • GunLink
Red Rock Outdoor Gear Hipster Sling Pack Review
« on: January 05, 2017, 04:14:55 PM »
After trying out the Red Rock Sidekick sling pack and finding it to be (mostly) well made, if not a bit small, we decided to try out its big brother, the Red Rock Hipster sling pack.  I am sure it got the Hipster moniker by being a bag that rides on your hip, but I was still a bit hesitant to buy it just based on the name - what, with disliking hipsters and all. 



After trying it out, We are still not impressed by either type of hipster.  One type is still a group of pretentious weenies, and the other is a sling pack fraught with quality control issues even worse than the Sidekick's.

Reasons that the Hipster bag was appealing included the fact that it can be anchored to your belt to keep from flopping around, that it had a place to put a drink bottle, and, mainly, that it was bigger. 





Same, Same... But Different

The Hipster is certainly bigger than the Sidekick, but it is largely similar in layout.  It has a large center compartment with mesh pockets on the inner and outer walls and is drawn shut with a cinch top.  The Hipster also features a top flap that covers the main compartment, as well as the small front compartment, and features a zipper to store stuff inside of the flap itself.  Additionally, the Hipster also has a zipped rear compartment just behind the top flap, like the one on the Sidekick.  It has a wide webbing strap with a slide-release buckle, as does the Sidekick, although it features an adjustable shoulder pad to help cushion the weight of the bag.



That is about where the similarities between the two sling packs end.  The Hipster lacks a couple of endearing features of the Sidekick, such as the phone pouch, and a front pocket that is accessible without having to undo any zippers.  The attachment point on the Hipster's sling strap is a basic nylon D-ring rather than the HK-style hook found on the sidekick.  And, strangely for a pack marketed as a CCW bag, it lacks the spare magazine pouch that its little brother has.



New and... Improved?

Although it lacks those features of the smaller, cheaper bag, it does bring a few new features to the table.  Probably the most noticeable upgrade is that the small exterior zip pouch of the Sidekick has been moved over to where the magazine holder was, and it has been replaced with a large drink bottle pouch.



The zip pouch is about the same size as the Sidekick's and still features a couple of MOLLE webs.  The drink bottle pouch (which, by the way, is also sized about right for camera lenses) has a bungee cord with a slide-lock on it to tighten up the pouch and another bungee cord to go over the top and hold a bottle in by the shoulders.  The top bungee would have been a lot more useful and versatile if it was adjustable and/or removable, but it is not.  And, although Red Rock markets the bottle holder as being "insulated," it is just made from the same rubberized nylon components as most of the rest of the bag.



The top of the flap features another small zippered compartment with a carry strap on it should you desire to pick up and carry the bag one-handed without fighting the shoulder strap.  This compartment - big enough for a cell phone and charger, a point-and-shoot camera, or a few snack bars - is a good concept, but the low placement of the zipper means that the entire top 2/3 of the compartment swings away when you open it, so it probably isn't a good place to store small items that might try to escape.  The flap also has a decent sized swath of loop-side Velcro for you to dress it up with morale patches, name tapes, and the like if that is your thing.

The main compartment is, as mentioned, bigger than that of the Sidekick and still features mesh pockets on the inside and outside walls.





Bigger Isn't Always Better

The website lists the dimensions as 12"W x 10"H x 5.5"D, but this must be the dimensions of the entire bag, end-to-end, when it is fully expanded.  No dimensions are given for individual compartments, just that the overall capacity is 5L.  I was hoping to be able to put at least a small tablet or journal book into the main compartment but it was not quite big enough - a regular iPad sticks out past the cinch sack.



On the topic of the cinch sack portion of the main compartment, I do not know if they have always made them like this, or if they used to make them like the Sidekick (with a grommet that failed.  Twice.  On two separate bags.), but it appears that this unit is constructed similar to the improvement that I suggested in the Sidekick review - foregoing the grommet altogether and just using reinforced material around the bungee openings.  Maybe they heeded our advice?





The Horrible, Horrible Zippers

Just forward of the main compartment is a small admin pouch similar to what the Sidekick had.  It lacks, however, an exterior pocket that is accessible just by lifting the top flap.  Access to any admin pouch storage must be made through the zippers.  The horrible, horrible zippers.



The Hipster uses the same Chinese SBS zippers as the Sidekick, but I think the ones on this pack must have been installed by a blind, one-armed chimpanzee.  The zippers on the bag that I got were really, really good at unzipping.  Like, unzipping is what they were born to do and they don't know how to do anything else - including zipping compartments closed.  The admin pouch was the worst, even zipping it slowly and trying to hold the zipper teeth in alignment, it just would not zip.  If you baby the zipper gently around, it might zip maybe 10% of the way and then give up.  Totally unusable.  So, I guess maybe the Hipster does technically feature a front pocket that you can access without unzipping it because it was not zipped in the first place. 

The inside of the admin pouch lacks the interior mesh pocket, instead, replacing them with elastic slots.  Being marketed as a concealed carry pack (especially one without a specific spare magazine pouch), you might think that the slots could hold a magazine, but they are clearly intended only to be pen holders.



The exterior wall of the admin pouch showed some pretty poor stitching which had torn up the rubberized material on the inside of the nylon



The poor stitching and torn rubber was only made worse by the placement of the webbing being sewn on.  I think the placement must have been a mistake, as the design could not possibly have called for the webbing (which creates a slot for the top flap's strap to go through) to be so far up.  In its current location, tightening the flap merely pulls the admin pouch at a bizarre angle and yanks at the already tenuous stitch.  It clearly should have been placed much closer to the bottom corner.





Concealed Carry - Large Pistols Need Not Apply

For a bag sold as a concealed carry pack, the Hipster also lacks another key feature - a good spot for a reasonably sized handgun



Just aft of the top flap is a zippered pocket similar to what the Sidekick has and roughly the same size.  A Glock 19 in a Sticky Holster fits in this pocket OK, but with the same issues as the sidekick had - speed of getting past the zipper and trying to get your hand in and a pistol out of a tight pocket.  This pocket is not what Red Rock is calling the CCW Sleeve. 

The CCW sleeve is an open-top pocket at the extreme back (body side) of the bag.  Admittedly, the back of the Hipster is better executed than the Sidekick, with more padding and ventilation holes, although not much gun will fit into the sleeve.



The G19/Sticky combination fills just about all of the space that the sleeve has to offer, despite being classed as a compact sized pistol.  If put straight in, it is even big enough to block the snap closure, requiring it to be put in at an angle, and, even then, the pistol is plainly visible and I would not trust it to go through much jostling without trying to work its way free.



The bag side of the CCW sleeve is fully covered in loop-side Velcro to facilitate holsters equipped with the hook-side to help keep them in place, although I still maintain that it would have to be a pretty small holster for a pretty small pistol. 





The Final Verdict

After buying the Sidekick, thinking that the Hipster would be a better answer, buying the Hipster, and getting to try it out, I have revised my opinion of the sidekick to be the far better of the two bags, although it is still not perfect.  The Hipster, at least the one I had, was just plain bad.

If the bag had not been poorly constructed and defective to the point of being non-functional, I may have given it more of a shot to see if the layout and size grew on me.  As it is, the bag has already been sent on its merry way back to the vendor.  When Red Rock told me that the first Sidekick grommet failing was the slim-chance result of a bad one getting past QC, it sounded plausible.  When the second Sidekick grommet failed, I chalked it up to a bad design on that part of the bag.  When the third Red Rock bag had numerous failures from the outset, a clear pattern has emerged. 

With a $40 MSRP, I don't think the Hipster is worth it at all.  The Sidekick would be a decent bag at around $25 and this upgraded model, even if it worked, ought to be in the same price range.  I think they tried to get too fancy with adding bi-directional zippers, more compartments, etc. and raised the price commensurately, but then they cut corners with bad stitching, bad zipper installation, and cheap attachments like the nylon D-ring instead of HK hooks.

Although the Sidekick does a reasonable job of being a cheap knock off of a Maxpedition Fatboy, the hipster fails at being a cheap knock off of a Jumbo Versipack.  For basic occasional knocking around in the woods or around town, the cheap packs are fine.  I wouldn't want to drop $100 on a bag that will only get used a few times a year.  For my EDC gear, I'll stick with brand name bags that put a little more into the construction - I think that a good replacement that would only be a few bucks more is the 5.11 PUSH Pack.

GunLink Discussion Forums

Red Rock Outdoor Gear Hipster Sling Pack Review
« on: January 05, 2017, 04:14:55 PM »

Log in or register to disable this ad