Eagle A-III Pack - A few Thoughts

It always seems that time is one thing no equipment can overcome. We all have read the rave reviews on ceretain products, jumped on the bandwagon only to find that some items may look the part but fail to hold up under rigorous use over several months or years. After throwing away more broken, torn and otherwise unusable junk over the years than I'd care to admit, I've tried to adopt the "buy once, cry once" philosophy and found that simply spending more money for "high quality" doesnt always work either. In the case of the Eagle A-III line of packs, I am complete believer that spending a little more of the greenbacks is a worthy investment. If you are looking for a ultra-rugged pack that will stand up to the test of time, the Eagle A-III line is the way to go.

The Build Quality:
Lets face it, the "milspec" products have become largely commoditized- there are a BUNCH of well built products (substitutes) out there that use many of the same components and are similarly manufactured. As far as gear bags go, the best bags have YKK zippers and are made of high strength Cordura. Eagle's products are no different in this regard.

In my mind, here is where a select few companies like Eagle Industries seperate themselves from their competitors. For starters, they have been in the business for over 30 years and have outfitted law enforcement, military and civilian end users around the world. With feedback from this broad range of users, Eagle has tirelessly worked to upgrade and improve various components of their products and the manufacturing processes themselves. Its reassuring to know that issues like stitch placement, thread type and stress points have been worked out ad-nauseum for the last qaurter century. This "real world" knowledge is worth something to me.

Additionally, Eagle has a lifetime guarantee. Regardless of how you broke it, they will fix or replace it. I've heard some crazy stories about a few Eagle items breaking under extreme use, but have never heard of any problems with warranty issues.

Lastly, Eagle is manufactured in the US. There is no secret that manufacturing costs are higher here and they are passed on to the customer. To me, thats a small price to pay.