I’ll be interested to see how y’all like them.
Since starting this thread my needs have been dramatically reduced (we had Disney annual passes back then and so I was “bagging” a whole damn lot), plus it not being summer means we aren’t going on near as many outings, and as the thread title implies my backpack needs are almost entirely “dad bag” and I don’t carry a backpack if we’re not out and about as a family.
I did confirm, on our Norway trip last summer, that the current bag is not for me, and that the previous Vertx I had would have been even worse, but I haven’t come up with a viable alternative.
The primarily issue is that I don’t carry the bag often, but when I do it’s all day for several days in a row. So I’m not used to carrying it and then have it all the damn time. So I’m still pretty fixated on weight being a prime factor, which still has me reluctant on the Synik.