X-Gear Flex Pro Packs - From Indian Springs
by Jason Knudson
photo's courtesy of Indian Springs
X-Gear Flex Pro Packs - From Indian Springs
by Jason Knudson
photo's courtesy of Indian Springs
One of the newest paintball companies to enter the high end pack making category is Indian Springs Paintball. Indian Springs has been around almost as long as paintball, making entry level packs and producing other little things for the industry. Lately, they've been coming out with a new line of products, mainly their X-Gear pack series with the Flex and the Flex-Pro designs, as well as their innovated Y2K cradles. A few months ago, they sent me a few of their flex pro series packs to play with and give them my opinions. After using these packs at different tourneys over the last six months, I have to say I'm sold on the design.
At first I was a little skeptical of the design, because most packs these days have been following Redz designs, with the overlapping elastic belts to snug the pack up to your back. Indian Springs approached this in a different way. They used a 6 inch velcro belt and a 2 inch cinch over belt to tighten the packs down. I was unsure at first, but after putting it on with a full load of pods, I found it to be extremely light and conformable. The huge 6 inch belt was quite stretchy and flexible, so I could move very easily and bend well at the waist. The great thing about these packs that I've had trouble with on others is that this two belt system seems to hold the packs on tighter, so they don't twist around on your waist. Maybe it's my bad luck, but I've had a few Redz and Unique packs do this to me and it gets annoying.
The other area that these packs differ from conventional design, is the pod holders. The holders, instead of today's usual thick rigid loops or pockets are instead very tight elastic loops, only a few inches in width. With these loops, it's a bit of a struggle to get the pods into them, but once they're in, the pod won't move. These packs are definitely designed for the tournament player, because once you pull a pod out, the elastic loop shrinks right to your back, so there's no way to put the pod back in. That's great for today's tournament scene, as we usually just refill the hopper and toss the pod to the sidelines. What I see most advantageous with this design is that there isn't anything hanging out to possibly get shot at once the pod is taken out. Even with the pods in the pack, you don't have the added thickness of the pouches that most packs have.
. This is what I like most about the packs, and find to be the most advantageous, is that it is so slim in design, but yet so comfortable to wear. I've seen a lot of people playing with Redz packs, and they'll pull a pod out, use it, then toss it. From their back though, the flap that was holding that pod in is still sticking out, like a tail, and I've seen quite a few people take shots there. Even if they did close the flap up, it still sticks out there, a possible place for a ball to break. For me, I don't like taking any chances, and with these packs, as you use your paint, the pack shrinks up close to your pack, much closer than other packs out there.
Overall, these are great packs, you can order them any size or shape that you want, and they're great to play in. Only disadvantage I saw was that you couldn't put pods back in, so I tend not to use these for walk-on play, but I love them for tourney play.
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