FOR SPRING 2012, KELTY IS SMARTLY leveraging its heritage with two retro-styled offerings, the affordable and very trick retro backpack 60th Anniversary Wing Pack and the far-from-inexpensive Frontier tent.

The Wing heritage backpack looks to crush it out of the park, with the ideal blend of Whole Earth Catalog colors and design cues but an updated structure that will let you carry your goods without getting poked, prodded, and otherwise harassed by what’s inside. In shape and pocket placement, it’s almost identical to a custom camera pack I built 15 years ago…maybe that’s why I think it’s pretty darn easy on the eyes. It’s built of Cordura with touches of leather, has a classic label, and at $150 is half the cost of all those Japanese retro packs washing up on the shores of hipster blogs. My prediction is they’ll blow through these on sales…depending, of course, on who else has affordable granola packs at the show.