The Six Moon Design Swift V is a 50-liter ultralight-style backpack that is available with three different types of backpack straps, including vest-style backpack straps, and multiple hip belt sizes. It’s configured like most ultralight backpacks with a front stretch mesh pocket and side pockets that are good for carrying water bottles. I tested the backpack with the vest-style straps and really enjoyed using the pack, which is great for carrying high-volume, but low-weight loads. The vest-style straps are comfortable and high-function, providing lots of pockets and accessible storage without having to stop and dig around in your pack to find something.

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• Volume: 50L + 10L in extension collar
• Type: Frame (Fiberflass hoop)
• Gender: Male (Female-friendly straps available)
• Access: Top-only (roll-top)
• Weight: 38.6 oz, weighed with vest suspension (mfg weight is 40.2 oz)
• Pockets: 6 without vest, including one internal. 6 more on the vest.
• Hydration-ready: Yes, ports behind each shoulder strap
• Bear Canister Compatibility: BV500 fits horizontally in the base of the main compartment
• Materials: Robic Nylon, Ultra Stretch Mesh
• Likes: Vest harness pockets are very convenient, and the adjustable torso length is easy to use
• Dislikes: Has many straps, which are difficult to differentiate from one another

The Swift V is virtually identical to the Swift X (see our review) except it is made with less expensive Robic Nylon and not a waterproof ultralight laminate like Ultra, XPac, or Liteskin.

The torso length is adjustable.

Backpack Frame and Suspension

The Swift V has an adjustable torso length, so you can dial in a perfect fit that matches your physique. It works by raising or lowering the height of the shoulder straps relative to the hipbelt, so that the majority of the pack weight rests on your hips and not on your shoulders.

The shoulder strap yoke fits into a sleeve on the back of the pack that’s lined with velcro. You raise or lower the yoke in the sleeve to the desired height. This has to be done by feel because there are no markings on the sleeve corresponding to your measured torso length (in inches or cm), so fitting the pack is best done with the help of an experienced hiker if you’re a beginner.

The load lifters are attached to the pack fabric, but not the frame.

Backpacks with adjustable torso lengths are rare in the ultralight backpacking world and are a real bonus for people who have difficulty getting a good fit with packs using the fixed torso ranges offered by other manufacturers. Many of the packs that Six Moon Designs (SMD) has made over the years have had adjustable torso lengths: my first ultralight backpack, the SMD Starlite, had an adjustable torso length circa 2006, so they’ve been at it for a long time.

The frame in the Swift V is a lightweight Delrin rod (fiberglass) bent in a loop that gives the pack some body so it doesn’t collapse on itself when empty and maintains a boxy shape when packed with gear. It also provides some load transfer to the hips since the rod ends terminate in the lumbar pad, but much less than a more rigid aluminum frame or framestays. However, it does not prevent a bear canister from barreling (rounding) the back of the pack if positioned horizontally, which can make it uncomfortable to carry.

The hip-belt which is available in multiple sizes is lightly padded

The Swift V hipbelt is lightly padded with spacer mesh, providing a good wrap around your hip bones. The maximum recommended weight of the Swift V is only 25-30 pounds, so there’s no need for a heavily padded belt. The hipbelt has two tiers of push-forward straps and a center buckle, so it’s easy to tighten, and the two tiers of adjustment are compatible with different hip geometries, namely those of men and women. Finally, there are two pockets on the hip belt, large enough to hold a smartphone or a multitude of snacks.

Vest Style Shoulder Straps

I tested out Six Moon Designs’ vest-style straps with this pack, and like the assortment of pockets it provides. I can carry my iPhone and InReach Mini 2 very securely, in addition to maps and snack bars galore. The vest has long open pockets to store water bottles: for example, you can fit a 23.7 oz smart bottle in them or a smartphone, which is my preference.

Each side of the vest has three pockets.

The vest has two sternum straps that pull the sides together over your chest, but it’s a bit difficult to position them so they’re parallel. Unlike conventional shoulder straps, which have a top and bottom connection to the pack body, SMD’s vest has four points of contact, making for a busy pack with many straps, all colored black, which makes them difficult to differentiate from one another.

• The top of the vest is attached to the yoke, which controls its height
• A side strap connects the vest to the side and bottom of the pack bag (conventional shoulder straps are not connected to the side).
• A load lifter strap connects to the upper half of the vest strap.

To fit the pack, you have to tweak each strap, which can be hard to do by feeling alone without a full-length mirror handy. When you remove the pack, you have to loosen the load lifters and retighten them all over again when you put the pack back on. I don’t think I’ve ever used the load lifters on the Swift V as much as on any backpack, but they are essential for pulling the load forward with the vest-style straps so it sits flush against your back. Net net: if you want the pockets and convenience of the vest-style straps, you have to be willing to adjust them frequently on this pack.

Backpack Storage

The Swift V is configured like most ultralight style packs with a front mesh pocket and two side bottle pockets, which have elastic/cord locks at the top to prevent bottles from popping out. All the pockets are made with Ultra Stretch fabric, which has excellent durability.

The pack is a 50L rolltop with an added 10 liters of storage in the extension collar. The ends of the rolltop can be secured using side straps when you want more top compression, or clipped together on top of the pack bag. Six Moon Designs cleverly added two different buckles to the ends of the rolltop so you can link the ends together on top of the pack or to straps on the sides. The top of the extension collar has a velcro strip to hold the sides together and prevent them from separating once rolled and secured by the top Y strap.

The pack comes with an internal hydration pocket to hang a reservoir, with two hydration ports behind the shoulder straps. There are no hydration keeper straps on the vest-style straps, so you’ll probably want to MacGyver something up yourself.

Static cord above the side pockets prevents items from popping out of the pockets.

External Attachments and Compression

The Swift V has a static cord instead of compression straps made with webbing along the sides above the bottle pockets, which are tensioned with a top line-loc. While they don’t provide much in the way of compression, they do prevent taller items, like fishing rods or trekking poles, from falling out. It’s also very easy to reroute those cords in other areas of the pack, which has extra buckles and beastie D-rings sewn into the seams as potential anchors.

The pack also has a Y-strap that loops over the roll top, which can be used to lash additional items on top of the pack. In my experience, it’s pretty difficult to secure a bear canister under a Y-strap, particularly on packs that lack a non-rigid frame and are not bursting full, but the Y-strap is suitable for securing other bulky objects like a foam pad or rope to the top of the pack.

Comparable Backpacks

Recommendation

The Six Moon Designs Swift V is a lightweight 50L backpack weighing 38.6 oz with vest-style shoulder straps, although a version with conventional shoulder straps is also available. The Swift V has an adjustable length torso and multiple hip belt sizes so you can dial in the personalized fit, which is a rare feature in the ultralight backpacking world where fixed-length torso sizing is the norm.

While the Swift V has a frame, Delrin loops don’t provide the same degree of load transfer, stiffness, or protection (from feeling the contents) that a pack with a full frame or framestays provides. The Swift V is most suitable for bulky but lightweight loads that don’t have a lot of rigid edges that can poke through the pack bag and cause discomfort. For example, the Swift V would be an excellent pack for hammockers who carry multiple quilts or ultralight thru-hikers with frequent resupplies.

Disclosure: Six Moon Design donated a pack for review.

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