Flight S-Curve Shoulder Harness

I am a petite woman (62 inches/105 lbs) and have a 2+ year Swift V backpack, with the vest shoulder harness. I’ve used this pack two years hiking, and this year on 300+ miles of the AZT, the rigid piping on the chest became too painful with extra water weight. So, I order the S-curve shoulder harness and just completed 181 miles on the Colorado Trail. The new shoulder harness is a big improvement in comfort without the rigid piping. It is also less weight. I never found a good use for the zippered pockets on the vest and always left them empty. The S-curve harness also allows much more ventilation to my back, increasing the comfort level in hot weather.

A couple negatives: The pockets on the shoulders are too narrow on the bottom (they taper). I carry a 3 oz tube of sunscreen in one pocket and it barely fit without showing. The pockets could also be sewn lower or made adjustable. If I was carrying a small .7 water bottle in the shoulder pocket it would be in my face. I instead carry 1 Liter bottles in the side pockets.

A second minor negative is the chest strap on the harness. The sewn loop blocks the tightening of the elastic chest strap by 1.5 inches. As a small women, I would welcome that extra length for tightening the chest strap when traversing slopes. I am evaluating whether to adjust the position of the seam.

Overall, I recommend the S-curve harness over the vest harness.

I switched from a vest harness to this S strap. For me it was a huge improvement and the pack (Swift) is much more comfortable now. I am skinny and kind of barrel chested (male) and these work superbly for me. It was super easy to swap out the shoulder straps - thank you Six Moon for giving us the option! For me these carry the weight at the front of the shoulder and are very comfortable - with this setup my pack is now the best fitting I have had. The quality is great. My only complaint is that I feel that the pockets are a bit small - if the pockets were bigger I would have given a five star review. I tried soft bottles but I can't get them in or out easily (or at all), or it flops out (1L Vesica, even half full and collapsed). A 500 or 590 ml hard plastic bottle does fit (the 590 can be difficult to get back in especially with gloves on), but for me the pockets aren't ideal (but close!) - when the bottle is close to empty it kind of pooches its way upward while hiking, and an empty bottle I have to keep shoving back down every few minutes (I hike with poles but not sure if that is causing this). The pockets are awesome for stuff like small food items, and do work for liquid - maybe I just haven't found the right container yet. Even though I think they are a bit small, I much prefer these pockets to the add-ons that I had to have on my other packs - thank you Six Moon for making shoulder straps with pockets built in! I can't comfortably grab bottles from the side pockets so…