Wayne Gregory, Founder of Gregory Backpacks, has been hand-crafting quality hiking backpacks for 40 years. He designed his first pack as part of a Boy Scout project when he was 14. Soon after, Gregory met Andy Drollinger, who was so impressed with the young Scout’s skills that he brought him under his wing and let him hone his backpack designing at Drollinger’s Adventure 16 factory in San Diego.
By 1970, Gregory had founded his own company, Sunbird. He spent a few years working on external frame packs, but after a few frustrating years under the constraints of such endeavors, Gregory returned to his love of design. For help with fitting and sizing your backpack, check out my Backpack Buyers Guide.
Check Out These Gregory Backpacks
In 1977, in San Diego, Gregory Mountain Products was born and Gregory backpacks have hit the outdoor scene with a bang. Hiking backpacks are one of their specialties and if you have ever shopped for a serious top quality back pack, you have seen the Gregory name.
Gregory Mountain Products “designs and builds products that meet a higher standard for those whose adventurous lifestyles demand it. We hope our products motivate you, as they do for us, to get out and live the good life,” the company says on its website.
Among those higher standards are Gregory’s pioneering advances in backpack fit. He was the first to offer different frame, harness and waist belt sizes; the first (and still only) pack manufacturer to develop a waistbelt system that adjusts to fit different hip angles; and he developed the center-locking bar tack, a stitch that ends and locks off on the center of a seam instead of the side for increased strength at major stress points.
Gregory backpacks have always been synonymous with innovative design, comfortable fit, quality, comfort and durability. Pack names like Baltoro,Deva and more have become some of the more popular packs out there.
The company itself has also been big on social responsibility, sponsoring a National Walk-a-Thon to raise money and awareness for the Angelman Syndrome Foundation, which raises awareness for a neuro-genetic disorder that occurs in 1 and 15,000 live births and is often misdiagnosed as cerebral palsy or autism. Gregory sponsors and supports several other charitable causes and helped raise money and awareness for Haiti earthquake victims.
New Era for Gregory Backpacks
In May 2010, Gregory and Black Diamond Equipment made plans to merge into Clarus Corporation, creating a new, multi-branded, publicly traded platform in the outdoor industry. According to Gregory Packs, “Black Diamond, a pioneering designer and manufacturer of technical, authentic climbing, ski and alpine equipment, is a global brand and business.
Clarus is a public company with tremendous financial resources but no current operating business that has been searching for some time for the right business to support and help grow. These transactions represent an exciting inflection point for each of these three companies, Clarus, Black Diamond and Gregory.”
