Most of us didn’t get into travel and outdoor photography because it’s easy.
We did it because we like being out there: Early mornings, bad weather, long “walks”, and places that don’t always play nice. Somewhere along the way, most of us also learned this: Our backpacks take more abuse than almost any other piece of equipment we own. That’s its purpose after all—to protect everything else!
That’s where DuraDiamond®, our proprietary fabric used on many of our backpacks, comes in.
If you’ve been shooting for a while, this might sound familiar: You buy a pack that looks great. Comfortable enough. Plenty of pockets. But after a few trips? The fabric starts to fuzz, corners wear through, water gets in somehow.
What we’ve learned from an extensive process of real-world testing is this: outdoor photographers tend to carry more weight in their backpacks, set packs down on any surface, and drag them through airports, trucks, boats on a regular basis. Simply put, we don’t baby our packs.
This kind of use requires a tougher, more durable external fabric than what most outdoor backpack makers provide.
DuraDiamond® is a proprietary fabric we developed because we couldn’t find one that did what we needed: hold up under years of travel and outdoor work.
We use it on specific f-stop packs where durability really matters, like the Ajna (37L), Tilopa (50L), and Shinn (80L). You could carry tens of thousands of dollars of gear in these—the last thing we want is for them to get damaged by the elements.
We’ll let our product designers nerd out for a bit here. DuraDiamond® uses high-tenacity nylon 66 fibers woven with our signature diamond pattern and finished with a PFC-free C0 Durable Water Repellent (DWR) coating.
DuraDiamond® is also designed to be weather- and water-resistant: it features a strong thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) waterproofing layer that gives it a 26,000mm waterproof rating. This means that rain, snow, and damp conditions don’t immediately become a problem for your gear.
f-stop has remained a small, family-run company for 20 years. We don’t make gear to be replaced every season; nor do we announce new product lineups frequently. This might make us a “boring” brand, but we believe one of the most responsible things we can do is make something that lasts a long time.
A backpack that stays in use for years:
That idea sits at the heart of our Design 4 Environmental Accountability (D4EA) approach — designing products that earn their place over time, instead of ending up forgotten or thrown away.
DuraDiamond® isn’t about hype or specs for the sake of it. It’s about trusting that when you’re packing your camera, lenses, and essentials for your next epic trip, your backpack can handle the conditions you’re going to put it through.
Don’t just take our word for it: Hear what photographers and filmmakers Gonzalo Manera, Jay Fritts, and Leo Domingos have to say about their f-stop DuraDiamond® backpacks.
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