When Mike Pfotenhauer was a kid, his father would take his brothers and him backpacking through the rocky hills and evergreens of his home state of Oregon, equipped with the worst fitting packs around. The pain of a bad backpack has a way of burning into memory. At ten years old, Pfotenhauer learned how to sew from his mother, a skill that he would later use to prevent other backpackers from suffering a similar fate.

In 1974, fresh out of college, Pfotenhauer started making and selling backpacks out of an old building in Santa Cruz. Back then, he constructed them himself, tailoring them to the backpackers who told him about their plans and needs. After their adventures, Pfotenhauer would hear stories of where his packs had traveled – to the peak of a mountain or through the jungle in some distant corner of the globe.

Within a decade, Pfotenhauer had established Osprey and transitioned to manufacturing wholesale. Later, competition drove the company – and Pfotenhauer – to move to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. By then, the company was distributing sturdy, expedition-worthy backpacks to retailers all over the world.

Nearly forty years after Pfotenhauer set up his one-man shop in Santa Cruz, custom fitting remains a cornerstone of Osprey. Most models come in a variety gender-specific fits and sizes to fit any shape and a range of torso lengths with custom hip belt molding for some models. Others come with interchangeable and adjustable components, not to mention keeping water close at hand with an outer hydration pouch and zippered pockets for easy access to necessities like bug spray. After all, Pfotenhauer knows, it takes a load off the journey to have a pack that’ll work as hard as you do.