Long days, ardous ascents or fast races. The SōH/Fast from Canada might do it all.

Research

It was neither easy nor quick to find the centerpiece of my fastpacking gearlist: A proper fastpack. Fastpacking combines trailrunning with the ultralight philosophy. Its about adopting a mindset that makes every gram carried, one carried with intentionality. No what-ifs, no maybes, just the bare, but personally safe, minimum. Lighter than that would be “stupid light” instead.

Naturally, in autumn of 2025, I started off in the fitting subreddits, r/ultralight, r/trailrunning, r/ultrarunning and r/fastpacking for recommendations and proven gear. Salomon, Black Diamond and Ultimate Direction where repeated mentions for running vests made by established brands. But honestly, none of them really spoke to me.

Smaller brands like Pa’lante, Bonfus and Weitläufer were worthy mentions on sites that tested and reviewed a bunch of products, but oftentimes the price also was too high.
I did note the details and features that I liked seeing on them and wrote down what I disliked about the hydration vests I was familiar with by then. But what really compelled me, was to see how veterans or innovators solved problems they had encountered themselves.

With what designs did people come up with, that have similar needs but more practical experience?

For that I investigated r/myog.

MYOG stands for “Make Your Own Gear”. Its mainly outdoor equipment but not limited to. Users showcase finished products, ask questions about materials, patterns or feedback. Its wonderful to see innovation, custom designs and unique color palettes in one place. This sub is a constant source of inspiration. And every so often, there also are pieces that should really be highlighted for a wider audience.

1-2oz-34gram-argon-67-wind-shirt-love-this-fabric-v0-51l4l1kew6351.webp

3-days-ago-i-had-never-sewn-a-thing-in-my-life-my-v0-tz1l0xpdb4z41.webp

its-not-the-prettiest-bag-but-it-was-functional-did-a-v0-761qz1x7l3k41.webp

temperatus-my-zipper-pull-thermometer-for-camping-and-skiing-v0-9n1y3zb53osg1.webp

From left to right:

Doggie Sleeping Bag by a deleted user
Zipper Thermometer by u/arbitraryun

Windshell by u/backpackinghermit
IKEA Frakta Backpack by u/aDaedalos

The Shining Star

In march 2026 u/boardinboy uploaded a pretty sick 30l fastpack, that, on paper looked like it had all the features I was looking for in a fastpack.

Ultralight waterproof material (in their case Challenge Ultra 200X)
Spacious mesh pockets, both on the side and front (Venom Eco Max)
Roll top design with a way to use the ends as load-lifters (pretty nifty IMO).
Vest style shoulder straps that fully wrap around the torso
Exterior back panel uptake (for extra padding)
Spacious vest pockets to store all your bibs and bobs
Soft flask pockets that fit up to 1000ml of water each
Zig-zag shock cord sternum strap
Passthrough pocket on bottom of pack
30+ liters total volume without relying on a hip belt

I must admit, it was love on first sight. I let them know and to my surprise, they were planning to do a pre-order window. The user was pretty confident in their bag, so they actually wanted to let the world have a chance to see for themselves.

These are the prototype photos from Yorks reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/myog/comments/1rrzerd/making_my_dream_fastpack/

A Chance To Order

York, the creator behind SōH Studio, launched a website, Instagram posts and a feature walkthrough video on YouTube, a lot of content to drool over while waiting for the launch window to open. He had made a few changes to the previous r/myog bag, some I found really nice, others I had wished to stay the same.

These things seemed to improve since the last iteration:

Pole attachment loops on bottom of pack
Improved fit adjustment system around waist
Taller stretch pockets on bag
Cleaner vest strap pocket system
Buckles instead of hooks on roll top ends
Glow in the dark material on roll top buckles and cord stopper
Highly reflective shock cord

Changes that I was sceptical to see:

Moving from zig-zag to two straight sternum straps
Removing the load lifter attachment point
A lighter, but flimsier looking G-hook and
I-strap on top of bagBut all in all, I was still sold.

Speaking of sold

As this was a preorder window, York offered a discount for early adopters. 372CAD instead of 597CAD (that is around 231€ [instead of 383€] including VAT, excluding shipping), which I found to be pretty reasonable, if not cheap for a handmade bag.

The delight quickly vanished, as the price hiked up to 448CAD (279€) due to a price calculation mistake. The final price tag, including import fees and shipping (~15€), rounded out at 350€ per bag (I ordered 2, one for myself and one for my colleague).

To compare, an american Pa’lante Joey, which is the most recommended 24L internal volume fast pack, would also come out at 320-350€ in EU. And that one is made in Vietnam.

Production

Unfortunately, the process of sewing his 30 pre-orders went anything but smoothly. First the pre-order window was moved once, then the price got increased and then the delivery window was delayed a couple of times. 4-6 weeks of production ended up being close to 9 weeks. We received our packs end of August, meaning most of our summer adventures were already behind us.

Nevertheless, the parcel arrived in great shape and sick packaging design, a sticker and with a handwritten note. Oh, the excitement was back.

Setting up

Like a child with a box of Legos, I couldn’t wait to play with it, and immediately started test packing and fit checking. It fitted my gear for a bivouac to bivouac weekender in it, no problem, with space to spare. It sat snugly, the underarm fit adjuster worked smoothly and overall I was really happy. The planned fastpacking weekend would have to wait another week or so.

Once the weekend arrived I was off to the Styrian mountains, the plan was to do 52km and 2.800m of vert, over the course of 3 days and 2 nights. Sure, this is what some people do in less than one day, but im not that experienced yet and this was my first multi-day trailrunning adventure.

With that being said, youll see that my review is from the perspective of a novice fastpacker and amateur trail runner.

I started off with a base weight of 3.86kg and total weight of 7.57kg. That’s insanely light for my standards. On day one I covered 17km and 1.400m of vert, on day two 36km and 1.500m of vert. I finished early as the second shelter was not meeting my requirements, and I still had some juice in me.

Specs

Volume: 41L
- Internal: 28L
- External: 13L
Total Weight (my size S-M)
- 320g / 11.29 oz

On Trail Performance

First off, the pack feels great overall. It hugs you nicely, the vest sits snug on the torso. You can reposition the sternum straps along the loop webbing to get the right position dialed in. To tension them, you gotta pull on the line locks. I did not encounter any pressure points or chafing areas over the course of my weekender.

To adjust the fit around the waist, you pull on the handle sitting on the outside of the vest, around the lower end of the rib cage. In order to loosen it, you need two hands.
The chest pockets are big for 500ml flasks, but not oversized. I have yet to try 750-1000ml flasks in them, according to the site they should hold 1L filter bottles as well.

On the left side, there is a second pocket layer, accessible on shoulder height. Whatever you put inside will slide down and sit beneath the soft flask. I recommend putting in long slim objects, like gels or bars, as smaller items (like a bag of electrolytes) got lost in there.

The lower compartments hold a huge amount of items, some can be secured underneath a zippered pouch, some you can just stuff further to the bag where they won't slip out. Even during downhill running. When the bag is not too full, as in the height of backpack not rising above your atlas bone, the weight is nicely distributed and snug. Only when adding more load/volume, the geometry of the pack will cause the rising top to lean backwards a little. Without load lifters, there is no way to let the pack come closer to the neck, which would aid in stability.

There is little to no bounce for a pack with this volume when running in a rhythmic fashion. Only on rooty and uneven downhills, when a arhythmic cadence is needed to make it down safely, the pack starts bouncing. Sweat was not a big deal, I used my Deuter Ascender holed back plate and attached it underneath the back cords. Over time I had to readjust it a couple of times, as it slid down and folded over around the hip. When using a foldable sleeping pad instead, this issue might not arise. When you pack intelligently, there should also not be any pokey items sticking into your back.

If you have to deal with features that you don’t want to use, you can detach most of them. The I-Strap with G-Hook to secure down the roll top is detachable, so are the sternum straps. You can also take off the side buckles, if you choose to close it up on top, in that case I’d keep the I-Strap though. You can also remove the reflective cord on the front stretch pocket. These are really cool, as they let you attach voluminous items without having to slide them through, you can just front open the cord like a jacket. The pole attachment loops on the bottom of the pack are equally removable (you might aswell use one of the high rise side pockets as a quiver).

These needed a day to get accustomed to though. Im using foldable Leki poles, I slide them through the loop and pull the excess cord that sticks out of the tab to secure the pole tips. This is a little unusual for pole attachment points, but works very well. Only needed practice. The downside is, that the passs through pocket on the bottom of the pack is inaccessible while the poles are stashed (the upside would be that whatever is stashed, will be secured by the pressure of the poles).

The SōH/Fast features glow-in-the-dark cord stoppers and buckles, and when I say glow-in-the-dark I mean glow-in-the-dark . They glow bright enough to be visible even in slightly darker areas. I was pretty impressed by their quality. The shock cords are also properly reflective.

Downsides
This review would be incomplete without mentioning a few downsides though. The list is short, but notable, so here we go.
My top sternum strap (or line lock) doesn’t have enough strength to keep the tightness stable. Sure, maybe I need to play around with the height-position or posture, but shortly after cinching it, it loosens again.
The loop webbing where the sternum strap gets hooked in has too little overhang to quickly hook the line lock in. I need both hands to attach the sternum strap. Around that area, the webbing or the vest strap material seemed to have a frayed seam or hem, which poked through the shirt into the skin. That is probably an easy trim though.

The dual layer pocket system near the flasks lets items get lost easily or require the flask to be removed prior to getting out other items.

I would have added a cord stopper to make the pole attachment loops more accessible. Maybe this has been tried and aborted (the current system definitely holds up), but IMO this would have been handier.

The I-Strap and G-Hook both seem very flimsy. I prefer Y-Straps as it compresses the bag more evenly and gives more storage capability, and despite the weight saving, I would have taken a slightly sturdier webbing. Or at least one thats a little wider. Also: It would need some kind of excess strap uptake. A piece of webbing tunnel that slides along the strap could take in the excess strap and prevent the long strap end to loosely dangle around.

Additionally, I would have liked to see the unused real estate of the shoulder and neck area be utilized more. Either daisy chain loops as anchor points for accessories, or more zip pouches (like for a mandatory GPS tracker for long races). Maybe a reinforced loop to attach DIY load lifters. Just something to make use of the U-shaped shoulder and neck area that is left unused.

With all that being said I will move on to provide a concise pro and con table (you’ll see the cons are just first world problems).