Materials

CORDURA®

CORDURA® has made its name as the best yarn for fabrics with a high demand for abrasion and tear resistance, which is a must-have for technical backpacks. Most of the BACH fabrics are made by Leejo Textiles in Seoul, Korea, which was the first CORDURA® licensed fabric manufacturer outside the USA.

CORDURA® ECO

For BACH, durability is nothing new. It’s been a part of our brand DNA since the beginning. It’s simple – products made with strong CORDURA® fabrics are built to last. Long-lasting products need to be replaced less often. Reducing waste. Which is good for the environment.

CORDURA® ECO are durable fabrics made from reclaimed waste resources that have been recycled into high quality yarns. By using CORDURA® ECO fabrics we can guarantee the fabric to be made from minimum 50% recycled yarn. After committing to PFC-free fabrics, we are happy to go a step further to getting BACH Equipment using only sustainable material without compromising the quality and durability of the product.

Bluesign®

Most of the BACH materials are Bluesign® certified. The Bluesign® system is the standard for a sustainable production. It eliminates harmful substances right from the beginning of the manufacturing process and sets and controls standards for an environmentally friendly and safe production.

PFC free

PFC (perfluorocarbon) is mainly used in outdoor applications when a water-repellent effect is required (impregnation). Harmful PFCs such as PFOS (perfluorooctane sulphonic acid) and PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) accumulate in the environment and organisms and have a lasting negative effect on them. Since the water-repellent characteristics of BACH textiles are of central importance for the use of our products, we are now using the PFC-free alternative from HeiQ Eco Dry. Not far from us in Switzerland, HeiQ is developing this technology, which has been successfully established in a wide spectrum of textile applications in recent years. At BACH, we therefore guarantee a long-lasting and sustainable impregnation of all textiles used.

HEIQ ECO DRY

• Sustainable and durable water-repellency
• Fluorcarbon-free: no PFOA, no PFOS

HeiQ Eco Dry is the eco-friendly way to stay dry. The innovative Swiss technology has a 3D structure which makes water slide right off the fabric. Fluorine-free HeiQ Eco Dry protects the fabric from rain and snow without compromising breathability. Just as duck feathers achieve natural water-repellency this textile technology builds an innovative 3D structure on the surface of each fibre. In this way the contact surface between the fabric and the water is reduced, preventing wetting out, cooling and pollution.

Straps / Webbing

BACH is using Nylon webbing. Nylon webbings are strong, abrasion and UV resistant, do not absorb any water and are well known from seat-belts in cars. BACH does not recommend the use of Polypropylene webbing on backpacks due to its lower resistance against UV-radiation which results in higher stiffness after few years. When buying webbing for the BACH packs we take special care to make sure that the webbing quality is compatible with the buckles we use. It can be quite tricky to make sure that the webbing/buckle combination holds the required load. The webbing must not slip through the buckle but should also be easily adjustable. And not just the once, but for many years to come!

Foam

Foams are available in a wide variety of specs. This is one of the reasons it is important to assign a clear function to each foam. Basically, a distinction should be made between padding functionality (close to the body) and support functionality (further away from the body).

Shoulder straps

BACH only uses 15mm or 20mm-thick EVA foam between 22-25kg (per cubic yard) in the shoulder straps of the large backpacks (45-100l). Over the past 40 years EVA 22-25 has proven to be a good compromise between comfort (soft), durability and equal weight distribution (hard, tough) with a high resilience. For our smaller models we mostly use 12mm-thick EVA 20-22kg. This makes the straps subtler and better adapted to the shape of the shoulder, offering support and protection whilst keeping the movement and weight to a minimum. Because BACH uses high-quality EVA, the shoulder straps retain their original properties over the years.

Hipbelt

The foams in our M.A.D. and Expedition hipbelts are glued to the outer fabric, making them particularly rigid and three-dimensional. The interior padding is multi-layered, consisting of two layers of EVA foam (closed cell) and one layer of PU foam (open cell). In addition, the hipbelt is reinforced with an HDPE plate. The slightly lighter hipbelts of the Shield Pro carrying system consist of one layer of PU foam for padding purposes and one layer of Atilon foam for support.

Back panel

In the back panel we mainly use PU foams (open cell) that allow good ventilation, absorb little moisture and therefore dry quickly after rain and during perspiration.

Zippers

Little parts - big difference! BACH is exclusively using high-quality YKK zippers on all packs. Where possible, we use no. 10 zippers and don’t go smaller than no. 5. Since BACH’s beginnings, 40 years ago, we have resisted the temptation to use smaller sizes and cheaper brands, and this has proven to be the right decision over the years. We always use the zipper chain on the visible outside because it lasts 30% longer than the zipper chain used inside out with the webbing on the outside. And we only use silver nickel-plated zipper sliders, as these have a longer lifetime than their coloured counterparts (whether powder coated or using any other dyeing technology).