Sizing & Fitting for Women
WOMEN’S SPECIFIC FIT
25 YEARS DESIGNING PACKS FOR WOMEN
Sizing and fit are necessary to ensure that your chosen pack performs as it was designed to do.
Our women’s specific fit has been tailored to meet the specifications of the female body. The women’s specific size and fit both ensure that your pack will distribute weight effectively throughout the body.
Sizing affects the back length, harness and hipbelt of your pack while the fit adjusts these aspects to meet the dimensions of your body.
1Narrower Shoulder Width
The yoke is specifically proportioned and designed with varying padding thickness to create an anatomical fit for a woman’s neck, shoulder and chest.
2Ergonomically Shaped Harness
Ergonomically shaped harness is contoured to sit around the side of the body, creating a more comfortable women’s specific fit.
3Shorter Torso Length
The pack’s designed to be shorter, more narrow and with added depth in the right places to allow greater freedom of movement and stabilisation.
4Specially Designed Hipbelt
We sculpt and angle our hipbelts to better suit a female hip shape for optimal support. The hipbelt is narrower in height so it doesn’t dig into the ribs or upper thigh.
MANUAL PACK SIZING INSTRUCTIONS
HOW TO FIND YOUR OSPREY PACK SIZE
1Locate your C7 vertebrae; the bony bump at the base of your neck, where the slope of your shoulder meets your neck. Tilt your head forward to locate it more easily.
2Place your hands on the very top of your hips so you can feel your iliac crest, which creates your “hip shelf”.
3Measure the length between the C7 vertebrae and the iliac crest. Be sure to follow the contours of the spine. Based on your torso measurements, select the size which you best fall into.
| MEASUREMENTS | PACK SIZE | |
|---|---|---|
| 35- 38 cm | 14 – 15 inch | WXS |
| 38 – 45.5 cm | 15 – 19 inch | WS |
| 44 – 53 cm | 17.5 – 21 inch | WM |
| 38 – 53 cm | 15 – 21 inch | WS/WM |
| 38 – 51 cm | 15 – 20 inch | S/M (Unisex) |
| 46 – 60 cm | 18 – 24 inch | M/L (Unisex) |
| 33 – 43 cm | 13 – 17 Inch | WXS/S (New) |
| 40.5 – 50.5 cm | 16 – 20 Inch | WM/L (New) |
HOW TO FIT YOUR PACK
Start by adding a little weight to your pack. It doesn’t have to weigh exactly what it would for your chosen activity but the closer it is to real life the better the fit. Carefully lift the pack onto your back from your knees. If it’s heavy then get someone to help you shoulder the pack.
1Adjust the torso length
Most Osprey packs feature an adjustable torso length. These allow you to slide the harness up or down to perfectly fit your back length. You can guess at the right length for your back for now.
Once you have completed the following steps you should feel no gap between your back and the pack. If there’s a gap then tweak the back length and see if that solves it.
2Fix & tighten the hip belt
Once the pack is comfortably on your back, the first attachment point is the hip belt strap. It’s essential that the hip belt strap is adjusted first as it distributes the weight evenly between legs and lower lumbar rather than the weaker points like the shoulders and arms.
Try to position the hipbelt over the upper half of your pelvis bone for maximum comfort.
3Tighten harness straps
Next, the harness straps need to be pulled downwards so that the webbing on the harness is comfortably tight, much like the laces on your shoes.
The harness shouldn’t impede breathing or be too tight around the collar bone area.
4Adjust load lifters
Load lifters, (the straps that connect the upper part of the main pack to the shoulder straps), should be pulled forward so that pack runs straight up and down your back. The close centre of gravity will allow weight to flow directly down to the ground.
The optimum angle for load lifters is around a 45 degree angle, this will ensure that the pack is straight to your back.
5Clip & fix sternum strap
Lastly, fastening the strap across the chest (called the sternum strap), pulls the harness in to the chest and away from areas containing lots of blood vessels and nerves. If the harness is too tight it’ll restrict breathing, but if the sternum strap is too loose then you can end up with tingly or numb fingers!
