YMC and Duluth have joined hands in creating a colorful line of backpacks for this spring/summer season.
The Duluth Pack has its humble roots in a poor French-Canadian named Camille Poirer, who made his way west to Duluth.
Arriving here in 1870 with his “little stock of leather and tools,” he began a small shoe store and quickly made a go of it in this booming frontier town on the shores of Gitchi Gummi.
On December 12, 1882, Camille filed for a patent on a new type of packsack. It was a canvas sack that closed with a buckled flap and had new-fangled shoulder straps, in addition to the traditional tumpline, a revolutionary sternum strap, and an umbrella holder (for portable shade in this newly cutover country).
Known then as the Poirer pack, this Northwood’s classic is referred to today as the original Duluth Pack.
See the collection of backpacks.
Photos & text Copyright YMC, Courtesy the Mantic.