I might be a bit of a weirdo, but I absolutely love “carrying frames.”

Back when I was a student, I used one to carry my work to design school. I even climbed Mt. Fuji with my friends, lugging our mountain bikes up there. The first time I hiked the Northern Japan Alps, I used a carrying frame. You can load anything on it and go anywhere—that freedom, like having a pickup truck on your back, is what I love.

That’s why, when I started Paago Works, the first thing I developed was the CARGO.

The first CARGO 35 came out in 2012 with the tagline “Freedom in a Backpack,” and it gained a small but passionate following.

In 2014, we launched the CARGO 40. We toughened it up based on feedback from fans who wanted to use it even more intensively.

Now, with the third generation, the CARGO 55, we focused on “flexible storage capacity.”

At its core, a backpack is just about carrying and storing. What makes the CARGO special is the freedom you have in how you store things. To push this idea even further, we started by thinking about what you could pack in it. We tested the prototype with gear for long hikes, mountain bikes, packrafts, camera bags, tripods—even used it to carry a trash can and a new staff member!

After all these trials, we made a big structural change from the previous “side panel design” to a “front panel design” that lets you sandwich your gear between the front and back panels. This gives you more flexibility with how much you can pack and lets you carry all sorts of oddly-shaped items. I think this design allows for as much freedom as an aluminum carrying frame.

The final version of the CARGO55 comes with a lot of extra pockets (because of a grown-up thing), but try imagining how you’d use it in its simplest form. I’m sure you’ll find a way that’s uniquely yours.

Let’s pack and go!

Tetsu Saito, Designer
PAAGOWORKS
Nov. 23, 2019